The sixth edition of the

Gems & Jewellery India International Exhibition (GJIIE) held at the Chennai Trade Centre concluded on a positive note. Held from 23 to 25 January, 2010, the trade fair provided a platform for leading loose gemstones, jewellery and machinery manufacturers to interact and build good business relations with jewellers from the various cities, towns and villages of South India. The Madras Jewellers & Diamond Merchants Association (MJDMA) and UBM India were the organisers. GK Vasan, Minister for Shipping, Government of India inaugurated the event.

Exhibitors & Visitors Impressed : This year, the Show has definitely crossed all expectations. Over 9,000 trade visitors attended the show. Yogesh Shah. Chairman of GJIIE Committee and Vice President –MJDMA says, “The response was overwhelming and the show was rocking. Every section like gold jewellery, diamonds, color stones, platinum, ethnic jewellery and also the machinery stalls with other allied products had a huge amount of enquiries and interactions.” He added, “Sunday, 24 January saw a huge turnout which has never been witnessed before in the last five years.”

Around 150 exhibitors –140 Indian companies and 10 international operators from Thailand, Hong Kong, Israel and Italy – comprising jewellery manufacturers, retailers, designers, raw material suppliers, tools and equipment manufacturers have highlighted their products in the Show. The visitors got to see an array of products as GJIIE 2010 saw 40 per cent more participation as compared to previous years.

Machinery Section Popular : The machinery section attracted huge crowds from areas like Coimbatore and Madurai where more jewellery manufacturing takes place. In addition, bonafide artisans were given special passes at subsidized rates to attend the Show on the last day and see the jewellery as well as the machinery.

Impacting the Southern Market : GJIIE is probably the largest B2B fair for the gems and jewellery industry in the Southern region of India. Most of the visitors are small-time retailers who are unable to spend and go to bigger shows like the India International Jewellery Show. Apart from having to spend at least one or two nights on travelling to Mumbai, they are also only conversant in the local lingo (Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, etc.). They are comfortable with travelling (it takes a few hours from any part of south India to reach Chennai), the food and the language. In terms of trade, the show enables the retailers to see products from big brands under one big roof.

In addition, as the New Year of the South Indian region is round the corner, GJIIE 2010 has been held at the right time. This has generated good business for the exhibitors.

Success of GJIIE 2010 : The organisers believe that for a show to be successful, there is the need of good exhibitors with wide range of quality products as well as a good number of visitors for the participants to generate good business. Prior to this show, the organisers had been zealous in holding roadshows in various two and three tier cities in the region. This is the second successive year when 70 per cent of the booths for the next year’s show have been pre-booked. Rajesh Vummidi quotes, “The 70 per- cent pre-bookings show that the exhibitors are happy with the business that the expo has generated for them. They want to make their presence felt at the next year show.” Talking about the success of the show, Kranti Nagvekar, Regional Director – South, UBM India says, “Success of any exhibition is dependent on the right combination of exhibitors and qualified visitors, and this year GJIIE 2010 struck the right chord. GJIIE 2010 was a resounding success with overwhelming number of trade visitors thronging the show and with all exhibitors reporting good business at this year’s exhibition. A well-orchestrated teamwork has been responsible for the success of GJIIE 2010. Everybody- the exhibitors, visitors, various trade associations, media partners, vendors, suppliers, MJDMA and the UBM all worked as a team to make GJIIE-2010 a huge success. Another way to measure the success of GJIIE-2010 is from the re-booking rate for the 2011 edition. With over 70 per cent of the companies re-booked, GJIIE 2011 too is sure to be another landmark edition.”

Scope for Improvement : Despite the show’s success, there is room for improvement. Though the influx of trade visitors was high at 9,000 plus, yet the quality of these visitors remained average. Gyan Prakash Arya says, “The number of visitors in terms of whoever comes to welcome needs to be properly improved, screened and checked before they are allowed in. Besides, the quality of enquiries is more important than the number of visitors. The places where the organisers stage the roadshows have to be identified properly.” Another exhibitor Kamlesh believes that there is need for more exhibitors from the metros and other cities. In addition, there is need for more international exhibitors, especially from Italy, Belgium and Turkey.

Nonetheless, the show is growing from strength to strength every year, gradually attracting more visitors from every part of South India and helping exhibitors, visitors build up a very vital element for the growth of their respective businesses – relationships.

Exclusive Interview : Kranti Nagvekar, Regional Director – South, UBM India One of the main organisers of the Gems and Jewellery India International Exhibition, UBM India is a part of United Business Media Limited, a leading global business media company. DiamondWorld magazine interacts with Kranti Nagvekar, its Regional Director – South, on UBM’s role and plans for the show.

• Since past few years, UBM India has been organising major jewellery trade fairs in South India. May we know the reason behind UBM choosing venues in this region for trade fairs? Kranti Nagvekar: South India has always been a key market for the jewellery trade in India. The four states alone account for 45 per cent of all gold consumed in India. However, after having done extensive research we found that the jewellery trade in South India was heavily reliant on the traditional supply chain and there was a huge gap between their counterparts in other parts of the country when it came to their sourcing styles. Also with the boom of several industries in South there has been a considerable increase in the young and the affluent population who are looking at buying more modern and stylish jewellery. This gap in the supply chain prompted us at UBM to organise exhibitions in South India. The exhibitions have helped facilitate exposing the local industry to new designs and trends as well as bringing a new dimension to the existing supply chain.

• Considering the economic slowdown in the previous year, what were UBM’s expectations about GJIIE-2010? Did the Chennai Show meet your expectations? Kranti Nagvekar: Even with the economic slowdown, we were very optimistic and confident about GJIIE 2010 achieving great success. During the slowdown where most organisers took a conservative approach, we at UBM took strides to be more aggressive with our exhibitor and visitor promotions. Our efforts were well reciprocated by the industry with record number of trade visitors visiting the show. We along with all our exhibitors are very pleased with the results of GJIIE 2010 as they have surpassed everyone’s expectations.

• Could you tell us about UBM’s association with the GJIIE Show as an organiser? In addition, could you please also tell us about any new plans or changes that UBM intends to introduce in the next year’s show? Kranti Nagvekar: Since UBM’s involvement with GJIIE the exhibition has been transformed to an international level exhibition and also has placed GJIIE on the international jewellery events calendar. Besides bringing in the international flair to GJIIE, the other success UBM has struck is by being able to attract members of the jewellery trade from smaller cities and towns that have probably never visited an exhibition. At GJIIE-2011, we will be launching two new presentations– Diamond Pavilion and Silver Pavilion. We are also working to attract more international participation at the show both in terms of the visitors as well as exhibitors.

Exhibitor’s Feedback... Through this Show, exhibitors get a wider reach to the interiors of South India. Here is what some of them have to say:
“The Show was good. There was a good turnout. The orders that we got were 50 per cent more than the previous years. We also got new customers” – Gyan Prakash Arya, R M Jewellery

“The Show has been ideal for us to target the South Indian Market. We specialize in gold bangles. We launched ORO brand in IIJS and this is the second expo after that. We have received visitors from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala as well, besides Tamil Nadu” – Avinash Pahuja, ORO

“The Show has been average, probably due to high gold prices. However, we have received lot of queries, which we expect to turn into good business after the Show. We are currently Gold Sponsor of the Show and plan to become Platinum Sponsor in the next year. We deal in 22Kt. gold jewellery, our USP is our design collection and our casted jewellery” – Chirag Batavia, Krizz

“This year it was an excellent Show and we were happy to seen a lot of visitors coming in” – Kamlesh, JC Jewellers

“The Show was fine. We received good response. We met a lot of retailers” – Mahaveer Bothra, White Fire