Kabra Jewels’ MD, Kailash Kabra, outlines the company’s journey from its early beginnings to becoming a multi-store retail brand. He discusses the transition from a sole proprietorship to a publicly listed company, with a focus on design, customer experience, and steady expansion. With a growing retail footprint and evolving business model, the brand is exploring new formats including experiential retail and potential franchising.
Mubina Kapasi: Hello and welcome to Small Cap Spotlight. This is the YouTube channel where we get you insights from some of the most interesting small cap companies out there and today is no exception. I’m Mubina Kapasi and today we’ll be speaking with someone with multiple jewelry outlets and someone who’s a prominent name in the jewelry industry.
Mr. Kailash Kabra, he is the MD of Kabra Jewels and he joins us today on the show. Thank you so much Mr. Kabra for joining us today. I think to begin with, could you tell us a bit about your journey in the gems and jewelry space? From what I understand you started off at the young age of 21.
Could you share a little bit about the story behind this early entrepreneurial venture that you’ve gone into?
Kailash Kabra: Sure ma’am, firstly thank you for inviting me on your show and I am very excited to tell you about my journey because it’s very special. So no one in my family has been a jeweler over the last five decades. There has been no one from the family into the business.
My family originally is from Rajasthan and we have been into the business of cold import and trading. So initially I too joined the family business for a while, a year or so I worked with them but I just felt that my presence is not of more value because my entire family, my grandfather, my uncle, my dad, all of them are working in the same company. So it was very hard for me to understand their work structure because they work like a typical traditional Lala company and which I was not because I was a bright student from school.
So I always wanted to work as a corporate. So I told my parents that I am not very much comfortable working in their present company. So we are very spiritual and religious people.
So I spoke to our guruji who has been our guiding light and he told me that as the family has been into the business of gold, so the carbon form is same in diamond and gold. So why don’t you start something learning about diamonds. So 2002 I started learning about diamonds.
I started learning about diamond polishing, diamond cutting, diamond assortment, jewelry manufacturing and then one of my dad has a very prominent jewelry store in Ahmedabad. So I worked with him for two years and I gained good knowledge. 2006 I opened the first store at the age of 21 in the name of KK’s Wells.
From there till now onwards we’ve been having a reasonably good growth, good success and we are known in Ahmedabad for our designs, for our quality, for our the way we do our retail. We are not like a typical traditional jewelry store where you enter and you know every single time you’re being chased by someone to buy, you know, what did you like, what didn’t you like. We’ll give you a price, you know.
We don’t work on that strategy. We work very hard on the design. So I have seen Indian customers are very clear.
If they like something too much, they bargain less. But if they like something okay, they always choose the bargaining route. So we are working a lot, very hard on the design.
This is our speciality also. Okay, very interesting and I love how from coal you move to diamonds. A very interesting story indeed.
And yeah, the carbon element is the same really in both. But of course the way to market is very very different, extremely different in fact.
Mubina Kapasi: Mr. Kabra, I’d like to know how then the journey has been.
I mean you started off as a sole proprietorship and now you’ve expanded so significantly. You have multiple stores, your retail presence is growing. So tell us a bit about this journey.
How difficult was it or perhaps was it easier than one imagines?
Kailash Kabra: So ma’am, 2006 when I started my first store, it was just to like you know to maybe prove someone that in the family that I am on my own. So 2006 to 2012, I worked very slowly. I was very happy with whatever we are doing.
But it’s rightly said that many a times it’s someone who knows your efforts, someone who knows your vision and he helps you achieve that more wisely. So I’m very grateful to my auditor and my guru, my guide, Sri S. N. Shahji, who has always been a very very very honest guardian to me. And he always saw that zeal in me, the passion in me towards my business.
And he always told me that a person like you should really like you know expand, reach great heights. So 2012 our company became private limited and from there we started opening more stores. After demonetization, we opened many stores.
Like we were at one store, then we opened two more stores. But post-COVID, I was lucky enough to get another couple of stores in my same building. So now as a whole, before the IPO, we had six stores and we have one premium space to do regularly our events and exhibitions.
So unfortunately, the building where we are in Ahmedabad is a very jewelry center. There are 11 to 12 jewelers in this building like brands like TBZ, Tanishq. So we were not lucky enough to get like a bigger space.
So what we did was like now you know jewelry buying has become more experiential than just buying gold and diamonds. So we just bought a property and we converted it into a nice lavish gallery sort of a place where we do a lot of events with our clients. We have some interesting sessions, some workshops with our clients.
So this was pre-IPO. We had six stores and one of this gallery. Now after the IPO, we opened one more showroom in the upcoming area of Ahmedabad called Science City.
This showroom was opened on 21st of May and it’s been almost two, three months and we are doing reasonably well. So after the IPO, the good thing is that our vision has become wider than what we were thinking earlier. One good thing is we got in touch with investors who are genuinely like there are two form of investors, one who is a trader and one who looks forward to a company for a longer run.
So initially, we were our company got some investors but some traders also entered and then we could not understand their mindset because they were only looking at the multiplication game. So we decided that we want to work with serious investors. So after the IPO, what I feel is that my family has grown.
As I told you, I’m alone from the family so I don’t have a lot of technical support from my parents like from my father, my uncle. They are always there to be with me but somehow they always feel that so because coal and jewelry is like two poles apart. Also, our business, the way I do my business is brand specific like I’m focusing on making my business a brand.
So there are a lot of day-to-day expenses which my family finds it very odd because they have been selling coal and there are no expenses in their business. So they don’t really feel helpful to me. So these investors after the IPO have been my guidance and they are guiding me well how because I was never focused on low-generated products.
So now we are coming up with the online portal as well of our company. So the journey has been very interesting. I think I was alone visualizing about my company.
I have Mr. Shah but now we have a set of 10, 12, 15 amazing investors who are very young, dynamic like me and they have great ideas for Cabra Jewels. So I think the journey has just begun and we have many happy times ahead. All right.
Mubina Kapasi: You know you mentioned a bit on being in a property where there are other jewelers as well. So let’s talk about then the competition that you may be seeing. I mean jewelry is a competitive market unsurprisingly.
I mean Indians also love their gold and diamonds. So naturally there are a lot of players as well to cater to that demand. So tell us a bit about you know how you see competition.
Kailash Kabra: There was no jeweler who was selling silver and silver articles. So we did a shop in 2016 in this building first and we were enjoying doing business because there was no competition. There was no one who was selling silver.
So every customer who wanted to look for silver like someone coming to Tanishq, TVZ and other jewelers in the building chose us for their silver requirements. So we made a good click. We didn’t have to get one more shop on the ground floor besides Tanishq.
So we opened a store there. So what we realized is that Tanishq’s problem and TVZ’s problem is that they don’t alter. They don’t customize to the customer’s choice because as a brand having so many stores it’s not very easy for them to get a store like me which was old driven store.
I used to meet my clients. I still meet my clients every single day. So I was able to customize.
I was able to fulfill their wishes. So sitting in a competitive market the good thing is that you are always alert like you know when the morning 10.30 we open the store till 8 o’clock there is so much of footfall people coming and going. So you learn a lot you know like you actually learn that oh we didn’t have this product and this product is trending so much.
Then we got two more stores in the same building during COVID. One is for diamond and one is for gold jewelry. So I think being in a competitive market is always very good because you know exactly which product did well and which product is not doing well.
So you can start focusing on that particular thing that why is this product not doing well. What changes can we do in our marketing in our strategy to make that product move as well.
Mubina Kapasi: Hmm okay very interesting. Your day-to-day business you are present. You’re literally interacting with the customers. So could you share a bit about the challenges as well that you may be facing in your day-to-day operations and also as you will expand you may physically not be able to be present in every store.
You know for that personal touch. So how would you solve for that?
Kailash Kabra: So ma’am we come from a traditional Marwari family. We live in a joint family.
Me, my cousins, we all are in the same house and our business as I told you my family business is coal. So all the cousins who were growing with age never liked the coal business because they started liking the jewelry business because you know there’s a lot of flamboyance in our business, our stores, our events, our ramp shows. So I added four to five.
Presently we have five. I added five more family members in the business who are taking care of eight stores because I somehow feel ma’am that a customer coming to a family jeweler has a lot of expectations, a lot of expectations and wishes which he can share you know which he can share. Whereas someone going to a brand store knows that there is no scope of customization.
So the challenge is yes my working hours are very high. I start my day at 10.30 and I end up around going home by 9.15, 9.30 every single day. That is the biggest challenge for me but with time I’m becoming more professional.
I’m trying to hire more people, trying to trust more people. You know yes even they are capable of doing this. So five of my family members are already in the business.
So each one of them are handling one store. Now what they have done is what they and me like in jointly we have done is we have trained like that time we were a team of 12. Now we are a team of 150.
Members really very extra hard working you know not like just working as an employee. So we have trained them and now we the new stores we are opening we will put one one of these members each in that store so that the store doesn’t miss the essence of the Kickage Wells brand. Now you see if you go to McDonald’s or Subway or any other good retail brand they have a SOP you know that a proper systematic plan.
Same way at Kabra Jewels being a traditional Lala company still we have adopted many good SOPs and you know if you go to our new Science City store I have not been there almost since a month but still the customer going there feels the same way how he feels under the KK umbrella. So there are challenges definitely there are challenges when you are too involved in your business you really get stuck because you know then the liberty of not allowing your staff do more things but now with time I have also changed. I have changed my perspective.
I have changed my thought process. I am getting more people more young people in the company. Also we have a nice as I told you we live in a joint family and we have a very big so we have introduced our proposal to our you know extended cousins and three of them have also joined the company now to help us and you know they also make good money and we also feel satisfied that there’s one person from home handling the business.
So there are challenges ma’am but these are not challenges which cannot be worked on. These are challenges which can be easily managed and now we are going for more after the IPO our entire system is getting more professional. Our sales of you know our customer data everything is getting more professional so I believe there are challenges but they are easily managed.
Mubina Kapasi: All right okay so I mean I’m just curious what happens when you expand to a hundred stores because why not right I mean this would be your ambition to make it really grow. So what happens then because at the end of the day you know family is just this much. I understand that you’re training of course professionals etc but still they may not have that personal touch that you wish every KK jewels store would carry so what happens then if you could tell us a bit about that.
Kailash Kabra: I’ll be very honest when I started my first store 2006 I never thought I will ever be open I’ll be able to open my second store. When I started my second store in 2016 I thought my life has come to a saturation and this is what I should be happy with then comes another store in 2017. I again thought that three is enough God has given me more than expected let’s not dive more into you know let’s not be more greedy then in 2019 we opened one more store 21, 23, 25.
So ma’am what I have seen is that once like you know a child when he walks the first 10 steps he might fall frequently but when he easily walks the first 10-20 steps then he will be able to run. So what I personally feel is that at 40 I’m 40 years old and in the last 10 years the way we have understood our business our clients our vendors and you know like so much of reading I do about successful brands like Malabar, Kalyan, Joy, Tanishq. So we have understood that nothing is impossible ma’am also everything with time.
I just think that it’s easily possible one very good thing I want to share with you which the jewelers in our market in Ahmedabad market are giving an example to their children that what best I have done is I have never let my staff leave me without a specific and strong reason so if I tell you I have to open one more store next year my vendor support is excellent my customer support is superb but the only thing where we find a challenge is procuring like you know is getting staff so because 20 years say all the staff who has been with me and everyone who joined year by year has been so satisfied so you will not believe we have not given even one ad in the newspaper or on social media for hiring we just told our present team members that if you have any reference any family members let us know and 14 people we needed we were we were having a date of 25 to choose from so I think and also what happens is now you see about 15 years ago that the software the technology was not as good as we have now now we have AI where we can know which customer has repeatedly coming to the store which product has been moving faster so all these things also we have CCTV surveillance now for all the seven stores we made a small provision where we have a one person who keeps looking at the CCTV cameras of how was the customer welcome how was the customer offer tea and coffee so all this with time and in India you know it’s a land of opportunities in the last five years the way our honorable prime minister has worked hard for the development of the country you will not believe we have so many franchise offers from our customers by our customers are sending us that we will invest our money you manage the store and train one of our family members so we are coming up with a nice model on that as well wherein the customer will invest the money our company will enjoy the brand loyalty and we will be having the management with us where we will train our customers family member may be their children may be their cousins or whatever it is so I think nothing seems to be tough when you deeply dive into something.
Mubina Kapasi: Could you tell us a bit about your business model about procurements because I understand you customers you also sell you know your ready-made designs and jewelry as well so could you tell us a bit about the business model and also you know from a strategic point of view. What do you see more revenue coming from in the future?
Kailash Kabra: So see as I told you I am the first generation from the family my start my when I started the business I understood one thing that I alone cannot manage production manufacturing and retail and marketing everything all together so I decided one thing that first when I started my first store let’s go to the best manufacturers of India let’s buy from them buy from them and try to retail that product which means absolutely trading for a few years you know it takes time to establish a jewelry brand because first and foremost a 21 year old guy having no family business background on jewelry industry so you know there are a lot of clients who end up thinking that how long will I be passionate about jewelry so it took a little time for me to set then as and when I got a good on my customers choice that what they want what they like what I can offer I started meeting local artisans where I could tell them about because the main company the big companies with whom I was buying from now they were selling to almost 10 more 10 to 12 more players in Ahmedabad the same design so my customer had started complaining that your designs are similar to XYZ so I met started going to trade shows B2B shows like IIJS, IIJS signature and started finding more couture based manufacturers who are making more unique jewelry and who are also open to customize so I started working with them I used to provide them designs I also started visiting design schools like NIJD, NIFT where I got a fresh young talent and I was getting designs made by them as per my customers choice then I kept organizing events wherein I invited some of my customers where they could put their inputs in the design see every design is nice but at from a customer point of view the design which is rightly in the price bracket is more wiser design suppose if I show you a beautiful necklace a lot of creativity and if I end up saying this is what then it might not be a good design so I started getting jewelry manufactured by these boutique manufacturers who were not into too much of bulk manufacturing because they were focusing more on customized jewelry as I told you about the events we did with our clients we got a lot of knowledge sharing with them and we started getting jewelry made even today at KK12 all the seven stores that we have are completely on direct purchase model only we buy the jewelry from our vendors and we sell it to our clients but the good thing is that with time and with our commitment of sales our vendors have offered us a new service where before the wedding season starts or before the main season starts they offer us a set of hand designs wherein we also put our involvement and we get a collection designed by them which they make specifically for us and we are given the choice to choose first so suppose if I have selected 50 designs from one of my very very promising good vendor he will make all those 50 designs for for him for stock and when it is ready it will be shown to me so I am allowed to pick the first so I will pick up 25-30 items from that and related to that I will get the other accessories designed like mantika, nut, ring, bangle, bracelet so I personally feel that because of a limitation of personal involvement in the manufacturing unit I am being safe by procuring jewelry from the good manufacturers I am not having the headache of having our own manufacturing facility but yes our designs that we are getting made our own so we have a design clause also with our vendors for which we pay them certain amount of extra premium that if they have made this for us they will not make it for anyone in Gujarat or nearby territories so our model is simple we are completely into purchasing but with time as and when we will grow with more stores if we think that we can manage this headache of manufacturing and save a lot so if I can just save 2-3 percent I would not get into that trap of manufacturing but if I save 7-8-9 percent and if I am doing the yearly purchase of 400 crores suppose when I am a 15 store brand then I think we would step into manufacturing like how recently Manabar jewelry has opened a facility in Jaipur a facility because they are just understanding that if they manufacture this stuff on their own they can add 7-8-9 percent more when you more profit to the company so our model also is clear right now we are not into manufacturing by ourselves directly we are getting contract manufacturing done from our vendors but with time we definitely aim to get into manufacturing.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay all right so I understand that wedding jewelry obviously is a very big category highest selling in fact, so I just want to know is there a seasonality associated with the business because usually in India you know there are certain periods when weddings take place. So could you tell us a bit about that and how do you ensure that you know the seasonality does not affect the consistency of your revenues
Kailash Kabra: See now I will tell you firstly we are from Gujarat the summers are extremely crazily hot in Gujarat specifically the months of April May and June these three months the temperature goes high as high as 47 so all the brides who really want to enjoy their wedding in a grinder way call their cousins call their friends make it a thousand people affair they don’t choose to get married during these months but what is happening is that these days if you see it’s a very tricky situation not pleasant for us but many a times if the courtship period is too long the couples end up fighting for silly things and the wedding is called off you know so now there are weddings happening in April May June also to avoid the heat people rush to lavish banquets and make sure the wedding happens faster just a three four month time has been given for courtship so our business definitely is seasonal the greatest time is from August September October November December Jan Feb March these are the best times for our business April May June we see slow times but again the good part is that these impromptu weddings that happen in the summers we get benefit of that also in summers all the girls like you know in our Marwadi community generally the marriages happen in outstation like a girl from Andhra Pradesh is married to someone in Bangalore, a girl from Andhra Pradesh is married to someone in Bombay so when they come to stay at their mother’s place they feel like coming to the like her mom will definitely get her one day to our jewelry shop and she will show her our collections and that’s how we compensate our sales also there are a lot of occasions now I want to like really give you a good insight about this earlier wedding was the only reason to buy jewelry but now 10th wedding anniversary 5th wedding anniversary 40th birthday 25th anniversary 50th birthday these are so many new things which have come because people really celebrate every moment post covid I think celebration has become compulsory so everyone wants to do a grander celebration where we get our share of business because if someone is celebrating their 50th anniversary the members of the family would want to make a diamond necklace for the mom on the 50th anniversary they would like to make sherwani buttons for the father so all these things add up and as a whole if the yearly sales are being talked about we are able to manage only one month which is specifically April and May because there are school examinations of children and then you know how vacations have badly taken away the luxury thing like people want to holiday for a month like I know customers who leave for holidays for one month and a half months because they have relatives staying in US, Canada, Australia so they move to that place so that one month and a half month we find like really slack time but I think it’s all right the overall compensation is much better than what we lose in these months.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay it’s amazing how the jewelry business can also give you insights into how couples work really Mr. Kabra. All right I would like to talk to you about what you foresee as potential risks for your business and while I have you on that could you also tell us a bit about how gold prices affect you because I mean okay last few years it’s just been going up and up but there is still fluctuations in gold here and there so could you tell us a bit about how that affects you?
Kailash Kabra: Tell you in India forget the gen z but if I talk about my mother, my aunt or my mother-in-law or anyone who is above 45 years of age for them jewelry is not just a piece of luxury it is their it is their safe place so I know when my mother is you know she has a habit of calculating how many tolas of gold she has every two three years she will have this habit so when I ask her this though she ends up saying that beta this is something which is which belongs to me only so whenever gold prices have gone high the trust of this particular clientele which is above 45 years of age goes so high that they feel that they should only invest in gold see now their husbands must be investing in equity in share in real estate in currencies but somehow they feel that whatever savings they make like if my mom is getting certain amount of money from my father or you know somewhere she’s put some money here and there so she gets some money so for them jewelry is must so whenever gold and silver rates have gone high our business has been benefited the only problem is that this year the crazy jump from 80,000 to 1 lakh in a span of one and a half to two months has been a little disturbing because what is happening is whenever these clients are coming to the store and we show them a piece of jewelry and when they evaluate that before a year they’ve bought the same piece for four lakhs now that same design is worth five and a half lakhs so that one and a half lakh jump is still being digested by people so everyone is becoming wise thanks to the Indian government for allowing us jewelers to sell low carat of gold earlier we were only allowed to sell 24 carat, 22 carat, 18 carat, 14 carat but now we also got the permission to sell 9 carat gold which is really great news so we have converted all our diamond jewelry into 14 carat all our jadao jewelry into 18 carat so like this we are trying to make sure that the customer gets the feel of the product that she bought last year volume wise but purity wise she’s going down to meet the budget. So gold and silver rate is really a gamechanger for our business because see as you know today if you see a piece of land when it appreciates you feel like investing more in land. If you’re buying shares and if they appreciate you feel to invest more. Same way uh in jewelry when the price of gold and silver the basic commodity goes high the customer’s trust is built much heavier uh than uh anything else. There has been a little uh like sad thing for our businesses. The lab grown diamonds which initially came and you know it spoiled the diamond market for a while. The sentiment it didn’t spoil the market I’m wrong but the sentiment was spoiled. So diamond prices came down by 25 30%.
But again now lab grown is fading away because every mother, every family member wants to give the best to their children. They don’t want that just for the fun of bling and appreciation, they compromise on quality. So the gold, diamond prices keep going high with time and it benefits our business.
Overall, it benefits our business. But just such a big jump like this 80 to 1 lakh a jump on a short notice, that too in the months of April and May, where we already had slack season and the rates went so high. So there was no reason to tell our customer to come to the shop to make some purchase, you know, apart from offering discounts.
So overall, the benefit is very high when gold and silver prices go high.
Mubina Kapasi: I know you mentioned this earlier that you have got some offers from people to say that, okay, can I franchise your brand? So is that something you could consider in the future? Is that something on your radar? Or would you consider, you know, company owned showrooms only to maintain a certain level of service or quality?
Kailash Kabra: So I’ll be very honest. Right now, as I told you, we have seven showrooms in Ahmedabad, out of which four showrooms are in the same building.
Two showrooms are almost three kilometers from our present shops. And the another showroom is around eight kilometers. So all these areas are easy for me or my team to travel, manage, pull the crowd.
But if I go to a city like Surat, I go to a city like Rajkot, Baroda, and open a store all alone. In case of that, if we have a local partner, who is a prominent person, prominent family in that city, and they are willing to come up with us in a FOKO model. So that would benefit us in two ways.
One, we get the benefit of their contacts. You know, in today’s time, selling any retail product, it can be either through word of mouth, through influencer marketing, or through heavy marketing like newspaper advertising and hoardings, radios and XYZ. So our idea is first to go for a franchise wherein the franchisee should have a very good network in his city.
So if I’m talking to someone in Surat, and they are into the business of cloth, or business of real estate, and they have a very good, you know, like a good known circle that we will find out through our common connections. So we don’t mind partnering with them, because from the day one, we will have a short customer walk into the store. Now, it’s up to our products and our prices and our service, which will actually convert them into a real client.
So the model that we have thought now, first is to look for these kind of customers who are very, very highly influential, because now you see, I have so many of my customers telling that their daughter-in-law like, you know, if she’s studied well, but they don’t want her to do job, they want her to do some business. So I am, since the past six months, you will not believe I’ve been regularly approached by clients, our own clients. But the only thing is that we feel that giving a franchise is no point because our presence is more stronger than the customer’s network.
And as far as finance is concerned, we have our bank CC, we’ve just come up with IPO. So we don’t want to partner with anyone in Ahmedabad. But yes, apart from Ahmedabad, if I go to cities like Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, smaller cities, we would first look at a local partner.
So that’s about expansion and how you would be looking at markets outside of Ahmedabad.
Mubina Kapasi: Let’s talk about now some financials, not immediate, but maybe let’s say over the next three to five years, do you have any specific revenue or PAT goal that you would like KK Jules to achieve in the next five years?
Kailash Kabra: Before the IPO, whatever we were doing, we thought we were doing our best, we thought we are doing much more than we could do. But after the IPO and the way our IPO has been so successful, our investors have high hopes from us.
Our investors have high hopes from us that we multiply faster, we multiply much faster than our basic thought process. So yes, definitely we want to get into different, different businesses. We have recently given a try to a B2B business model wherein we become a vendor to establish brands.
So I’m focusing on those parts, those areas. So I think our business will be multiplying much better. And all credit goes to the motivation we get from our investors, because when they send us details of other jewelry companies, you know, the pet margins of other companies or the turnover of other companies, we also feel that why can’t we also achieve this? So no figures, I can tell you now, but we’ll be doing really well.
I have personally started enjoying this journey because, as I told you, I was always short of guidance. My family also, they are into big businesses, so they are least interested to give me a right push to my business because already I come home so late. So they are like, if you expand more, you will not even end up coming home once a week.
For that, I think I am diversifying in the same industry in various models wherein, as I told you, one is the B2B model. Secondly, our company has never gone into exports. This is the first time we are participating in a show called SEJX, which is happening in Saudi Arabia.
So Kabra Jewels is participating over there, where a lot of big chain store brands are coming to the show and we hope we get hold of a couple of good brands, then we can regularly supply jewelry to them and that would increase the business turnover and it’s up at margin as well.
Mubina Kapasi: Let’s talk about your team a little bit. You know, how many employees do you have? I know a big chunk or rather you do have a lot of family support because there are a lot of family members who are taking care of the business as well.
But I’d like to know in total, how many team members are there?
Kailash Kabra: 140 people at the moment, plus minus one or two, because there are times when we are not able to satisfy the particular team member and his timings. Salary has never been a problem to me. I’ve always believed in paying better than my other industry peers because I think that that is a negligible amount compared to the growth we can have if we pay them rightly.
Also, I don’t like stuff changing very fast because all our customers get used to one particular, like if you see, maybe if you or your mom would be going to a jewelry store, you would have that one particular person whom you go and meet and he understands your requirement well. So salary has not been a problem. And also with these young girls, the main issue is about marriage because like recently last year, three of our very, very fine team members, they got married and they moved to different cities.
So we lost those quality employees. And again, we were happy enough to get more in terms of replacement. So the team is around 140 people and to regain them, we keep doing a lot of activities where we know their actual problem.
I’m very proud and happy to say that this financial year, 24, 25, our company did a business of 211 crores. So to celebrate this moment and as far as gratitude is concerned, I initially wanted to buy a luxury car for myself, a super luxury car. But then I somehow realized that I can delay this decision by a year or so.
So I bought 12 cars for my senior team members who have been working with me since 15 years. This was a surprise gift for all of them when I gave them this gift and they felt very special. And after that, we have many other jewelers, staff calling us for vacancy.
But we are very clear that we don’t look for greedy people. We want our old people to earn better positions instead of hiring a very highly paid individual from a jewelry store. Because also what happens is as we are in the league of premium jewelers, we have a group of 10-15 jewelers where we all are very matured enough not to entertain each other’s staff member.
Because at the end of the day, we all like, you know, we have a party every month, we have dinners and we have coffee meets. So we don’t want to end up doing all this hanky panky things of pulling each other’s staff. So our team is of around 140 people and it will keep growing through word of mouth.
Because I believe that one more very good thing I want to tell you is that especially women, when they feel safe at their work atmosphere, they are the ones who pull more of their friends and cousins to the same company. So I have one of our team members, she has got around 13-14 of her extended family family members in our company. So because she always feels very safe and she has been working in our company for 20 years.
So she has this assurance to give it to her family members and her cousins that you join here, all risk is mine, you’ll be safe, you’ll be successful. So that helps us get good stuff very easily. And validation like that always, I’m sure, is very, very fulfilling.
Mubina Kapasi: Thank you so much, Mr. Kabra. This was a very insightful conversation. I’m sure people listening to you have definitely learned a lot.
Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Marina. Thank you so much.
All right, viewers, that was, of course, Mr. Kailash Kabra, the MD of Kabra Jewels. Hope you liked the interview. Please don’t forget that this merely serves as a platform to tell a company’s story.
If you’d like to invest, do your own research or consult a financial advisor. Thank you so much for watching.