palanpuronline

News & Events

News Room >> News & Event >> News Content

16 Aug 2017

Piyush S. Kothari wins ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Retail Jeweller India Awards 2017

Piyush Kothari, one of the founders of the business that has grown into the Jewelex group today, was honoured with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the recent 13th Annual Gemfields Retail Jeweller India Awards 2017 held in Mumbai on July 29, 2017. The award was presented by Rajesh Kalyanaraman of Kalyan Jewellers and Sanjay Kothari of Diatrends, and also a former Chairman, GJEPC.

Both Kalyanaraman and Kothari, while felicitating Piyushbhai, said that his successes in the industry are well known, and so they focused praise on his value-based approach to the business, his efforts at preserving family bonds and his commitment to building teams and motivating people in the company.

Piyushbhai is the son of late Shri Shantilal Kothari, who was commonly referred to as Bapaji, a Rangoon based diamond merchant. After completing his Bachelors in Commerce from Baroda University, he came to Bombay and in 1966, along with his brothers Pravin and Atul Kothari and four partners set up a small “start-up” from their home with limited capital.

Through self-belief and perseverance, he overcame initial hurdles, particularly that of managing with a limited supply of rough diamonds, and within a few years, set-up a rough buying office in Antwerp. By 1973, the company was recognized by DTC as its Sightholder, thus ensuring a consistent supply of rough.

From the mid 70s, Piyushbhai expanded the Jewelex footprint to various mature and emerging overseas markets, with distribution centres in New York and Far East, and by the mid 90s, Jewelex became a mega enterprise with a sales network across nine countries and a manufacturing unit at Surat.

A visionary in his own right, Piyushbhai was always at the forefront in embracing change. In 1993, along with son Bobby, he entered the jewellery business, and developed Jewelex into a leading name in the industry. The company always adopted the latest technology in both diamond and jewellery verticals, and is among the pioneers of usage of machine set and 3D technology.

Similarly, it was quick to adapt to new systems and successfully transform a traditional family run business to a nimble footed and agile organization, taking various bold and ambitious steps in the project of process re-engineering.

Since the inception of the business, Piyushbhai ensured adherence to highest quality standards and business ethics, and instituted a deeply-rooted value system across the organization, which has also been transferred to the second generation of the family - Nilesh, Anish, Nishit, Bobby and Sahil, who have been part of Jewelex’s growth over the last decades, as well as the latest entrant, Vishal from the third generation.

From a small seven-member team at the beginning, today Jewelex has grown into a family of over 3,500 strong members with many among the senior leadership having an average tenure of 15-25 years. The company recently crossed a major milestone, celebrating 50 years of its operations, with one of the highlights of the celebrations being several welfare schemes for entire Jewelex team, including free medical insurance for family members, free accident insurance and free education for kids and food for employees.

Piyushbhai has imbibed his father’s generosity and compassion for social causes and has actively pursued various social initiatives individually as well as through Jewelex Foundation. For the past 15 years he and his family members have supported the Bhansali Trust in conducting over 40,000 cataract surgeries at camps in the rural areas of Bihar. Other social initiatives he is involved with are distribution of daily free breakfast to the relatives of patients at KEM Hospital, converting one of the factory premises at Ahmedabad into a diagnostic center for poor and needy patients, and construction of a school and hostel premises for 1,000 tribal students at Goraj near Baroda, through Munni Seva Ashram.

Even today at 75, Piyushbhai is still active and full of energy, being closely associated with the business in an advisory and mentorship role. He is an avid traveller, always ready to explore new destinations and a lover of music and ghazals.