The Surat regional office of The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) recently hosted a series of seminars where a panel of experts spoke about Retail Sales, International Trade and Production Excellence.

The events were held in Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot and were organised with the support of local trade bodies in each of the cities viz. Vadodara Jewellers Association, Surat Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association and Gems & Jewellery Association, Rajkot. While over 100 jewellers were present at the Surat and Vadodara seminars, the Rajkot seminar was attended by over 280 members of the trade.

GJEPC Regional Chairman, Dinesh Navadiya, who addressed the events at Vadodara and Surat, provided information on GJEPC, its major activities and initiatives. He emphasized that members should broaden their vision and explore the world market without limiting themselves to local retail market. 

At Rajkot, Pravin Vaidya, Regional Committee Member, Gujarat, GJEPC also spoke about the CFC project at Rajkot and its importance, and following the meeting an MOU was executed between GJEPC and Gems & Jewellery Association, Rajkot to establish first Jewellery CFC within the state.

GJEPC’s Regional Director, Jilpa Sheth outlined various initiatives of GJEPC including Swasthya Ratna, G&J Parichay Card, Swasthya Kosh etc at Surat, and at the end of the event, an MOU was executed between GJEPC and Surat Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association for 10,000 Parichay cards for the benefit of the workforce engaged in the jewellery manufacturing industry there.

Mumbai-based marketing consultant and trainer, Hetal Vakil Valia, spoke at all three seminars. She provided information and guidance on retail sales and on how to understand the requirements of consumers, the role of salespersons, types of training needed, knowledge they should possess while dealing with different age group of customers, individual story telling for different products, customization, visual merchandising and how to address the changing requirement & taste of consumers at local and world level. 

Suvidh Shah, Jt. DGFT, Surat offered advice on how to enter the international market, giving details of the various types of registrations, documentation and logistics required. He introduced the audience to methods for finding data available on net, and spoke about a few authentic websites where an aspiring exporter can search for potential markets, product and buyers etc.

Kamlesh Vyas, Managing Director, Mars Group, Hosur made presentations at Surat and Rajkot. He spoke about production excellence and outlined possible disruptions, the importance of quality, working environment & conditions, welfare, ethical practices, importance of SOPs, wastage control & recovery, concepts like JIT, Kaizen, Lean manufacturing., need of transformation and adoption of better technology and tools.

Pic caption: On the dais at Vadodara seminar (from l) Hetal Vakil Valia, marketing consultant and trainer, Dinesh Navadiya, Regional Chairman, Gujarat, GJEPC and Suvidh Shah, Jt. DGFT, Surat