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Aditya Birla Group’s fine jewellery brand Indriya is rapidly scaling its presence across India’s organised jewellery retail market. With an aggressive store rollout strategy and a unique Franchisee-Owned, Company-Operated (FOCO) model, the brand is positioning itself as a strong contender in the premium jewellery segment. In this interaction, Amit Dharap, Head–Retail, Aditya Birla Novel Jewels, shares insights on Indriya’s expansion roadmap, the strategic role of physical retail, the importance of franchising and how technology is helping the brand deliver a seamless yet high-touch customer experience.
What is Indriya’s expansion vision over the next 2–3 years and how central is physical retail to this growth?
Indriya has rapidly expanded to 50 stores across 30 cities in about 19 months since its inception. This has created a new benchmark for expansion in organised jewellery retail in India. The brand plans to expand to 75 stores within the next month itself.
We have received a tremendous response in all the cities and catchments where we have opened our stores. I say this with confidence as our NPS score has been around the 95% range. We have also achieved Average Bill Values higher than the industry average. This gives us the confidence to expand even further across the country into potential markets and catchments where we are currently not present.
Indriya is a fine jewellery brand, and we want to be a full-range jeweller with gold, diamond, polki and gemstone offerings for daily wear, while being especially known for wedding and occasion wear. In this segment, physical retail plays a key role in the consumer journey, as consumers rely heavily on in-person visits to stores to see, touch, feel and wear the product before making a final selection.
We will always remain consumer-first, and hence physical retail will continue to play a major role in our growth.
How important will franchising be in Indriya’s expansion strategy and what kind of franchise partners is the brand looking for?
Franchising will play a critical role in Indriya’s expansion strategy. Our partner ecosystem provides multiple advantages, it helps us remain asset-light, brings a local and familiar presence in the catchment or city where we are opening and helps us connect personally with the community.
We deliberately choose partners who are local and have a strong reputation in their city, town or catchment. At the same time, they should share the values and ethos of the Aditya Birla Group, especially integrity and ambition.
Which store formats and geographies are best suited for Indriya’s upcoming franchise-led expansion, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities?
We are a full-range fine jewellery brand, specialising particularly in wedding and occasion wear. Our ambition is to expand across markets in the country that have large organised jewellery catchments.
Currently, we see opportunities across metro cities as well as Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. However, the primary focus will naturally be on larger markets such as metros, Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, which will drive the bulk of expansion, while select Tier 3 markets are also being evaluated.
From an investor’s perspective, what makes Indriya a compelling franchise opportunity in the lifestyle retail space?
For any investor, two key lenses in my mind are trust in the brand and the ability of both the brand and the industry to scale. With a large part of the market still unorganised and the organised segment growing rapidly, the jewellery industry offers a significant opportunity for investors and franchise partners to grow alongside it.
The Aditya Birla Group is known for its values and ambition, and for its belief in mutual growth with partners. This provides investors with a unique opportunity to scale their business with a group they can rely on completely.
The jewellery business is also generational in nature. For many of our partners, this represents an opportunity not only to grow their business but also to create a legacy for the next generation.
How does Indriya ensure operational efficiency, brand consistency, and customer experience across company-owned and franchised stores?
Our franchise model is extremely unique, it follows a Franchisee-Owned, Company-Operated (FOCO) structure. This means that while the franchisee owns the store, including the capex investment and inventory, the operations are entirely run by Indriya.
This ensures standardisation of brand experience, customer policies and operational processes across all stores. It also allows partners who may not have deep expertise in jewellery retail to participate in this opportunity confidently.
We ensure that the brand comes alive in every store through unique and differentiated offerings, while simultaneously maintaining strong operational efficiencies. For the customer, it should never be obvious whether the store is company-owned or franchise-owned.
What role do technology and data play in supporting scalability and improving store-level performance?
When we were creating the Indriya brand and conceptualising our stores, one of the core tenets we kept in mind was that our stores should always be high-touch while also being high-tech.
From the very beginning, we wanted technology to be an integral and seamless part of the consumer journey, without replacing the joy of touching, feeling and experiencing jewellery in person.
Keeping this principle in mind, we have infused multiple technology initiatives across our operations, including an in-house application called Sparkle. This platform helps with product and feature discovery while also acting as an endless aisle. It provides customers with complete product details in a seamless and transparent manner, building trust and helping them appreciate the design and craftsmanship better.
We also use AI tools for training as well as for tracking jewellery consultant-wise performance, among other functions. Our aspiration is for technology to blend seamlessly into our highly service-oriented consumer journey and enhance it, and we believe we have achieved this quite elegantly.
Looking ahead, where do you see Indriya’s retail and franchise network in the next five years?
Our immediate plan is to reach 75 stores within the coming month, largely powered by the Franchisee-Owned, Company-Operated (FOCO) model. Achieving this milestone is currently a key priority in our journey.
Over the coming years, we remain committed to fast-paced growth while keeping our consumers and their needs at the centre of everything we do. We will continue to listen to and learn from our consumers closely, and this will remain the guiding principle as we plan our next five-year journey.
