Festive Time for Jewellers as Corporates Gift

It's the festival season, time for gifting. More and more corporates are beginning to look away from traditional gifts they give away to build and cement relationships with their employees, business partners and customers. Gone are the days of gifting soft luggages, leather accessories, T-Shirts and caps, or even gold and silver coins.

Traditionally, special occassions like anniversaries or extremely good performance meant gold and silver coins for employees and business partners. Or countering competition meant once in a while offering the customers a chance to win those gold and silver coins and logos.

Corporates are increasingly shifting to innovative jewellery items for high value presents for customers or employees and partners. Over the years corporates have begun to choose different kinds of jewellery items including tie-pins, cufflinks, braelets, finger rings, and pendants, and even images of Ganesha, for such gifts. Also on rise is the volume of jewellery gifting by corporates. No wonder then, it's "chandi" time for jewellers of the twin cities like elsewhere in the country.

"There is a definite trend of institutional clients buying more of jewellery for various schemes or celebrations," says Pradeep Padukone, marketing manager of Tanishq, which launched a new line of jewellery this week in the city.

Various occassions and milestones of a company, even VRS gifts generally call for gold coins and momentos with messages inscribed on them, but for promotional schemes to build customers, gold in the shape of the products, or even jewellery is being gifted, he says.

For instance, last week Hindustan Lever Limited launched the "unlimited gold loot" wherein customers could walk away with as much gold jewellery as they can within a minute, from a showroom in Chennai if they were the lucky winners of a coupon. Similarly, the Taj Mahal Ustad challenge offers a lucky customer a tabla in pure gold weighing one kilogram, besides other prizes of jewellery and silver coins. Tirumala Music Centre is offering in its "Dasara Diwali Dhamaka" bumper draw, a prize of 15 kgs of silver.

"We are getting a lot of enquiries from corporates and have begun servicing institutional clientele," says Padukone, adding that the potential is huge. Andhra Pradesh accounts for almost 10 per cent of the Rs 203 crore gold jewellery market, and corporate buying is increasing by an estimated five percent a year, and expected to increase from an average of 2-3 per cent of total jewellery sales to at least 5 per cent in the next couple of years.

Not suprisingly, reputed jewellers from elsewhere in the country and abroad, are setting up shop here. The recent entrant being Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri jewellers from Mumbai, which set up a showroom in Punjagutta, as part of the first of its expansion plans in India.

The closely-held private company has a different collection for corporates. "The concept is picking up. Corporates are moving towards tangible valuable gifts in jewellery, which can be used in day to day life," says PC Gupte, marketing manager TBZ.

Almost 10 per cent of our total sales are from corporate gifting. Name the company and it has been our customer, whether the Tatas, Birlas, RBI, IDBI, Pfizer, Glaxo, DRL or any other, he adds.

Agrees Kaushik N Mehta, managing director of Mumbai's Karan Diamond International, which held an exhibition of Naqshi jewellery here last week.

Corporates are picking up pendants, gilted pens, tie-pins, rings and even necklace sets etc. Not only has the range widened, they are buying more expensive jewellery now, he says. Though Delhi and Mumbai have traditionally been the hot spots for corporate purchases, the southern region is also picking up rapidly, he adds.