Bluestone Jewellery losses widen 37% to Rs 97 crore

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Dec 5, 2017

Online jewellery platform Bluestone Jewellery posted a 12 percent rise in revenue to Rs 112 crore (approx $17.5 million) with losses mounting 37 percent to Rs 96.89 crore (approx $15 million) for the fiscal 2016-17.
 

The company posted revenues of Rs 100 crore (approx $15.6 million) with Rs 70.5 crore (approx $11 million) losses in the previous financial year, as per filings with the Registrar of Companies.
 
The company attributed the rise in losses to the slowdown witnessed by jewellery sector post the demonetisation period. The company’s cost in procuring raw material and team expansion also shot up, resulting in the losses.

Bluestone's team expansion cost almost doubled from Rs 28 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 48 crore in 2016-17 while gold, silver and precious stones purchases cost the firm Rs 99 crore from Rs 85 crore it spent previous fiscal.
 
“Demonetisation had slowed down the company’s growth by 10% in the last five months of the financial year. We were expecting a growth in sales of 40-50% over 2015-16, but there was a significant drag on business due to demonetisation,” CEO Gaurav Singh Kushwaha was quoted as saying in Economic Times.
 
The company, which currently holds 35% market share of the online jewellery market in India, is eyeing a bigger share and earmarked a budget of Rs 70 crore on marketing for the year. It had signed Bollywood actress as it brand ambassador earlier this year.
 
The online jewellery sector in India has grown rapidly in the recent years and is projected to become a $2 billion market by 2022. Bluestone is targeting a revenue of Rs 1000 crore ($156 million) by Financial Year 2018-19 and expecting to achieve profitability around the same time.
 
“We have allocated Rs 60-70 crore for marketing this year and on track to become profitable by 2019 and expected revenues of Rs 1,000 crore in 2019-20,” Kushwaha added.
 
The company to date has raised a total of $60 million from marquee investors such as Iron Pillar, IIFL, Accel, Kalaari, RB Investments, Saama Capital, IvyCap Ventures, Dragoneer, Mr Ratan Tata and Ms Meena Ganesh.