Mumbai, India–based KGK Group has purchased a majority stake in Unique Settings, the Long Island City, N.Y.–based company that specializes in just-in-time delivery.
Other terms were not disclosed. KGK also owns Martin Flyer and Gregg Ruth.
Back-office functions like CAD/CAM, finance, and accounting will relocate to India, but production, marketing, and customer service will remain in the United States, says KGK vice chairman Sanjay Kothari.
Kothari tells JCK that KGK does not plan to make any major changes at Unique, though it will possibly add color stones. It also intends to “more or less” keep current management in place.
He adds that KGK was attracted by Unique’s “just-in-time” model.
“It’s a good model,” said Kothari. “It’s not that we have created it. We just acquired it.… [The retailers involved] are small, but the business is risk-free. If you go to the larger players, there’s memo, there’s returns, a lot of risk involved. It didn’t suit us. With this model, there is a lot of hard work, a lot of marketing to be done, but you are adding value.”
Kothari doesn’t anticipate fusing KGK’s three businesses together.
“They have different segments. One is a color brand, one is a bridal brand, this is a just-in-time concept. There are different reasons for different brands. So probably merging would not be the right thing today. Tomorrow, we’ll see how the market is behaving and how successful we are in all these things. But today, our brands are very distinct.”
He added that this purchase was another sign that the industry was evolving.
“Change is inevitable. The wholesale business is getting tighter. It’s there, but it’s getting tighter. As KGK, we always think of adding value, in one form or another, to every aspect of our business.”
And he did hint that KGK was not done with acquisitions. “We are interested in more possibilities.”
Kothari runs the company along with his brother, group managing director Sandeep.
(Image courtesy of Unique Settings)
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