JNA Awards 2020 - Jewellery Industry Best Practices

JNA AWARDS • 2020 45 gold and diamond jewellery. “We needed to assure our clients that the product has a long lifespan despite being lightweight in nature. With continuous research and development, we finally arrived at the sought-after result. We opened the doors of another manufacturing unit to design and execute these new products on a daily basis,” shares Mehta. Craftsmanship and heritage From these efforts, the “Heritage Diamond Jewellery” product was born. To push this innovative line, the company needed to convince clients, who were used to 18-karat gold lightweight jewellery, to try the 22-karat gold lightweight products – and carry the collection in their stores. To spread the message, both live and online ad campaigns were launched. Laxmi Diamonds also held a diamond conclave, wherein clients discussed pressing issues within the industry, before punctuating the event with the introduction of their newest offering. South Indian actress Ragini Dwivedi attended the product launch at Abhushan Jewellers, while the crème de la crème of Bangalore society were invited to a similar event at Navrathan Jewellers. To date, the Heritage Diamond Jewellery series has debuted in six jewellery houses, and will continue to expand in the future. Clients also gave positive feedback from their end-customers and renewed orders for lightweight closed-set 22-karat gold and diamond jewellery. One community Mehta has also been at the fore of helping the underprivileged through Second Innings, a non-government organisation he established with some of his friends. “Even though the company was closed, we distributed 1,500 food packets daily for 45 days during quarantine. We have also continuously supported our employees and factory workers in this trying period, both financially and psychologically, by giving them incentives and paying their salaries,” he says. Mehta also highlights the importance of taking care of the workforce in the time of the pandemic. “I personally believe that the health and well-being of my staff and my artisans are the top priority. They are, after all, the ones who make my jewellery and looking after them is the most important part of sustaining this enterprise,” he emphasises. “As an employer and leader, we should never abandon our people for the sake of margins. I believe this is the noble way of ensuring future sustainability and growth.” 1. Chetan Kumar Mehta, Chairman of Laxmi Diamonds Bengaluru 2. Jewellery pieces undergo a second round of quality check 3. A refined sketch that will be transformed into jewellery 4. A piece of diamond-studded jewellery is thoroughly checked for any flaws or defects 5. Jewellery pieces are inspected by a quality control team 2 3 5 4