Calcutta, April 17, 2005
AMIT CHAKRABORTY
The Telegraph
Silver Charms and Jewellery, a fully mechanised
unit at Manikanchan, is readying itself to capture
the markets in Europe and the US during Christmas.
“We have set a target to ship jewellery worth
Rs 10 crore between June and December,” said
Pradip Sureka, a director of the company.
The Rs 20-crore project is a diversification venture
of the city-based food and ice cream major Farinni
Group, real estate baron Surekas and the US-based
NRI Mayur Seth, a big name in the diamond and precious
metals business. The three promoters will have equal
stakes of 33 per cent each.
The company has set up a fully air-conditioned mechanised
modern jewellery unit, spread across 7000 square feet
at Manikanchan, the country’s first greenfield
special economic zone dedicated to the gem and jewellery
industry. The unit has been set up under the technical
guidance of Tyler Teague of the US, a leading consultant
on jewellery trade worldwide.
According to Sureka, about Rs 8 crore has already
been spent in the first phase and the unit is ready
for commercial production with a design team and trained
workers in place.
In the first phase, the unit will have a capacity
to convert about 50 kg silver per day to various kinds
of jewellery.
As the entire project will be implemented in three
phases — the second and third to be taken up
in 2006 and 2007 respectively — the ultimate
target is to export jewellery worth Rs 70 crore annually,
Sureka said.
The computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided
manufacturing (CAM) wings of the company has already
employed a number of designers to generate up to 3000
designs and styles every year. The unit will generate
employment of over 100 people, according to Sureka.
He said Tyler Teague would visit the factory from
time to time to train people and upgrade the machinery
and equipment.
Sureka said Silver Charms has already entered into
a marketing tie-up with Portland-based Fire Mountain
and Allen Bell of New Mexico, whose primary business
was to market jewellery through mail order. These
companies had provided a number of master designs
and work was on at the Manikanchan factory.
Sureka said the promoters have decided to set the
factory as an example for other jewellery exporters
to manufacture precision jewellery under automation
and amalgamate this with the traditional and skilled
stone setting. “We also proposed to invite people,
who are interested in similar units, to visit our
factory and will assist them in setting up similar
modern automated units,” Sureka added.
