Diamond jewellery brand D’damas, a joint venture between Gitanjali Gems and Dubai-based Damas Group, has grown to become a popular brand in the country with retail footprints in over 150 cities. In an interaction with IndiaRetailing, R K Menon, COO, D’damas, shares what led to the brand’s growth and how it plans to move ahead with its expansion plans.
How big is the branded jewellery market in India? What’s the share of D’damas in it?
The total jewellery market is estimated at around Rs.150,000 crore and the branded segment constitutes around five per cent of that. D’damas holds around 10-15 per cent of the branded jewellery market.
What is the contribution of D’damas to Gitanjali Group’s overall revenue?
D’damas contributes around 20 per cent to the Group’s revenue.
How many stores does D’damas have? How many of these are company-owned?
We currently have 28 stores; all are franchise stores, the company does not own any. However, we are coming up with five flagship company-owned stores by March 2011.
In the coming years, D’damas aims at rationalising its format mix. What steps do you plan to take in this regard?
D’damas currently operates through three channels – franchises, distribution outlets and modern retail. It has 28 franchise stores and a network of 750 retailers across 325 towns. In modern retail, it has 122 touch points across multi-brand outlets such as Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Pantaloons and Ritu Wears.
Rationalisation will take place in a manner that the percentage of the mix keeps changing. We also plan to have a lot many franchises.
Please tell us about your expansion plans. Where will tier I and II cities be positioned in that plan?
We hope to ramp up the franchise network to about 80 stores by December 2011 and to 100 by March 2012. Our franchise network is currently spread across 18 cities. By March 2011, we should cover about 28 cities, and by December 2011, we should be present in 53 cities.
Most of the tier I and II cities, state capitals and emerging retail locations such as Vizag would be covered by December 2011.
What is the approximate budgeted figure for marketing spends in terms of ATL and BTL activities?
The marketing spend for ATL is about 6-8 per cent of the top line, while BTL is around 5-7 per cent.
