Right policies can help bring idle household gold into the market

Kolkata: Indians may be willing to unlock part of the 22,000 tonnes of gold lying idle in homes if trust, ease and better design are backed by the right policies, said Sandeep Kohli, chief executive officer of Indriya Aditya Birla Jewellery.

Monetising part of that idle gold could ease a key economic pressure point. India depends heavily on gold imports, and tapping domestic holdings would help narrow the trade deficit at a time when exports are under strain from the West Asia crisis and uncertainty over US tariffs. India annually imports 750-800 tonnes of gold.

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"If the right environment is created, then a part of the old idle gold can come out of the household lockers. In fact, the old gold exchange has gone up these days and at Indriya we are also seeing the exchange of gold contributing 30-50% of our sales at par with the industry standard," Kohli said.

Indriya, a two-year old brand, already has 53 stores and will soon expand that to 60. Almost half are in the metros and bigger cities, and the rest are in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Commenting about the high gold prices, Kohli said that historically gold prices have gone up. "There may be some ups and downs and periods of volatility, but gold is expected to edge up going ahead. The high gold prices have increased the depth of engagement of consumers with the gold jewellery. They want to know what kind of jewellery they are buying. The focus is more on design, quality and the purity of gold," he said.

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"Ours is a design centric brand and women of all ages are our major customers. We are therefore offering a huge assortment of jewellery for every occasion," Kohli said. Indriya's focus is on jewellery though they sell coins as well.

Unlike many other retail jewellers in the market, Indriya Aditya Birla Jewellery has no plans to enter the lab-grown diamond business. "Our focus is on natural diamonds market. The penetration of natural diamond is still low in India and there is enough room for the natural diamond jewellery to grow." The diamond jewellery business in India is around ₹80,000-90,000 crore, according to industry estimates.

" We have also put in place a franchisee model which is all encompassing and we will continue with that model to enter new markets," Kohli said.