Industry, Organizations & People........

An Industry shrouded in secrecy, handed down from father to son over decades both employers & employees. A parallel “Jo Hukum” Raja Darbar functioning.

Everyone is a ‘Bhai’ Rameshbhai, Arunbhai, Pappubhai BUT not those Bhais this is a term of respect & belongingness.

The beauty of the entire industry is that though the main doors are locked with multiple locks & so is the big daddy chambers, the employees are all trusted verbally and Business is also done similarly.

The few instances of robbery have been well documented but never caught. Cases of deceit & fraud never come out since the industry closes ranks.

There are different tiers of organizations in the industry beginning with

1) The Sight Holders & Manufacturers – They are the top enlisted by DTC & practically hold a monopoly on the roughs offered by DTC every month. They also have manufacturing plants across India (Mumbai, Surat mainly) but with competition creeping in have opened or outsourced the activity in China etc. Besides this they are mainly in the export market manufacturing as per the country specific requirements.
2) The Manufacturers & Job workers – They are the 2nd tier, with some of them hoping to become a sight holder, but majority of them content to be out sourced manufacturers for the sight holders.
3) The Grade A Jewellers – These are the Ganjams (south); Hazoorilal (north); TBZ; Notandas of west, who have been established for generations, understand the power of brand but are content to straddle the middle for the time being.
4) The Sub Jewellers – These are mid level, powerful in their own right, act sometimes as the spoke to the other jewelers in smaller cities & towns as well as all the suburbs of the nation.
5) The Retailers – These are the GenX. Having come up in the last 10 years, believe branding is the way forward, led by Mehul Choksi; Shailesh Sangani; Vijay Jain; Prabir Chatterji; Hemant Shah to name few of them.
6) The Adjacencies – These are the smallest jewelers; some retailers who sell watches & want to sell branded Jewellery; And the large stores like Shoppers Stop; Pyramid; Just in vogue etc. All of them sell luxury items.

Most of the people hired are referrals or generations handed over, the attributes required being longevity; loyalty; individualistic & technologically challenged.