Indian Companies Form Jewelry Retailing Alliance

In what is claimed to be one of the largest diamond alliances in the world, four of India’s top diamond companies have come together with OyzterBay, a branded jewelry-retailing venture.

The four firms – K.P. Sanghvi’s Ace, M. Suresh’s Adora, Poddar’s Sparkles and D’damas, a joint venture between Dubai-based Damas and Digico Group – have a turnover of more than $2 billion. The firms see the alliance as a way of increasing their share of India’s jewelry market which is growing at a rate of 15 percent annually.

Under the agreement, OyzterBay will sell the diamond companies’ goods in its 29 stores in 12 Indian states along with its own jewelry, thus providing an established sales network for the firms as well as substantially expanding the variety of goods it offers.

Up to now, jewelry produced by Ace, Adora, D’damas and Sparkles has only been exported and not sold domestically.

OyzterBay, which was started three years as a venture capital funded start-up, is aiming to increase its network of stores to 100 in the next 2-3 years and to enter the export market in the second half of this year.

Indian diamond jewelry sales are about $1.8 billion out of a total jewelry market of around $11 billion.