Malabar Gold bets big on jewellery tourism in Hyderabad

While opening the first-of-its-kind large-format artistry concept store in Hyderabad, Malabar Gold's Chairman MP Ahammed announced to make the city a popular jewellery tourism destination in the next couple of years. The company also plans to foray into digital gold space very soon

Hyderabad: Since the times of Nizam's, Hyderabad has been famous for gold and diamond jewellery trade. Richest people from neighbouring kingdoms were habituated to come here to buy expensive gold jewellery, diamonds, pearls and precious stones. A branded jeweller from South India aims to bring back the old glory to the city by attracting foreign customers.

While opening the first-of-its-kind large-format artistry concept store in Hyderabad, Malabar Gold's Chairman MP Ahammed announced to make the city a popular jewellery tourism destination in the next couple of years. "This will go a long way as people from across the world will visit the city for a unique jewellery shopping experience," he says.

In the roots of Indian culture, natives are fond of buying gold and there is a heritage of gifting gold on every occasion. Hyderabad jewellery market already has a history of specially curated designs for ages. Many merchants used to sell their exquisite pieces of jewellery including diamonds and valuable stones in this city.

"Again, jewellery tourism will flourish here with the availability of several jewellery designs across gold, diamond, platinum and silver. People from all over world will come to Hyderabad to buy artistic jewellery at our store. Spread across an area of 25,000 sft, the store offers an extensive range of studded jewellery to cater global gold customers," Ahammed adds.

"We are planning to work with the State government to boost jewellery tourism in Hyderabad. Also, we are working with various bullion and jewellers' associations across the country to initiate steps in this direction. With these efforts, the city will turn as a jewellery tourism destination like Dubai," Malabar Gold MD - India Operations, O Asher told Bizz Buzz.

"Currently, the company has 270 stores across 10 countries. We are expecting to make the overall number of stores to 500 in a year. Out of new 230 outlets, we will set up roughly 150 in India. In Telangana, we are trying to expand our retail network with more number of stores," he informed. The company has earmarked Rs 1,600 crore in this fiscal for the retail expansion.

Headquartered in Kerala, Malabar Gold is focussing on omni-channel sales approach. The company plans to foray into digital gold space very soon.

It is working on the terms, conditions and modalities for digital gold products. It records an annual turnover of $4.51 billion and sets aside 5 per cent of its revenues for CSR activities.

The flagship company of Malabar Group was established in 1993 and grown as one of the largest jewellery retailer in world.

Recently, it had announced an investment of Rs 750 crore to establish its first gold refinery in India, at Maheshwaram in Telangana, along with a gold and diamond manufacturing unit in Hyderabad.

This will generate at least 2,500 jobs in the State.