Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Mixing business with philanthropy

GULBARGA: Well-meaning initiative taken by a group of established gold traders has brought cheers to small-time traders in the Hyderabad Karnataka region.

This initiative has changed the lives of those who had started their ventures with very little capital. Gulbarga Swarna Bhandar Private Ltd, established in 2004, provides gold jewellery to small traders without any surety and all they are required to do is pay the amount due for the jewellery within 24 hours of purchase.

Gulbarga Gold Merchants Association president Raghavendra Mailapur, who took the initiative to establish the Gulbarga Swarna Bhandar Private Ltd, said that along with him, a group of gold traders had invested money to begin this venture to end the menace of middlemen and increase the profit margin for small-time gold traders in the region.

Mr. Mailapur said that more than 5,000 such traders in Gulbarga, Raichur and Bidar districts benefited by the initiative, which helped them carry on their business even without any capital.

He said that on an average, every day, gold jewellery worth Rs. 25 lakh was purchased by the small traders and the entire transaction was done on a no-loss-no-profit basis with a negligible amount collected as service charges. Earlier, such traders had to depend fully on agents of major gold jewellery manufacturing centres in Mumbai, Kolkata, Coimbatore and other places who had to be paid the entire amount immediately and the agents also took a part of the profit as service charges.

Mr. Mailapur said the profit margin of the small-time traders had gone up by six to seven per cent after the launch of the Swarna Bhandar. He said that gold jewellery was purchased by the bhandar directly from the reputed manufacturers without any middlemen involvement and the profit margin was transferred to the traders. Orders placed by the traders were delivered within a specified time. He said the bhandar did not sell jewellery to customers.

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