Rajesh Exports Limited (History) – Story of becoming largest gold exporter

Mr. Jasvantrai Mehta was running a small business of supplying semi precious stones to the jewelers across south India. In the year 1978,  Mr Prashant Mehta, started assisting him in the business. Mr Rajesh Mehta was a meritorious student and a state rank holder  in schooling. In the year 1981, Mr Rajesh Mehta quit his education and started assisting his father in the business. Mr Rajesh Mehta and Mr Prashant Mehta had a vision in the jewellery business for which they wanted to start jewellery business. Their elder brother Mr Bipin Mehta gave them Rs. 1200 to start the business, this in effect  formed the initial capital of what is today a Rs. 20,000 crore company.

In the year 1982, both the brothers purchased silver jewellery from a silver jewellery manufacturer in Chennai, in which the manufacturer gave them some additional credit, they took this jewellery to Gujarat and sold it from house to house. From the proceeds of this sale they purchased silver jewellery from Rajkot and brought it to Bangalore and sold the same to the jewelers at Bangalore. The rotations and trips continued in this manner, due to their prompt conduct and hard working nature they were quickly able to build up an excellent reputation in the market, based on which they received good credit support from the manufacturers and wholesalers, which helped them to quickly scale up the business, by the year 1984, they had emerged as one of the leading silver jewellery wholesalers in south India.

With in a span of about three years they studied the jewellery market and understood that the  jewellery market was  completely unorganized and there were no standards in the jewellery industry. They visualized that they must try and create an organized sector in the industry and scale up quickly to build a large enterprise.  They also understood that to create an organized jewellery business, they needed to get into gold jewellery manufacturing and distribution. Those were the days of Gold Control Act. The Act was a draconian act, which was designed to discourage gold import and consumption in the country, because the entire gold requirement of the country was met by imports and India did not have a comfortable foreign exchange position at that time. As per the restrictions in the Act, setting up of a legal gold jewellery manufacturing   unit was practically impossible. It was primarily due to this reason that the entire jewellery industry in India at that time was in the unorganized sector and without any standards.

Inspite of all the impediments, the brothers were confident about achieving their vision of organizing the jewellery industry by meeting the end to end requirements in an organized manner and building an enterprise of mines to consumer. In the year 1985 they obtained a gold license under the Gold Control Act to deal in gold jewellery  and started a partnership firm called Rajesh Art jewelers. They started dealing in gold jewellery, by buying the jewellery from the unorganized sector and supplying the same to the jewelers, in a short period of time they were able to build a sizeable business and an impeccable reputation in the gold jewellery trade.  Their vision was clearly to establish a jewellery manufacturing facility, wherein they could control the quality, finish and the delivery schedules of the product. With  the Gold Control Act in place it was practically not possible to set up an organized jewellery manufacturing unit at that time, when they carefully studied the act, they found that an organized jewellery manufacturing unit was allowed to be set up if the entire production was exported.

Since they wanted to understand and master jewellery manufacturing, In the year 1989 they formed a partnership firm called Rajesh Exports with the main objective of manufacturing jewellery and exporting the same. In the year 1989, they set up the first organized gold  jewellery  manufacturing unit in a small place in Bangalore, by getting skilled workers from Mumbai to Bangalore. In the year 1989 they got their first export order from U.K. By following strict quality standards and innovative designs, Rajesh Exports was able to quickly scale up the manufacturing operations and exports.

Rajesh Exports Limited and Shubh Jewellers

Rajesh Exports is manufacturer of gold and diamond jewellery and was incorporated in 1995. Mr Rajesh Mehta and his brother Prashant Mehta entered into their family business of retailing jewellery in 1985. Then in 1989, Rajesh export was established in partnership to manufacture and export jewellery. In the 1990 the company set up its gold jewellery manufacturing unit. Immediately in the next year, REL also set up research and development facilities for jewellery segment. In 1994 the company became the largest exporter of jewellery from India.

Currently the company has set up world’s largest jewellery manufacturing unit which is spread across 10 acres of land. This unit processes 250 tonnes of gold per annum. It is also capable of producing hand-made jewellery, casting jewellery, machine chains, stamped jewellery, studded jewellery, tube jewellery and electro-formed jewellery.

The company has its presence in entire jewellery cycle starting from refining of gold to marketing of jewellery. The company designs jewellery according to market trend and has a portfolio of 29000 designs. It is the lowest cost gold jewellery producer in the world The company has its presence in four continents of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

It has distribution network in the cities of New York, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto, London, Paris, Zurich, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat, Kuwait, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. Currently the company supplies jewellery to over five thousand retail showrooms across India.

It has also set up exclusive jewellery retail stores under the name LAABH JEWELLERS. Currently it has 30 stores across India. Awards The company received Star Exporter award which is the highest honour for export performance by the FKCCI. REL was ranked as the No.1 Company in the Gem and Jewellery sector by DUN & BRADSTREET. Outlook The company is in process of setting up a network of 100 retail showrooms in four southern states of India under the brand SHUBH JEWELLERS. It plans to expand 450 showrooms all over India in coming years.

Mr. Rajesh Mehta

Mr. Rajesh Mehta The executive chairman of REL is responsible for the overall functioning of the company, in addition to being specifically in-charge of the finance and marketing functions. Mr. Rajesh Mehta has an experience of over twenty years in the functioning and management of the jewellery trade and has traveled extensively within India and overseas for establishing a strong network in the industry. In addition to his post as Executive Chairman of REL he is a member of the export trade advisory committee of the Bangalore Jewellers Association. He is also the president of the Karnataka Jewellery Exports Association and the Director of Handloom and Handicrafts Export Corporation of India.

Rajesh Exports

Rajesh Mehta and Prashant Mehta joined their father’s jewelry business in the year 1985. As they both had a keen business sense and the ambition to grow, it did not take them long to realize that the jewelry industry in India was in an unorganised state, due to which India was losing out on the opportunity to make a mark in the global jewelry trade, while quality jewelry was not being made available to the discerning Indian consumer. India had the innate gift of inherent advantages to emerge as a global player in the field of jewelry but the potential was far from being exploited for the benefit of the consumers and the trade. Within the simple question as to why India could not emerge as the powerhouse of jewelry trade was the real formation of Rajesh Exports Limited. Rajesh Exports Limited (REL) was established in the year 1990 as a partnership firm with a modest investment. In the year of inception the firm posted reasonable export sales of Rupees 24.7 million. Initially the firm established a small manufacturing set up at Bangalore which was also the first organized jewelry manufacturing unit in India. The firm went public in the year 1995 with its Initial Public Offer. In the same year, REL expanded its manufacturing facility and set up a global marketing network. Not long after that, it emerged as the largest exporter of gold jewelry from India. In the year 2000, REL started construction of the largest jewelry manufacturing facility at Whitefield, Bangalore; the ambitious project was completed in the year 2002. That same year, REL started domestic wholesaling of jewelry by setting up a marketing network across the entire southern India. What began as a quest for achieving excellence in the production of jewelry has today grown in to one of the largest and the most respected global jewelry company.