Gemstones as adornment are not restricted to jewelry. They are now being used in interiors, and the outlook there is sparkling bright!
Beyond that gleaming rock on your finger, if you believe that gemstones have no other purpose to serve, think again! These precious stones can now be used not only to decorate your body, but also the interiors of your house and office.
Just picture yourself walking on a floor made of amethyst, sleeping in a bedroom walled with rose quartz and bathing in a bathtub made from mother of pearl. Sounds like quite a royal experience, doesn’t it? Well, Gemstone Crafts, a company that manufactures and distributes gemstone tiles, slabs and semi-precious stone products for interiors, is dedicated to doing just that.
According to Nikhil Tiwari, CEO of Gemstone Crafts, “Italian marble is passé and gemstone for interiors is slowly catching on. Gems not only add beauty, but also durability and class to interiors. In addition, these stones add the positive energy of nature and earth, while providing a modern look to interiors.”
Besides manufacturing wall and floor décor out of gemstones, the company is also using semi-precious stones to create bathroom sinks, bowls, shower rooms, basins, table-tops and vanity counters. And for the customers who are tempted but don’t quite have the budget, there are always decorative pieces like vases, medallions, strips and borders of walls and mirrors, or even fittings and fixtures such as knobs and pulls all created with semi precious stones that they can go for. For those who have a passion for gems or believe in the healing power of gemstone therapy, this is definitely good news!
Gems in a new light
Working with gems was not new to Nikhil. His family was already in the business of gemstone mining and processing and Nikhil was familiar with them from a young age. “I used to accompany my father on business trips to Jaipur, the main market for gems and jewelry, and it was all quite fascinating to me,” he says. It was this fascination that got Nikhil to read up and research extensively on gems, bringing about the idea of using gems beyond the traditional ornamental usage. “The market for gems as interiors was quite a small one abroad, and in India it was non existent. After completing my MBA from NMIMS in 2004, I decided to take the plunge and by 2005 the business was ready to be rolled out.”
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Nikhil claims to have made an initial investment of around one crore for the business. Initially, Nikhil was procuring the gems from Jaipur, as they are readily available there. However, things started looking up for Nikhil within the next three years and soon enough he was getting so many orders that obtaining the gems from Jaipur was no longer lucrative. “An area of one square feet needs about five kilograms of gems. I needed the gems in huge quantities and it was getting quite expensive to get them from the local markets in Jaipur. It was then that I decided that I should source these precious stones from oceans and mines located in various countries.” The gems are now being sourced from various parts of the world including Central and South Africa, Afghanistan, Australia and Brazil.
Also, Nikhil had initially decided to target only foreign clientele, and therefore was only exporting his products. “It would have been difficult to tap the Indian market at that stage, as it was a new concept, and customers would have been hesitant to shell out that much money for it,” he says. However, thanks to the good response he was getting from his customers abroad, Nikhil decided he was now ready to hit the Indian market and launched his first showroom in Mumbai in January this year.
Classy bunch of customers
Ask Nikhil, what kind of customers he is catering to and he says, “We are dealing with a few customers who are mostly of the lifestyle conscious sorts. Our products go to the royal families in the Middle East and to high society people in the United States and United Kingdom.” Dining tables and bathroom vanity counters seem to be a popular buy for these customers.
In India, there are some big hotels, like the Radisson hotel in Goa that are using these gemstone interiors. As Gemstone Crafts also provide their clients with the option of customized and tailor-made interiors, many architects and designers also serve as their clients, providing them with their drawings and asking them to manufacture the products accordingly.
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Smooth sail so far
When asked about the challenges faced, Nikhil promptly replies, “As my father was already dealing with gems, I did not face too many difficulties. Immediately after I had made my first sample ready, we got orders from a gem interior marketing startup in Germany, for whom we kept manufacturing for.”
On second thought, he mentions traveling abroad so frequently to handpick and check the quality of gems is a challenge, as its not only expensive, but also time consuming. Also, penetrating into the Indian market has been somewhat of a challenge. “There was no existing market for gemstone interiors in India, so we had to develop the market for it. It is difficult to convince customers to buy such expensive material, when the concept isn’t tried and tested before,” he says. The price of the products ranges between Rs 7000 and Rs 15,500 a square foot, depending on the material being used.
Despite these challenges, Gemstone Crafts managed a turnover of Rs 2.5 crores, in their first year of business alone and is right now looking at a turnover of around Rs 10 crores. Nikhil plans to expand his business and open up more showrooms, particularly in the city of Delhi and Bangalore, by the end of the year 2008.
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