Bluestone stays resilient despite a turbulent quarter for India’s jewellery sector

Bengaluru: Despite a slowdown in India's jewellery industry during the April-June quarter, Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle Ltd stayed resilient, buoyed by its focus on everyday, design-led jewellery and a growing base of repeat customers.

Unlike investment-led gold buyers, Bluestone's customers typically come with a fixed budget and continue to buy within that price range even when gold prices rise, said Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder and chief executive, during the company's June-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

The Bengaluru-based jewellery retailer added 12 stores during the quarter, taking its network to 352 stores across 139 cities, even as rising gold prices affected its entry-level price band and slowed new customer acquisition, according to its June-quarter earnings call.

Repeat customers now account for roughly 60% of sales, with older stores delivering 39% same-store sales growth, while the company's overall customer base approaches one million, Bluestone said. New customer additions eased to about 40,000 a quarter from 50,000, as higher gold prices pushed products out of the company's core ₹20,000-40,000 range, Kushwaha said.

“Our endeavour is to actually generate more and more repeat business from the same customers,” he said, as Bluestone looks to deepen wallet share while rebuilding the pace of new customer acquisition.

The company reported consolidated revenue from operations of ₹736.8 crore in the April-June quarter, up 49.6% from a year earlier, while posting a net profit of ₹6 crore, compared with a loss of ₹34.7 crore in the same period last year.

The results come as larger rivals Titan Co. and Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd. reported slower growth in the same quarter, with the industry weighed down by steep increases in gold and silver import duties and elevated bullion prices. Bluestone is targeting ₹12,000 crore in revenue over the next four years and plans to lift operating margins to around 15% from 7.5% currently, the company said. Bluestone plans to continue expanding, particularly in tier II and tier III cities where lower rents support stronger unit economics.

BlueStone is India's second-largest digital-first omnichannel jewellery retailer by revenue and held a 26-30% share of the country's omnichannel casual jewellery segment in 2023, according to the company's draft red herring prospectus.

Bluestone's strategy is also backed by a broader structural shift in the jewellery market. In a 5 June report, Systematix Research said India's jewellery industry is evolving from an investment- and wedding-led category towards one driven by personal expression, particularly among independent women.

The brokerage said organised retailers are likely to gain market share as consumers increasingly prioritise trust and transparency. Bluestone is betting on this shift through lightweight, design-led jewellery, largely in the 14-carat and 18-carat range, and a business model built around frequent repeat purchases. Unlike Tanishq or Kalyan Jewellers' core wedding-led businesses, Bluestone competes more directly with newer formats such as Titan's Mia, CaratLane and Kalyan's Candere.

In a 10 June initiation report, ICICI Direct Research analysts Kaustubh Pawaskar and Abhishek Shankar said BlueStone is well-positioned to benefit from the increasing shift towards organised jewellery retail, aided by its digital-first, omnichannel model and focus on lightweight, design-led jewellery.

Demand softened after the government raised the effective import duty on gold and silver to 15% from 6% in May, but recovered through June, with management saying similar trends continued into July.

Bluestone's online-first strategy also continues to differentiate it, with more than 80% of first purchases originating online before customers visit stores to complete transactions. Systematix also highlighted Bluestone's vertically integrated manufacturing model as a competitive advantage, noting that the company manufactures mo...