Satyug Group is a Gold Bullion & Jewellery company promoted by Bollywood actress and entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty Kundra. It owns 42% stake in Auptag Refinery Pvt. Ltd. This new state of the art precious metal refinery is being set up at New-Panvel with refining capacity of more than 1.5 tonnes a month.

Satyug Gold offers a collection of Designer 22k Gold Jewellery exclusively designed by Shilpa Shetty Kundra. Satyug Gold also sells its own specially Minted 24k 999 pure gold coins. Perhaps in her first ever exclusive B2B interview, Shilpa Shetty Kundra speaks to gems2jewellery.com. Here are the excerpts:

G2J: What were your objectives behind establishing Satyug Gold and how far have you achieved them?

S.S.: Gold has always been aspirational and I wanted to make gold affordable. My pursuit of making gold affordable to every household and passion for designing jewellery; lead to the formation of Satyug Gold. Currently, we have 600 Distributors spread across the country and we are aiming at 5000 Distributors by the end of this financial year.

G2J: What are the trends among jewellery lovers these days? What types of cheaper options do you offer to the consumers?

S.S.: Satyug jewellery collection believes in creating trends and the Satyug jewellery collection focuses on synergizing the Indian cultural belief of The Evil eye more commonly known in India as “Nazzar Battu” in pendants, earring and bracelet in your choice of Gold or Black and Gold.  The jewellery is available in silver, gold, silver-diamonds and gold-diamonds, presenting a vast repertoire of pendants, bangles and trinkets it brings to you a collection of Evil Eye charms.

G2J: What is the USP of your products and why do you think people should buy them?

S.S.: The Mangalsutra bracelet is the signature design of the Evil Eye collection. Available in 92.5% silver and 22k Gold hallmark variants, the Evil Eye Mangalsutra bracelet with Enamel detailing will definitely be a head turner.

G2J: What is your marketing strategy to achieve the desired growth among ever increasing rates of gold and diamonds?

S.S.: A staggering multi-faceted strategy that entails all mediums Like in Cinema promotions, outdoor, mobile promotions etc. Additionally we have recent launched a television campaign with snap-deal for a direct consumer connect.

G2J: Import duty on gold has not been reduced by the government in the recent budget. How do you think would it affect your business and what would be its overall impact on the industry?

S.S.: We are a mine to consumer format and we have our own refinery to refine crude gold imported from the mines. Hence, we are not dependent on any third party for gold procurement. Due to this set up, our procurement process is more streamlined, reducing our overheads.

G2J: Do you think the Indian government’s policies are supportive to the growth of the jewellery industry? How?

S.S.: I don’t believe the current policies (of the Indian government) promote our (jewellery) industry at the moment and there is a huge gap in understanding the current policies and improving the jewellery retail business. We have such skilled labour and designers in India a little push from the government and we can have a booming jewellery export hub to sell worldwide. As well as helping local jewellers sustain in India as India is the second largest buyer of gold and the consumption will only get bigger.

G2J: Is your jewellery Hallmarked?

S.S.: Yes.

G2J: How far are you transparent in dealing with customers?

S.S.: We have a very transparent model of functioning. Our key focus is to provide gold to the customers at the best possible rate.

G2J: What are the challenges faced by the Indian jewellery industry and what are your suggestions to solve them?

S.S.: We need to see a reduction in Gold duty to make our pricing more attractive. Today people prefer to shop abroad because of which we are losing income on jewellery sales as an industry. Also due to high duty rates it’s encouraging a lot of gold smuggling which is being sold to smaller jewellers who then out price the larger establishments. We need to have a fair playing platform for the whole industry to proposer together.

G2J: What are your Company’s future plans?

S.S.: Our core focus is making gold accessible and affordable to everyone in India through Satyug Mera Gold accumulation plan. We believe there is a huge gap in the market and this will revolutionize the way people in India buy and store physical gold.

Interview by Suresh Chotai