Welcome to the 89th edition of The Chatter — a newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.
We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.
In this edition, we have covered 5 companies across 5 industries.
Chemicals
Solar Industries India Ltd
Fintech
PhonePe
Software Services
Coforge Ltd
Healthcare
IOL Chem & Pharma
Retail
Senco Gold
Chemicals
Solar Industries India Ltd | Large Cap | Explosives
Solar Industries is a leading global manufacturer of industrial explosives and initiating systems used in mining, infrastructure, and defense. The company operates across multiple continents and is a key supplier to India’s defense sector through its ammunition and missile manufacturing capabilities.
Note: This information is from the Solar Industries India analyst call.
[Concall]
Solar Industries is acquiring Omnia Holdings to transform into a global leader in mining solutions and explosives. This move provides the company with advanced digital blasting technology and an entry into the sustainable agriculture market.
“Building on this foundation, the proposed acquisition of Omnia by Solar South Africa represents the next strategic step in Solar Group’s SADC journey, significantly expanding its operations, manufacturing, and distribution capabilities across the world. The proposed transaction marks a transformational milestone in Solar Group’s strategic ambition to become a leading global explosives and mining solutions provider by enhancing its scale, market access, and competitive positioning across Africa and other international markets. Omnia’s mining business, operating under the well-established BME brand, brings significant expertise in open-cast mining, bulk explosives, electronic detonation systems, digital blasting solutions, and mining chemicals, alongside a strong presence across Africa and international markets. The combination will serve Omnia’s agriculture segment, which provides a compelling platform that promotes sustainable agriculture and biological solutions. Leveraging its proprietary Nutriology model and agribiosolutions, the business delivers science-based crop nutrition products and services to customers across multiple geographies.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
The acquisition gives Solar access to the largest nitric acid and ammonium nitrate production facilities in the SADC region. This backward integration ensures a secure raw material supply and improves the company’s long-term cost position in international markets.
“A key strategic attraction of the transaction is Omnia’s integrated manufacturing infrastructure. The agriculture segment operates nitric acid and ammonium nitrate production facilities, which are the largest, most reliable, and most sustainable in the region. In addition, Omnia has recently expanded its ammonium nitrate storage infrastructure through a new 5,000-ton storage tank, which has doubled its storage capacity. These capabilities are expected to significantly strengthen vertical integration, enhance security of supply, improve raw material availability, increase operational flexibility, and reinforce Solar Group’s long-term cost competitiveness across the explosives value chain.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
The company expects total debt to peak at around 11,000 crores following the acquisition. Management is committed to maintaining a conservative leverage profile with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of less than 2 times.
“Based on this EBITDA projection that we are trying to achieve, and if you factor in the acquisition debt plus the regular debt that we have, it should be around 10,000-11,000 crores by FY28. In any situation, if you take the EBITDA and debt position, the ratio will always be lower than 2. That is the current estimate based on the work we have done as of now.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
The acquisition significantly scales Solar’s global footprint, increasing its manufacturing presence from 11 to 25 countries. This expanded network is intended to drive higher exports of specialized products from India into new international markets.
“If you add Omnia’s and BME’s current distribution network to Solar’s distribution network, our distribution presence will increase to more than 100 countries. Our manufacturing presence, which is currently in 11 countries, will expand to 25 countries. We have been saying for many years that this kind of geographical diversity and presence across the globe is helping our company. That is the belief we have as of now, and the same reason led us to pursue this acquisition opportunity. With the kind of facilities they possess, this definitely gives Solar Group a strategic advantage to position itself as one of the strongest players in that region. That is the basic rationale, and it is going to help us increase exports from India to that region and to other parts of the global market as well.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
The 1.35 billion dollar deal will be funded entirely through debt and internal cash flows without any equity issuance. This strategy avoids diluting existing shareholders and signals management’s confidence in the company’s cash-generating capacity.
“We are not planning to raise any equity through any kind of dilution in either the parent company or any subsidiary. We are quite comfortable managing this acquisition through internal accruals and debt that can be made available to Solar.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
Solar plans to push its industry-leading packaged explosives and initiating systems through Omnia’s established global distribution channels. This cross-selling strategy is a key driver for expected revenue growth in newly entered territories.
“Solar is the largest producer of packaged explosives in the world. With BME’s strong distribution presence, we would be able to leverage Solar’s strength and Solar’s products in this market. Having a presence across the world will help us increase sales of these products, including packaged explosives and initiating systems.”
— Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
Fintech
PhonePe | Fintech
PhonePe is one of India’s largest digital payments and financial services platforms, best known for its UPI-based payments app. It allows users to make money transfers and merchant payments, while also offering services such as insurance, lending, investments and other financial products through its platform
Nigam argues that zero-MDR UPI masked the substantial capital invested by banks, payment companies and the broader ecosystem to scale the network to roughly 500 million users.
“Over the last decade, the industry has invested almost $5 billion of equity capital, or just balance-sheet losses, to grow UPI into the behemoth it is. Almost 500 million Indians have been using UPI, and it continues to be free for all of them. We want to get another 500 million Indians on UPI. This requires, obviously, a pretty serious amount of capital investment.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam says merchant-funded payment economics are standard globally. In his view, India’s zero-MDR regime was unusual compared with other large digital-payment markets.
“World over, across 200-plus countries, the standard norm has been that the merchants who are the beneficiaries of a cashless economy absorb this cost through MDR. In fact, India was the outlier until yesterday. It was the only market in the world where there was no MDR on the largest payment network.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
The cost of digital payments goes well beyond processing a transaction. Nigam points to chargebacks, fraud prevention, regulatory compliance and infrastructure as significant ongoing expenses.
“People don’t necessarily appreciate enough the different kinds of expenses that players like us, payment aggregators, banks and NPCI incur. There are chargeback costs by regulation that apply on the payment aggregators. There’s a lot of risk and fraud-mitigation expense that goes in.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam highlighted the physical infrastructure behind UPI, arguing that handling hundreds of millions of transactions every day requires continuous investment.
“At PhonePe, we’ve invested—we now have almost 30,000 servers. We’re talking several thousand crores of just capex that has gone in. Just please recognize, we celebrate UPI all the time, but when you’re doing 700-800 million transactions a day at a network level, that’s very, very serious investment.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam says the industry’s technology bill isn’t stabilising as UPI matures. AI-era cybersecurity threats, network risks and rising compliance requirements are forcing payment companies to keep investing.
“You now have the AI era with all of its attendant madness in terms of cybersecurity risk, network risk. So we are all investing more than ever. Compliances have gone up more than ever.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Requirements such as re-KYC of merchants add banking-level compliance costs on top of the infrastructure required to process rapidly growing transaction volumes.
“A couple of years ago, the regulator made it mandatory for all merchants to be re-KYC’d. This is banking-level KYC. So the costs have just been escalating linearly as UPI grows.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam says the proposed MDR is still very low by global standards, but India’s enormous transaction base means it could nevertheless generate meaningful revenue for the ecosystem.
“Even a 0.4% MDR—which, by the way, is still the lowest of all MDR regimes in the world—even this number at India’s population base should hopefully generate meaningful revenue, which will help offset a lot of our expenses.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam sees MDR as more than a new revenue stream for PhonePe. He argues that the entire payments industry needs viable economics if companies are expected to continue investing.
“I don’t see why digital payments should be different than any other sector. The fact is, any economist will tell you, for a sector to thrive in any country, market economics have to play out. And this is the digital payments industry’s moment after a long, long time.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam says PhonePe thinks about the two sides of its platform as independent businesses. Scale on the consumer side shouldn’t be used to permanently mask losses in merchant payments.
“For a player of our scale, it is important that we run the merchant business in a viable manner independent of anything we do on the consumer side. I know a lot of people think that our consumer side might subsidize our merchant side. It doesn’t work that way. We’re large on both sides, and both P&Ls have to run independently and in a profitable manner.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
His argument is that larger merchants already routinely absorb much higher payment charges on credit cards, so a smaller UPI MDR shouldn’t fundamentally change their willingness to accept digital payments.
“In India now there are almost 6 million, or 60 lakh, merchants which are accepting credit cards across networks on POS devices. So they are used to paying an interchange of anywhere between 1.7% to 2.25% on all card transactions. That is really the set of merchants that I believe are going to be having to pay the UPI MDR as well, because we’re talking about large transactions.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam points to RuPay credit cards as a real-world example of merchants already absorbing payment charges on the same QR infrastructure.
“I can tell you with confidence that over 95% of our merchants today who are accepting UPI payments also accept RuPay credit card on UPI, and they do absorb this cost.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
One reason Nigam expects merchants to absorb MDR rather than push customers back to cash is that physical cash carries its own hidden operating costs.
“The reason that they absorb this cost and don’t transfer it to customers is that customers who come in and do cash transactions also result in secondary costs to the merchant themselves. Today, merchants have pilferage in the shop. Merchants have cash collection and processing costs that they understand.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
One concern is that merchants could break a ₹10,000 payment into five sub-₹2,000 transactions to remain below the MDR threshold. Nigam doesn’t think such behaviour will work at scale.
“People are immediately jumping to this thing of merchants will suddenly take a ₹10,000 transaction and divide it by five. Life doesn’t work like that. Customers won’t go to merchants who actually try and do that.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Most smaller UPI transactions remain outside MDR, while charges on larger payments and certain sectors are capped. Nigam sees that as limiting the burden on merchants.
“I actually think that the government’s been very measured. On the one hand they’re saying below ₹2,000, which is 95-96% of transactions, there’s no MDR. On the other side, for large-ticket transactions, they’re saying that we’re putting a cap of ₹300. For petrol they’re putting a ₹5 cap. So even OMCs will absorb that.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Nigam pushes back against the idea that zero MDR was essential to UPI’s adoption, pointing to the network’s early years when merchant charges existed alongside rapid growth.
“I’d like to remind people that UPI had MDR. In fact, it used to be almost 0.65%, not 0.4%, when UPI launched 10 years ago. And UPI was growing very, very rapidly even between the period of 2016 and 2020.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
The introduction of merchant monetisation matters beyond near-term revenue. As India’s largest UPI player prepares for a potential listing, Nigam says it helps demonstrate that digital payments can become economically sustainable.
“It definitely helps. I think being the largest player in the sector, especially on the consumer side, it helps when we talk to investors to be able to explain to them that we’re not subsidizing UPI, that we will finally make money on digital payments. So that’s always welcome.”
— Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO, PhonePe
Software Services
Coforge Ltd. | Mid Cap | IT Services & Consulting
Coforge is a global digital services and solutions provider specializing in the insurance, banking, and travel sectors. The company leverages AI-led transformation and deep industry expertise to deliver high-growth technology consulting and outsourcing services.
Note: This information is from the Coforge analyst call, which was held to address recent board resignations and corporate governance.
[Concall]
The interim chairperson is explaining that the recent removal of two directors was a necessary action based on internal audit findings. This reassures investors that the current board is acting as responsible guardians of the company’s interests and following strict rules.
“As board members, we are duty-bound as fiduciaries of the firm to act upon observations shared with us by the internal auditor. All communications exchanged with our two former directors with regard to the observations made by the internal auditor have been conducted with the sole aim of discharging our obligations as fiduciaries and with the sole intent of keeping the interests of Coforge first. All seven of us on the board today take our governance obligations extremely seriously, and we will always discharge them faithfully as custodians of the firm on behalf of our shareholders.”
— Vivek Sharma, Interim Chairperson
An internal audit discovered that the former chairman and a committee head withheld a report showing the chairman had received poor performance ratings. This transparency is crucial for investors as it explains the specific governance breach that led to the leadership resignations.
“The internal auditor reviewed the video recordings and minutes of the relevant NRC and board meetings, then went through the actual board evaluation report document. In the third week of August 2026, the auditors sought clarifications relating to differences observed between what was presented at the NRC and board meetings and the information contained in the actual board evaluation report. The internal auditor observed that the relevant reports were available only to the NRC chair and the chairman of the board. Departing from best practices, they were not made available to other members of the board, including the independent directors. They observed that the manner in which the evaluation findings were presented, without sharing copies of the report, by the chairman of the board and the NRC chair did not cover all relevant aspects and findings. In particular, while the chairman’s performance category received the lowest rating in the reports, this finding was not disclosed or discussed before the NRC or the board by the NRC chair and the chairman of the board.”
— John Spate, Director
The board has been highly unified on major strategic moves since the company became professionally managed rather than owner-led. This track record suggests that despite recent personnel changes, the core business strategy and AI focus remain stable.
“Since 2024, as Coforge transitioned from private ownership to a company with no promoter, the board has worked productively with a high degree of alignment. Key strategic and governance decisions have been approved unanimously, including the acquisition of Encora, the divestment of AdvantageGo, and the Sabre contract engagement. During this period, Coforge has delivered exceptional growth and created significant shareholder value despite challenging industry conditions. We have strengthened our global scale and capabilities and, as we discussed at Investor Day, we continue to build a more integrated, AI-led business around the industries that we know very well. This combination of our technology capabilities and deep industry expertise is central to where we believe Coforge can continue to differentiate and grow.”
— Beth Boucher, Independent Director & NRC Chair
Despite the board-level changes, the company is maintaining all its previous financial targets for margins and cash flow. Investors can remain confident that the core business performance and growth trajectory are not being negatively affected by administrative issues.
“I would like to reiterate that the matters discussed today have no bearing on the company’s financial reporting, business operations, performance, or outlook. Our near-term, medium-term, and long-term outlook remains unchanged, and our FY27 guidance remains intact. We continue to expect a consolidated EBITDA margin of 20.5%-21% for FY27, a consolidated EBIT margin of at least 15.5%, and free cash flow conversion of above 100% of PAT in the current financial year. The four-year guidance of close to 5 billion dollars also remains intact. There is no impact on, and no change in, any outlook that we have set so far. The management team remains fully focused on execution, with no disruption to our business or client engagements.”
— Saurabh Goyal, CFO
Management confirmed that the audit concerns were isolated to the two directors who left and did not implicate the rest of the leadership. This limits the scope of potential liability and suggests that no further surprise resignations are expected from this specific issue.
“Vibhor, I want to take a first stab and then request Mr. Chanana, our audit committee chair, to step in. The questions were posed only to our two departed transition directors who are no longer with the firm. Those are the facts. I am going to request Mr. Chanana also to talk about the audit process, please. ... Since this is a very specific matter relating to the board evaluation process, this has been fully covered by KPMG, which is the internal auditor. There have not been any other observations so far as this part of the audit is concerned.”
— Sudhir Singh, CEO
The audit committee uses a risk-based approach to decide which parts of the business to inspect each year. By adding new areas like AI governance, the company is trying to stay ahead of modern technology risks that could impact future performance.
“Typically, there are very standardized core processes, as I call them, which we try to cover perhaps every alternate year. Some are covered from time to time. It basically starts with risk profiling. First, we look at the risk profile, and based on that, we start working out the internal audit plan. If we find any area where the risk is high, we typically select it. What is happening is that new risks are emerging. For example, AI governance. Our focus will continue to include some of these newer risks that are emerging.”
— Anil Chanana, Independent Director & Chairperson of the Audit Committee
The board does not see a need for an additional investigation into the recent events because the initial findings came from a trusted third-party auditor. This indicates management believes the current governance issue is fully understood and resolved through existing channels.
“To answer your question, in this particular case, the matter arose as a result of an internal audit by an external party. We do not believe that there is anybody who is going to sit on top of it and determine whether it was done correctly or incorrectly. It has already been conducted by an external party, based on which the explanation was sought. Therefore, I do not believe there is any need for another review by an external advisor.”
— Anil Chanana, Independent Director & Chairperson of the Audit Committee
The interim chair highlighted Coforge’s strong competitive position in the airline industry as a reason for his personal commitment to the role. His focus on loyalty and care aims to soothe investor fears regarding his independence and dedication to the firm.
“I serve on the board of an airline in the United States, and Coforge dominates, literally dominates, the airline sector. There is not an airline I could speak to without finding that Coforge is already serving it. There is extraordinary feedback on the delivery, client orientation, and the work they do and that we do. I want to reassure you that when you join the board, and when I joined the board, like all my fellow independent directors, I am a fiduciary to Coforge. The defining aspect of being on the board is that you have a duty of loyalty and a duty of care to the company. I reassure you that I have both.”
— Vivek Sharma, Interim Chairperson
Healthcare
IOL Chem & Pharma | Small Cap | Healthcare
Established in 1986, IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a leading generic pharmaceutical company in India, also playing a significant role in the Organic chemicals space. The company manufactures and sells APIs/bulk drugs and specialty chemicals across various therapeutic categories like Pain Management, Anti-diabetic, Anti-hypertensive, Anti-convulsants, catering to both domestic and international markets.
[Concall]
The ₹495 crore investment won’t contribute meaningfully in FY27 and won’t be fully ramped even in FY28. Once all three projects are operational and utilised, IOL expects a sizeable addition to its existing revenue base.
“Considering the full operationalization and utilization of these assets, which will probably happen in FY29, they will contribute approximately 25% to 30% to the top line.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
IOL’s decision to expand Ibuprofen isn’t based solely on expected industry growth. Existing capacity is nearly exhausted, while the company is seeing opportunities from domestic, international and CDMO customers.
“Considering the current scenario, we have some developments with our domestic as well as international customers, so we are trying to cater to those requirements. Additionally, our current capacity is exhausted to the extent of 90% to 95%. The third point is that we are also looking at some numbers in our CDMO business. Considering all these factors, we are planning to increase the overall capacity of Ibuprofen.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
IOL explicitly denied that the capacity addition is based on information about another European plant shutting down. Instead, it points to underlying market growth and new customer development.
“It is not only for formulations. It is also due to customer development for the API. The global growth rate for Ibuprofen is 3% to 4% every year, and that also supports our decision to expand our Ibuprofen capacity.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
IOL’s move downstream from supplying APIs into finished formulations wasn’t purely internally driven. Existing customers asked the company whether it could supply bulk tablets instead.
“They came back to us and asked why we should supply them bulk tablets instead of sending the API. So, this is probably a mutual agreement in both directions, and we entered into this arrangement.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
IOL expects the formulation contracts to resemble its API arrangements, potentially providing medium-term revenue visibility and some protection against changes in costs.
“We are in discussions with various customers; this is not the only customer we can talk about. We expect the contracts to be similar to the contracts we have for the API. These range from 3 to 5 years, with escalation clauses and other provisions as well.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
IOL says its customer contracts contain price-adjustment mechanisms, while its backward-integrated Ibuprofen operation gives it another layer of protection against input-cost swings.
“Every contract contains a price-adjustment clause. Under the price-adjustment clause, prices can move downward or upward within a certain range. That provision is included in the contracts.
Also, our Ibuprofen facility is fully backward integrated. Therefore, in our case, raw material price fluctuations are controlled by us to the maximum extent.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
Raw-material prices have softened from their wartime peak while Ibuprofen selling prices have remained broadly stable. Asked directly whether this combination could translate into higher margins, management agreed.
“Since the peak, the prices of many products have softened, but Ibuprofen prices have remained more or less the same. There has not been much change in Ibuprofen prices; they are hovering around the same level.”
— IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Management
Retail
Senco Gold | Small Cap | Retail
Senco Gold Limited is a leading pan-India jewellery retail player with over 50 years of experience in the industry. It is renowned as the largest organized jewellery retailer in eastern India and has a wide presence in other regions as well. The company specializes in gold and diamond jewellery, while also offering silver, platinum, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as other metal-based jewellery and accessories.
Recent moves in gold prices have made customers hesitant about when to buy. Sen expects footfalls to improve once consumers get greater clarity on the direction of prices.
“If you look at the last seven days, consumers at the stores are actually a little confused. They’re not very sure whether the prices will fall further or not. Though currently the focus for the industry is to prepare for the festive season, and customers would want to make the best use of these lower gold prices and give the advance, I think everyone is waiting to understand whether the prices will fall further or not.
Maybe in a week or so, once the trend sets in, the footfalls at the stores will start improving again. But yes, as of now, consumers are a little confused.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
September has been relatively slower after a robust August, but customer enquiries and interest in new designs suggest demand is being deferred rather than disappearing.
“The expectation for October and November, which is the Navratri and Dhanteras season, is very positive. Consumers have been inquiring, looking at the new designs, discussing with our sales staff at the ground level, and they are very sure that they will be buying something for the festive season. It is a question of when is the right time to fix the gold price and to buy the jewellery.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Sen believes the major festive buying period is still ahead, with customers likely to start finalising purchases around the beginning of October.
“August was looking extremely positive and robust. September—around the 15th of September—people are busy with their advance taxes, and generally it’s a pre-festive season. Ganesh Chaturthi was there, which is leading to some amount of sales, but the major part of it, I think, people will start finalising from the end of September and the beginning of October for the season.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Jewellery demand could extend well beyond Dhanteras and Diwali because a heavy wedding calendar runs from November through March.
“As far as the preparation goes and the expectation goes, we’re all very positive that we’ll have a very good season ahead. The weddings—November, December, January, February, March—there are a lot of weddings ahead. So it’s all a question of when the consumers will start buying for the wedding, which we expect to happen during the festive season.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
High gold prices are changing how consumers finance jewellery purchases. A much larger share of transactions now involves customers exchanging old gold for new jewellery.
“This is a new reality. Initially it was 25–30%; now it has gone from 25–30% to 45–50%.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
The shift towards recycled gold creates an operational challenge because exchanged jewellery needs to be processed before the gold can return to Senco’s manufacturing system.
“The whole objective is to ensure that the gold that we are procuring from the consumers is recycled as fast as possible. But obviously, it gets to that six-seven days of more days added to process that particular gold and to ensure that it goes to the factory as fast as possible.
So it is impacting a little bit. We need to plan from before in order to compensate for this extra five-six days that we are losing to process the recycled gold.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
With high gold prices making fresh purchases more expensive, Senco is actively encouraging customers to recycle existing jewellery.
“The challenges are there in terms of consumption of gold, promoting old-gold recycling to ensure that the sales continue to happen. But again, there is enough and more gold in the households that can be exchanged for the new designs.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
High gold prices are shifting demand towards lighter pieces and products that fit within customers’ budgets, while traditional jewellery remains important for weddings and festivals.
“We’ve launched titanium jewellery, any kind of new innovative designs, everyday wear, lightweight—that is what is more in demand in terms of numbers. But at the same time, we have these traditional jewellery pieces that people will buy for the festive season or weddings, and we need to be ready with that as well.
Lightweight jewellery within the budget of the consumer is the name of the game as of now.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
The business is still operating from a small base, but younger consumers are experimenting with lab-grown diamonds and newer designs, supporting rapid growth.
“Sennes, which is focusing on lab-grown diamonds and the other lifestyle products—the base itself is so low that we are seeing a very substantial growth of 40–50% year-on-year. People are trying out and experimenting with these new exclusive designs. We are launching new collections every quarter.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Senco remains overwhelmingly a mass and mid-market jewellery business despite expanding premium offerings through its Designia range.
“Designia, which is focused on slightly high-end premium designs that we are keeping in certain stores and across the stores, we have seen that in the overall sales and scheme of things, it’s around 5–7% that we are doing in terms of premium sales.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
The company’s sales mix remains concentrated in accessible price bands, with only a relatively small proportion of purchases exceeding ₹5 lakh.
“Around 80–85% is largely what we are selling in a wide price range of ₹10,000–20,000 up to ₹4–5 lakh. It is only around 7–10% where products are above ₹5 lakh.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Sen sees digital gold and other savings mechanisms as part of a broader shift in consumer behaviour that established jewellery companies cannot ignore.
“The young generation, the new-age consumer, looks at various ways and means to invest in gold. I think we, as a jeweller that has been there for more than 80 years, need to keep on innovating and ensuring that the consumer can easily buy jewellery from us or save in any schemes and offers.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
To overcome hesitation caused by volatile gold prices, Senco’s festive advance scheme allows customers to lock in whichever gold rate is lower—today’s rate or the rate when they finally purchase.
“For the festive season, we ourselves are giving this Flexi Advance Gold, where consumers are giving their advances. Whether it be the rate today or the rate during the time of buying, whichever is the lower rate, the consumer will enjoy the benefit of the lower rate.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Sen says elevated duties make it harder for organised jewellery companies to compete against unorganised channels.
“The duty is impacting in a negative manner because the parallel economy is coming into the picture, and that is impacting the organised sector and making it a little difficult for us to compete with the unorganised. So that is a challenge that we are facing.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
Despite the competitive impact, Sen acknowledged the macroeconomic rationale for higher duties given geopolitical uncertainty and pressure on India’s current account.
“At the same time, we are very much aware that when the war is on and the current account deficit pressure is on the economy, we need to accept this high duty for the sake of the economy and the growth of the economy.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
The industry remains in discussions with the government, but Sen doesn’t expect much relief until the global backdrop improves.
“While we are in talks with the government, unless the war is settled and crude oil prices come down, we need to live with these high duty rates. Once there is peace in the world, crude oil prices come down and the economy is doing better, then we can all request the government to consider reducing the duty once again.”
— Suvankar Sen, Managing Director & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds
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