The Battle for Gold

With Novel Jewels, the Aditya Birla Group is set to compete with Tata group's Tanishq and Reliance Industries' Reliance Jewels

- VIDYA S.

BILLIONAIRE KUMAR MANGALAM Birla-led Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is the latest conglomerate to take a shine to branded gold jewellery. In early June, the company announced that it would invest ₹5,000 crore to launch large-format exclusive jewellery retail stores called 'Novel Jewels' across India with in-house jewellery brands.

The new venture will compete with the Tata group's Tanishq and Reliance Industries' Reliance Jewels in the nearly $60-billion Indian gold jewellery retail market that is increasingly transitioning into an organised play. "The fight is really between the lakhs of unbranded jewellers spread across the country and these large players. That's where a large market opens up," says retail expert Harminder Sahni, Founder & MD of Wazir Advisors.