
Jewellery displayed in Southhall Store
Proactive jewellers such as Naveen Kumar of Ra-mesh Jewellers and Kishan Kumar of Taj Jewels
have worked meticulously on the jewellery that they
retail. Both of them have their stores on The Broadway
in Southall. More than half of the retail area at
Taj Jewels is allotted to diamond jewellery. The Ramesh
Jewellers’ store has all the jewellery that the
Asian bride would look for.
Sunil Babber of Ram Prakash Sunderdass & Sons
(RPS) Jewellers in Southall is a leading player in
the UK. The secret of his success is in the quality of
relationship that he enjoys with his customers, business
acumen and foresight.
Explaining the Punjabi psyche, he explained to me
the importance of jewellery in their weddings. Weddings
are occasions where the entire family gets an
opportunity to display their wealth and status.
A Punjabi from India or Pakistan has similar tastes.
The joint family spirit is thriving among the Pakistanis It is more so because of economic compulsions.
Most Pakistanis have small businesses. Living
in a joint family has its advantages. Costs get shared
and the closely knit members help each other. Weddings
are occasions where they do not hold back and
splurge on jewellery buying. The investment angle
is predominant in their purchase.
Talking about the Indian consumers, Sunil said that
the new generation Indians are well educated. They
are earning good money in their professions and corporate
careers. They are setting up nuclear families
and moving away from Southall to other localities for
a better quality of life.
RPS jewellers have expanded their business to London’s
diamond district located at Hatton Gardens.
This commercial area is in the Holborn district has
over 800 diamond merchants involved in the wholesale
and retail of diamonds and diamond jewellery.
Hatton Garden was once dominated by the Jewish
community. It now has a sizable presence of Indian
businessmen. Sunil’s son Sameer Babber looks after
the retailing business at Hatton gardens. Their two
outlets Abrahams and RPS diamonds are among the
prominent stores.
Vivek Khandelwal Director of Emdico London Limited
has an office in the building that is aptly called 100 Hatton Garden. The name ‘Emdico’ is derived
from ‘EM’erald ‘DI’amond ‘CO’mpany and originates
from the company’s early focus and specialty
in supplying high quality Emeralds and Diamonds
to gemstone dealers and jewellery manufacturers in
the UK. Emdico has production facility in Mumbai
and workshops in London & Italy.
Explaining the prevailing situation in the jewellery
industry, Vivek opined that the sale of diamond jewellery
has been affected. The middle and low priced
segment comprises of customers who buy diamonds
& jewellery for gifting and as fashion accessory.
Increase in price of diamonds has resulted in customers
looking for alternatives such as watches and
mobile phones.
Dilip Sekhawat of Rosin Jewels is a leading wholesaler
of gold and diamond jewellery in the UK. They
have sourcing offices in BDB and Italy. According to
him, the depreciation of Sterling Pound and the fluctuating
gold prices have impacted the gold jewellery
business. This has resulted in consumers buying
less gold during weddings. In the UK, the burglaries
have increased and keeping gold at home has
become risky. The fact that the young consumers are
losing interest in gold jewellery is well documented.
To address the concerns of the industry, British Asian jewellers are setting up an autonomous networking,
lobbying and educational forum comprising
members who are interested in the British Asian
jewellery market and doing business with Asia.
The jewellers are currently crafting a constitution
for a so-called British Asian Jewellers’ Alliance
(BAJA), expected to comprise mainly UK-based retailers
and wholesalers with business and family ties
to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Turkey and
other countries. The British Asian jewellery market
is believed to account for more than 2 percent
of total UK jewellery turnover, and is a high-value
segment of the market due to British Asian tastes for
22- and 18-carat gold jewellery.
“BAJA will welcome anyone interested in the British
Asian market whatever their background and
will be completely autonomous,” said Mehul Lodhiya,
owner of wholesaler Nysa Creations and one of
the architects of BAJA. Jayant Raniga of Pure Jewels
and David Brough, editor of Jewellery Outlook
complete the trio of BAJA architects.