According to recent press reports from India, Swarovski, the world“s largest manufacturer of cut crystal, will be investing close to US$ 15 million in India in a span of five years.
Vice-president o…
According to recent press reports from India, Swarovski, the world“s largest manufacturer of cut crystal, will be investing close to US$ 15 million in India in a span of five years. Vice-president operations (Asia Pacific) Robert Dell said that this amount would only entail setting up of Swarovski boutiques in India. The advertising for Swarovski, which is conceived in-house, will be another million, he said. Swarovski, which has worldwide sales of US$ 4 billion, has four of its own boutiques in India. It plans to set up another twelve boutiques next year, with 34 outlets through corners in upscale departmental stores. It is also targeting Goa, Cochin and small cities to get additional sales, said Dell. And while Indian sales in the one year of its existence are estimated at US$ 4 million, the Austrian crystal maker expects sales of US$ 6 million in the next year. “While India is nowhere in consumption of crystal compared to Asian countries, we hope that even if 2% of the population in the five metros buy us, it would give us good sales,” said Dell. Incidentally, prices of Swarovski in India could be a little higher than Europe or the US. This is due to the high duties paid in India, he added. As for the target audience, Dell said the collections would be geared toward “the lady over 30.” According to Dell, crystal is usually given as gifts. “Worldwide too, our major target group are ladies who usually gift these to others,” he said. Swarovski does not have a representative office in India, (it is still operating through distributors and franchises). Dell said this arrangement will continue to carry on for the time being. Sources say that the company is still testing the waters and unless it finds substantial business, it does not make “financial sense” to invest in Swarovski“s own infrastructure. It has about 14 offices in Asia, including Thailand, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. As for its worldwide contributors to sales, Dell says the US, Canada and South America are its biggest markets, with 30% of Swarovski“s sales coming from these three countries, followed closely by Europe (about 25%). The Asian market contributes roughly 20%. Hong Kong is the biggest market in Asia, followed by Japan and China. Dell said Swarovski does not customize its crystal for different regions, as this would mean restricting one part of the world and spawning a secondary market for these. He said that the company had come up with a Chinese dragon which sold in every part of the world since “like Indians, the Chinese are also present in all parts of the world. We were toying with the idea of coming with a Ganesha, but it“s still not come on the drawing board”. Queried on whether the crystal trade spawns a secondary market, Dell said that there is one existing especially in Europe and the US. This is because of the fact that Swarovski makes a limited edition collection or a special series which collectors like to buy. In fact, the secondary items many a time command a larger price. For example, a lovebirds series when made in 1987 was pegged at US$ 125, but today it commands a price of US$ 7,000. This is because there were only 5,000 of them made, according to Dell. There is a Swarovski club which has about five lakh members, the largest in the world for such a sector. India will also have its own Swarovski club in the next year, said Mr Dell, where the person gets to exchange notes with all the Swarovski collectors in the world as well as have an access to Swarovski magazines available to it quarterly. Swarovski manufactures approximately 60 million pieces of crystal per day in its factory in Austria. The crystal is machine made though, and not hand made.