Augmont Gold For All (AGFA), a leading gold and silver refinery in India, has forayed into the business of selling old gold. Augmont’s first ‘Sell Old Gold’ touch point will be launched in the Zaveri Bazaar outlet in Mumbai and services will be further expanded to other locations in the upcoming months.
Through the use of transparent digital and automated services, AGFA aims to offer customers the best rate for their old gold. The three-stage purity assessment encompasses features like touchstone, XRF scientific gold purity testing and an advanced melting service. The gold will be valued based on its purity, weight and current market rate.
Ketan Kothari, Director, AGFA, said,“Through the Sell Old Gold activity, AGFA aims to create awareness of the Augmont Gold Buying branches… By foraying into Sell Old Gold Business, we intend to bring easy services when there is need for selling gold.”
The brand is the first corporate mover enabling the sale of old gold in a fully transparent and digital process beneficial for the customer. In India, end-users do not have a transparent mechanism to sell their gold, Augmont noted, adding that customers usually sell gold at the shop they procured it from. A greater challenge for customers is that they are compelled to trade their gold even to unknown shops wherein the purity of the gold isn’t usually acknowledged, it explained.
This non-transparency, particularly among unorganised players, leads to a considerable decrease in the buy-back value for customers. Therefore, it is important to provide consumers with information to help them get the best value for their gold.
Ketan Kothari, Director of Augmont Gold For All, talks to Solitaire about efforts to enhance consumer confidence in gold through transparent means.
Tell us about the health of the gold refining industry in general.
India’s capacity of gold refining has increased significantly in the last 10 years, however we have not optimised the refinery production due to difficulty in sourcing doré from international mines. And for the domestic gold (industry), there is a large, unorganised market for gold melting. Currently in India, sources of gold recycling represent approximately 90-95% share from old gold jewellery, coin, bars scrap and 5% of industrial scrap. Monetising Indian consumer gold can play a significant role in optimising refinery production, thereby reducing India’s dependency on gold imports.
How has the increased gold duty impacted your business?
The increase in the gold duty is the strategic decision of the Government of India in order to curb the deficit in the CAD due to large gold imports. However, despite the increased gold prices, the yellow metal has been a safer and favourite investment option of consumers. The increased gold duty proportionally increases the gold price, which can help us in improving our gold recycling business.
Do you see a lot more consumers selling old gold?
The three main key drivers for consumers selling gold are higher gold price movement, economic backdrop, and behavioural change. We have seen significant growth in consumers selling old gold to monetise whenever the price increases.
In India, gold prices increase year-on-year on an average 6-8% and the recent hike in the import duty and geopolitical situations have helped increase in price, thereby helping the consumers gain from selling their gold.
Post pandemic and due to overall economic slowdown, lower- and middle-income consumers monetise the gold in hand or pledged for their need. Moreover, we have seen consumer behavioural change in younger consumers of holding gold jewellery, coins, and bars subject to providing transparency and convenience in selling gold.
We, at Augmont Gold For All, unlike other unorganised gold recycling businesses in the country, offer a modern scientific machine for testing & melting and professionally skilled employees to ensure transactions with 100% accuracy and transparency to improve the customer experience, thereby attracting more customers for selling gold conveniently.