Malabar Gold and Diamonds to expand its retail network at Rs 620 Cr by March 17

Dubai: Malabar Gold and Diamonds, one of the world’s largest gold and diamond jewellery retailers, has announced a major investment amounting Rs 620 crore in expansion plans of its retail network. The plan will see an addition of 24 stores in three months, from January 2017 to March 2017 period, taking the number of total outlets to 185 by the end of March 2017, from 161 shops as of today, said the management in a press conference held in Dubai earlier this week.

As part of the plans, Rs 400 crore will be invested in the GCC while Rs 220 crore will be invested in India. Out of the 24 new outlets, 9 will be in the UAE, 7 in India, 5 in Saudi Arabia, 2 in Bahrain and 1 in Kuwait. Of these, 7 outlets will be opened on January 18, 2017, taking the number of total outlets to 168, including 82 in India and86 internationally.

The expansion will add more than 1,000 professionals to the group’s existing manpower strength of 9,000 and cross the 10,000 employee mark by March this year. The move marks a major investment in expansion at a time when many gold and jewellery retailers have struggled to manage their existing operations due to challenging global economic environment.

Despite the tough market conditions resulted by lower demand, higher price of gold anddemonetization process in India, Malabar Gold and Diamonds has decided to push ahead with expansion, which demonstrates it confidence in the growth of market in future.

“This is one of our single largest vertical expansion drives. The expansion at a crucial time reflects our renewed confidence and strong commitment to the Gulf, India and Far East markets,” MP Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Group, said.“Investment in downturn market requires courage and strong risk appetite. Our latest expansion demonstrates our long-term vision and a sustainable business development roadmap that we can manage mostly with our own resources”.

“The expansion is aimed at serving more communities and nationalities, especially people from the Philippines, African Arab communities, the Levant as well as the Western countries. The extended network will help us acquire a greater customer base”, he added.

The price of gold has risen in almost every major world economy during 2016, suggesting that the dark days are over and good times are coming back. The gold price is almost 10 per cent higher today than what it had been 12 months ago.

Malabar Gold and Diamonds is the flagship company of Malabar Group, a leading diversified Indian business conglomerate. The group owned by over 1,700 investors was ranked among the top 5 jewellery retailers globally.Established in 1993 in the Indian state of Kerala, Malabar Gold and Diamonds today has a strong retail network of over 161 outlets spread across nine countries.