Nirav Modi
Founder, NIRAV MODI;
chairman, FIRestAR DIAMOND
“I can actually look back to a
single moment that propelled
me into starting my eponymous
brand,” recalls Nirav Modi, 46.
A friend had requested him
to design a pair of earrings for
her while he was still working
with his uncle, Mehul Choksi,
chairman and managing director,
Gitanjali Group, in Mumbai.
(Modi was brought up in
Antwerp, after his father moved
their business to the Belgian
city in the 1960s, but wanted to
work in India and hence had
moved to Mumbai.) Although
initially reluctant, he finally
gave in and started sourcing
diamonds to match the high
quality standards he had set for
the jewel, and ended up finding
them in Russia. The happiness
his friend expressed upon seeing
the jewel inspired Modi to create
his own brand, breaking away
from his uncle. Making that pair
of earrings unleashed a latent
passion and flair for designing
jewellery. That was 2009.
The first ever NIRAV MODI
store opened in Defence Colony,
New Delhi, in June 2014. But it
is the opening of their store on
New York’s Madison Avenue that
Modi holds close to his heart.
“The day of the grand launch
of our first boutique in the US
on Madison Avenue in New
York on September 8, 2015, was
a big milestone for us. We had
clients and press from across the
world, and it started the brand
on a new trajectory. Since then,
we have expanded to the UK,
Hong Kong, Singapore, China,
and are opening more boutiques
in the US this year, in Honolulu
and Las Vegas,” Modi says.
—Ruchika Shah
Rajesh Mehta
executive chairman,
RAjesh expORts
It has been more than 20 years since
Rajesh Mehta opened his first retail
store, Rajesh Jewels, in the ground
floor of Batavia Chambers in central
Bengaluru in the early 1990s. “We
bought the basement of the property
to set up a manufacturing facility.
We also set up a small jewellery
showroom,” says Mehta. Today, he
owns more than 60 percent of Batavia
Chambers—his office is located behind
the showroom—and Rajesh Jewels has
been renamed SHUBH Jewellers.
Mehta ran that single showroomfor over two decades, concentrating
on his gold export business. He has
steered the company through important
milestones, especially the IPO in 1995,
and “in 2013, we decided to get into
retail in a big way, which was another
turning point in my business,” he says.
Since then, Rajesh Exports has
opened about 80 retail outlets, largely in
Karnataka, and the manufacturing unit
has moved out of Batavia Chambers;
it now has two manufacturing units—
one in Whitefield, Bengaluru, and the
other in Kochi. “My future is in retail.
I want to be the largest retailer of
gold jewellery in the world,” says the
53-year-old billionaire, whose company
is the world’s largest exporter of gold.
—Anshul DhamijaRajesh Mehta, with wife Leena, at the launch of his first retail store Rajesh Jewels in
Bengaluru. Looking on is Rajesh Mehta’s mother Chandrika Ben Mehta. He ran this single
showroom for over two decades before expanding into retail in a big way in 2013december 29, 2017 forbes india | 97