Cashing in on the burgeoning middle and upper classes' desire for yellow metal, gold retailers are crowding in Bangalore.

The City boasts of more than 4,000 retail jewelers and has the largest number of national as well as regional brands in the market.

Bangalore being the fifth-most populous urban agglomeration is a major economic and cultural hub and the fastest growing major metropolis in India. Besides old favorites like C Krishniah Chetty & Sons, Ellore Jewels, Pathi Jewelers, T Vasudevsetty and Sons, Subh etc, there are many new big jewellery brands from outside. Big names among them: Joyalukkas, Kalyan, Josco, Bhima, Malabar, etc, vying hard to get a share of buyers' wallet.

Despite very high prices of gold the boom in jewellery sales continued last year, thanks to high disposable income of Bangaloreans. According to Vinod Hayagriv, MD, C Krishniah Chetty & Sons and Chairman for The All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, jewellery sales from his showrooms were 18 per cent higher last year in real terms after adjusting for the rise in prices.

Agreed Tanishq (a division of Titan Industries), Vice President - Retail, Sandeep Kulhalli "At Tanishq, we saw a strong and consistent growth in the sales in-spite of the upward swing in the price for the yellow metal."

Even a new comer like Joyalukkas is very happy being here. It's Regional Marketing In-charge, Sooraj Parameswaran said in just six months after its first showroom was set up in the City sales have been growing at 25 per cent a month. "It was much beyond our expectations," he said.

Cosmopolitan market
Rajesh Exports Chairman, Rajesh Mehta, which runs 'Subh' jewellery chain and also the country's largest producer of gold jewellery thinks that the highly cosmopolitan nature of Bangalore has attracted so many gold retailers to the City. "We now have more amenities in terms of shopping - the best brands have opened up here seeing a huge potential. Spending power of people in Bangalore has gone up tremendously and the Indian economy is also growing rapidly," said Mehta.

The booming information technology (IT) industry also brought in large number of youth as income generators.

Buyers of gold jewellery are also a happier lot as competition among retailers get them better deals. While Subh and some others have started selling jewellery at a 'rate-per-gram' price that does not include wastage or making charges, there are others who emphasise on transparency to woo customers. Some others offer lifetime free repair and also lifetime buy-back guarantee at prevailing gold prices. Joyallukas, during the festive time offered lucky draw for a Mercedes Benz car to all buyers who shopped for Rs 5,000 and more. Few others sell jewellery at Chennai prices, believed to be lowest in the country. Intense competition has also led to consolidation at the market place as small and medium size players are either joining big chains or selling out.

Source: DHNS

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