Kalyan Jewellers India Pvt. Ltd has agreed to acquire jewellery e-commerce platform Candere, as the Warburg Pincus-backed company looks to augment its online presence.
Thrissur, Kerala-based Kalyan Jewellers will acquire the stake held by Singularity Strategic and founder Rupesh Jain in Candere, a company statement said. It didn’t disclose the deal value and said it will also make fresh investment into the company to grow business.
Singularity Strategic is the family office of Brijesh Chandwani and Subram Kapoor. Jain will continue in his role as the CEO of Candere, which is operated by Enovate Lifestyles Pvt Ltd.
The deal comes barely weeks after Kalyan raised Rs 500 crore from Warburg Pincus, taking the global private equity major’s total investment in the company to Rs 1,700 crore.
Kalyan Jewellers joins Tata Group’s Titan Co. Ltd in purchasing an online jewellery firm. Titan had purchased a majority stake in CaratLane.com a year ago by buying out US hedge fund Tiger Global Management.
A number of other offline brick-and-mortar retailers have also acquired online firms that operate in similar business verticals over the past couple of years.
Last week, Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd said it would merge its home furnishing brand HomeTown with online furniture store FabFurnish, which it had acquired last year from Germany’s Rocket Internet.
In February 2015, the Mahindra Group acquired baby products e-tailer BabyOye and then later merged its baby and infant products vertical Mom & Me with the e-commerce venture. In October last year, online baby products retailer FirstCry acquired BabyOye.
Candere founder Jain said the company will be able to scale up rapidly by using Kalyan’s strong supply chain network and physical presence. “The integration will also provide up-selling and cross-selling opportunities and bolster revenues,†he said.
Rajesh Kalyanaraman, executive director at Kalyan Jewellers, said that Candere’s recent foray into the UK and US will help the acquirer augment its ambition of becoming a global Indian brand.
“The integrated offline and online offering will provide customers more flexibility and convenience while enhancing their shopping experience,†he said. He added that the company expects online jewellery sales to contribute 5-7% of its revenue over the next five years.
Candere, founded in 2013, sells a wide range of jewellery crafted in gold, diamond and precious stones. It has a portfolio of over 4,000 designs.
After the acquisition, Kalyan plans to launch some of its sub-brands such as Glo, Antara, Anokhi and Nimah through the Candere online store. It is also planning to expand Candere’s presence in the growing West Asian market including the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.
Kalyan Jewellers runs 106 physical outlets, including 23 in West Asia. Recently, it entered states such as West Bengal, Orissa and Rajasthan. The company mainly competes with Mumbai-listed jewellery retailer PC Jeweller Ltd and Kolkata-based Senco Gold and PC Chandra Jewellers Pvt. Ltd in the highly unorganised jewellery retail space in the country, besides Titan.
