Media Release

Mangaluru, Mar 26: Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one of the largest gold and diamond retail chains in the country, announced that it will launch 56 stores globally with 40 across India and 16 internationally in FY21-22 to further boost its retail presence across the country. The move is expected to amount to an overall investment of Rs 1,600 crore and generate 1,750 new jobs.

In India, the expansion strategy is centered in states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala. Internationally, the expansion will further strengthen its position in markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE.

Malabar Group chairman M P Ahammed

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 the challenging global economic environment. Despite the challenging market conditions, Malabar Gold & Diamonds has decided to push ahead with expansion, which demonstrates its confidence in the growth of these markets in future.

Out of the total planned expansion, 12 stores have already been earmarked for opening in the first quarter of FY21-22 itself. The brand has already secured retail spaces in key markets at competitive rates in this regard in big cities like Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru as well as small towns like Eluru, Mancherial, Solapur and Ahmednagar. International expansion will see the brand expand retail presence at Little India in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia, Ruwi, Baushar and Al Khoudh in Muscat, Jeryan Jenaihat and Rawdat in Qatar, Bab al Bahrain in Bahrain and Al Zahia, Silicon Oasis, Muweilah and Dubai Gold Souk in UAE. This is expected to further strengthen the presence of the brand in various existing markets as well as help its foray into newer ones.

While commenting on the expansion plan, Malabar Group chairman, M P Ahammed said, “In more than 25 years of our illustrious journey, Malabar Gold & Diamonds has grown from strength to strength and transformed from a small jewellery retail business to an international player across several verticals including gold and diamond jewellery retail, jewellery manufacturing and multi-retail concepts. Transparency and customer trust are the two key pillars of our business philosophy. With the launch of our expansion plan, we are taking our mission to the next level. Keeping up with our values, the stores will offer an unparalleled jewellery buying experience with design, quality and service excellence along with the Malabar promise of incomparable quality and service assurance. The expansion is an integral part of our strategy to become the number one responsible jewellery retail brand in the world in terms of both showroom count and turnover.”

“The culture of gifting lives along with human beings to express their love, affection and emotion for their loved ones. Our aim is to be number 1 in this segment and we will strengthen the gifting aspect of jewellery that is fast growing in India and other countries and use it as a growth-driver of our jewellery business,” he added.

Abdul Salam K P, group executive director of Malabar Group, said, “As a responsible business, we are very mindful of our obligations to our societies. Our expansion will create additional 1,750 well-paid jobs and we are very excited about our future growth plan. We ensure our entire operation in a very transparent way. We understand the sensitivity of the industry and ensure compliance through responsible sourcing, ethical business practices, transparent and professional fund management. We associate with trade bodies, financial houses, government regulators to make sure that our operations are infallible globally.”

“Our retail expansion is a part of our strategy to further strengthen our retail footprint in the territories where we have a strong presence and foray into new markets with our differentiated services and product offerings. Increased focus from the government on infrastructure and a good monsoon has seen rural markets and tier 2/3 towns across India rebound strongly from the pandemic. Having sensed the momentum in the recent festive sales, we are gearing up in a big way to cater to these underserved markets with new standards of customer comfort and convenience,” said O Asher, managing director of India Operations of Malabar Gold and Diamonds.

As a part of the retail strategy, all the stores of Malabar Gold & Diamonds will be designed to elevate the shopping and overall brand experience of the customers. The brand continues to innovate and launch new jewellery designs periodically and all the showrooms will showcase an outstanding range of bridal, traditional and daily wear jewellery in gold, diamond, precious gems and platinum along with exclusive designs from the popular brands of Malabar Gold & Diamonds such as Mine for diamond jewellery, Era for uncut diamond jewellery, Divine for Indian heritage jewellery, Ethnix handcrafted designer jewellery, Precia gemstone jewellery for significant occasions and Starlet kids jewellery.

The group has also recently forayed into responsibly sourced gold bullion trade and its gold bars are available for jewellery manufacturers, small gold traders and retail investors desiring to invest in physical gold for purchase. The same can be purchased seamlessly and with ease using the Malabar Bullion App.

Among the highlights of the past year for the brand was the ‘One India One Gold Rate’ initiative of the brand under which it began offering gold jewellery at a uniform price across the country. The brand also opened 16 stores in 2020 demonstrating its commitment to customers who believed in the brand in spite of widespread retail disruption owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of its commitment to customers, Malabar Gold & Diamonds offers 10 promises to its customers namely ‘Malabar Promise’. The commitments include transparent price tag indicating the exact manufacturing cost, stone weight, net weight and stone charge of the jewellery, assured lifetime maintenance for the jewellery, 100 percent value for gold when reselling old gold jewellery and zero deduction on exchange, 100 percent BIS hallmarking certifying the purity of gold, IGI and GIA certified diamonds ensuring 28-point quality check of global standards, buyback guarantee, carat analyzer to check the quality, responsible sourcing and fair labour practices. The brand has been well-known for its responsible practices in the gold and bullion industry where malpractices such as tax evasion, money laundering and shortchanging of customers are rampant.

Malabar Group believes that the most successful companies are those which integrate responsibility and sustainability into their core business. The group is always proactive when it comes to CSR activities right from inception. The key focus areas of the CSR initiatives of Malabar Group are in the areas of Health, Education, Women Empowerment, Housing and Environment. The organization has kept aside 5% of its profit for CSR activities in all the regions that they operate. The group, which currently has showrooms across GCC, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA undertakes several welfare activities with the association of like-minded organizations in the respective regions.