- **Thangamayil Jewellery is a household-name jewellery retailer that sells gold, silver, diamond and platinum ornaments to over 45 lakh customers across Tamil Nadu - a state that alone accounts for roughly a quarter of India’s jewellery consumption**. **Founded in 2000 and listed in 2010, the company has grown from a single store in Madurai to a network of 66 showrooms by sticking to one simple idea: sell plain gold jewellery at competitive prices, turn inventory fast, and stay within a geography it knows intimately rather than chasing a pan-India footprint**. **That recurring approach - cluster-based expansion inside Tamil Nadu, an asset-light leased-store model, and a volume-over-margin philosophy funded partly by customer savings schemes - explains everything that follows**. # Business segments A single jewellery retail engine, run through company-owned showrooms and an online platform, where the product mix, the customer funding model and the hedging discipline all serve one goal: moving gold quickly. ## 1. Jewellery retail: a volume engine on Tamil Nadu’s gold habit **The company makes money by selling gold ornaments at thin margins and high turnover, using customer advances as both a sales pipeline and a low-cost funding source.** - **Plain gold is the anchor** - gold jewellery made up roughly 90% of turnover in FY26, with silver at about 7% and diamond and studded items at just over 3%; the company has shifted its mix toward lightweight and modular designs as heavy-jewellery demand declined. - **Customers fund their own purchases** - savings schemes like Smart Gold, Super Gold and the DigiGold app let customers pay in advance and lock in the gold price; these advances reached ₹1,418.87 crore in FY26, and DigiGold customers typically redeem up to 185% of their original payment when they finally buy, so the company gets nearly double the ticket size plus making charges. - **Leased stores, not owned ones** - every showroom is rented, which keeps capital free for working inventory and lets the company exit underperforming locations quickly; capex is limited to interiors and fittings. - **Chennai changed the urban mix** - the company entered the Chennai metro market in February 2025 with a flagship store in T. Nagar, and in its first year the city contributed ₹1,485 crore in revenue, pushing the urban share of sales from under 29% to nearly 41% in nine months. - **Exchange is half the business** - old-ornament exchange offers can account for up to 50% of sales, and the company provides free repairs and what it calls a “more than a fair deal” on swaps, which keeps customers returning across generations. ## 2. Manufacturing and sourcing: a hybrid supply chain that keeps shelves full **In-house production handles the repeatable, fast-turnaround items while a wide vendor network supplies the rest, so sold stock can be replaced within 24 hours.** - **One factory, flexible capacity** - the company runs a single manufacturing unit in Madurai; utilisation has ranged from 71% to 96% over the years, but handmade capacity can be scaled up at short notice when needed. - **Vendors fill the gaps** - the company sources from a large base of third-party suppliers across India, buying outright, on consignment or through income-sharing arrangements, which lets it offer niche products and branded diamond jewellery without carrying all the production risk. ## 3. Hedging: the shield that makes earnings predictable **The company hedges roughly 95-96% of its gold inventory through a three-layer system, so operating profit does not swing with the gold price.** - **Customer advances come first** - when a customer fixes the gold price at the time of deposit, the company is naturally hedged on that portion of future sales. - **Metal loans are the second layer** - borrowing physical gold from banks at concessional rates means the company owes gold, not rupees, offsetting the gold it holds in inventory. - **Exchange-traded hedges cover the rest** - the company hedges its own inventory on the MCX platform; the hedging ratio has climbed from 63% in FY21 to 95-96% in FY26, and silver hedging was added at 37% of inventory after a 400% price surge. # Technology and digital backbone **An integrated IT stack - from SAP ERP to a proprietary e-commerce platform - ties inventory, customer data and showroom operations into a single real-time loop.** - **One system across every store** - SAP Business One, live since 2008, runs purchasing, sales, customer management and inventory handling in all 60 showrooms, supported by an in-house IT team. - **Inventory that reorders itself** - a self-generating reorder system linked to vendor platforms controls non-moving stock, while Israeli stock-rotation software helps improve returns on capital and equity. - **Online mirrors the store** - the e-commerce platform shows real-time gold prices and photographs of actual ornaments, offering what the company calls a “first of its kind” in-store experience online; it sells 22-karat gold, silver, diamond and platinum jewellery. - **CRM and staff tools are technology-supported** - highly efficient CRM implementation is in place across all retail outlets, and in-house developed HRD software assesses staff efficiency without bias. # Group structure and partners **Thangamayil Jewellery is a standalone, family-promoted company with no subsidiaries, no joint ventures and no international operations.** - **No group entities** - the company has no holding, subsidiary or associate companies, and all financial reporting is on a standalone basis. - **Family leadership** - the three whole-time directors are brothers: Balarama Govinda Das (Chairman and Managing Director), Ba. Ramesh and N.B. Kumar (both Joint Managing Directors); a promoter non-executive director is the spouse of the Chairman. - **Domestic only** - the company has no exports and no international operations; it is a member of regional and national trade bodies including the Federation of Tamilnadu Chambers of Commerce & Industry and the Madurai Jewellery Retailers Association.