Internal accruals sufficient, don't need IPO: Joyalukkas MD

At a time when most jewellery retailers (the latest being P.N. Gadgil) are looking at raising money through the IPO route, Kerala-headquartered Joyalukkas doesn’t feel the need to take the IPO route of fundraising. “We don’t have limitations for generating additional growth capital in terms of bank borrowing or additional funding. Internal accruals are sufficient for the growth plan we are anticipating for the future,” says its 68-year-old promoter and MD, Alukkas Varghese Joy in an interview with Fortune India.

Joyalukkas had withdrawn its application for a ₹2,300-crore IPO last year.

Like most family-run businesses in India, Alukkas also believes in doing business the traditional way. His stores across the world are company-owned and he is against the franchise model. “We don’t see a need for a franchising model either. We are growing at a rate of 16%-17%, which gives us a lot of control over the inventory we have, the markets we focus on and also our store locations. For our kind of model, a consistent growth of 16%-17% is a very good number. A sustainable growth is what we are targeting, rather than having 40%-50% growth today and five years later having a lot of dead stock,” he explains.

With a retail presence of 161 stores across 11 countries, the ₹24,828 crore jewellery retail brand is perhaps the most widely retailed Indian jewellery brand. Alukkas says his expansion rate may not be as high as his peers, but he has no qualms. “Our per store revenue is more than double than some of the competitors that have already gone public. While most of our peers preferred to do business within their state, we were the first to look beyond. What you are witnessing today is the emergence of new brands who have missed out on growth opportunities. Since they have limitations in generating additional borrowing or access to other growth capital, they are looking for models like franchising. The CAGR for our Indian business has been 16%, we are doubling our turnover every five years.” Out of the 101 stores in India, 85% of them are in south India. The plan now is to deepen its penetration in the north, west and east.  

Market leader Tanishq from the Tata stable has 900 stores between Tanishq, Mia, CaratLane and Zoya. The business grew by 20% in FY24 to ₹38,353 crore. In comparison, Joyalukkas India's business is worth ₹16,903 crore. The other big organised jewellery retailers in India are Kalyan, Malabar, P.C. Chandra and Senco. The Indian jewellery retail market is around $80 billion, with a share of organised retailers in the region of 38%.

However traditional the business may be, one can’t afford to ignore the current trends. Though known for chunky gold jewellery, Alukkas says that 19% of its revenue came from diamond jewellery. “This year our target is to achieve 24% sales from diamond jewellery. We are looking at increasing our pan India presence and the demand for diamond jewellery is high in the north and west,” says Alukkas.  

He is also planning to launch a digital-first lightweight jewellery brand next year targeted at Gen-Zs. “We also have a host of collections such as Yuva, Sita Kalyanam, etc., which also have the potential of being retailed as exclusive brands.” 

With global luxury jewellery brands such as Tiffany and Cartier entering India and homegrown, Tanishq having its luxury brand Zoya (already a ₹200 crore brand), Alukkas isn’t opposed to the idea of launching a luxury jewellery brand either. His first preference, however, would be the lightweight jewellery brand. “Luxury is low turnover, high margin game, opposite of the business we are currently into. Gen Z is easier to get into rather than luxury, as it would be affordable jewellery. Since we are in the mass segment it is easier to get into it,” he explains.

Alukkas says this is perhaps the most interesting phase in jewellery retail where consumers are open to buying designs from across the country. Apart from their regular inventory most organised jewellers have a significantly large collection of regional designs. While a store in Tamil Nadu would have a substantial collection of temple jewellery, Delhi has a preference for antiques and polki, while in the east it is filigree. “Social media and more recently the Ambani wedding have increased the appetite of consumers for different kinds of jewellery designs. They want to wear exactly the same design that was worn by the celebrities in the Ambani wedding which has led to a jewellery consumer in Kerala wanting to buy a Polki set for her wedding.”