Aditya Birla Group to tap franchise partners for jewellery brand expansion

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The Aditya Birla Group plans to partner with franchisees to scale its newly launched jewellery brand, Indriya, aiming to open 100 stores over the next 18 months, according to a top executive. The move marks an aggressive push into India’s ₹6.7-trillion ($81 billion) branded jewellery market.

The conglomerate announced its venture into the jewellery sector in July last year with an investment of up to ₹5,000 crore ($610 million) to build its business under the Novel Jewels umbrella. Indriya currently operates 12 stores in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad. “Like any other venture from the Birla group, the ambition for this business is to be among the top two to three players within the sector," Sandeep Kohli, chief executive officer, Indriya, said in a virtual interview with Mint.

“We are growing our business in blocks and stages; our next target is to get 100 stores within 18 months." Indriya enters a market dominated by established players such as Tata Group’s Titan Co., Kalyan Jewellers, Joyalukkas, and Reliance Jewels. Many of these competitors use franchise partnerships to expand in regional markets, leveraging local expertise. Read this | How Tanishq broke into the bridal jewellery market in India “Partnering franchisees is going to be part of our expansion plan.

We've already created a very innovative franchising model; we are in talks with franchisees to take that model forward, and we will be launching franchisee stores also very soon," Kohli said. The entry comes amid a surge in gold prices, which topped ₹80,000 per 10 grams in October. Despite higher gold prices, India’s organized jewellery sector has shown resilience.