Manikchand & Kishore freezes expansion on gold tax fog; Northeast retail leans local, lab-grown, physical
At RAI's Northeast panel, jeweler Manikchand & Kishore paused expansion for a year pending GST clarity on gold. Fashion players cite hyper-local curation as their moat against national brands. Lab-grown diamonds are opening a new tier rather than eating mined sales, while e-commerce plateaus and physical stores — including a 50,000 sq ft format — dominate the 50M-strong market.
What happened
Manikchand & Kishore Jewelers · Northeast India retailers at RAI panel report jeweler Manikchand & Kishore freezing expansion pending gold tax clarity; fashion
Key facts
- 50,000 sq ft store
- 50 million population
- 1-year expansion freeze
- founded 1880s
- 14-15 years since restructuring
Why this matters
Lab-grown diamonds expanding the pie rather than cannibalizing mined inventory opens a clean adjacency-acquisition lane for jewelers without channel-conflict risk.