When Salil Shah arrived in Bangkok it was to manage someone else’s office but by September 1986, he was ready to tackle the market on his own. Today, Diamrusa, a major exporter of jewelry and gems, is a US $15 million operation and the future, he says, couldn’t b brighter.

          For Diamrusa’s two Shah brothers, Samir, 32, and Salil, 31, Thailand’s gems and jewelry industry has certainly “come of age” and so have they, along with it.

          What better proof do you need, says Salil, than the showing at the September Bangkok Gems & jewelry Fair. “Top class, top business,” he says, and it was too, for Diamrusa as well, who won first prize in the jewelry design competition for a handsome classic diamond, yellow sapphire and emerald choker.

         The design for it came from an idea that both brothers, working together, had improved upon. Salil says that if he had to duplicate it, it would probably cost him well over US $100,000.

            “The choker is really unique, I don’t know that we will ever make another one,” he says. Not that he would want too. Diamrusa, the name is an anagram for diamonds, rubies and sapphires, has definitely moved away from the mass commercial market and is going for “better quality, better finish and better gems,” says Salil, who admits that they are focusing on the medium to high-range jewelry bracket.

            Samir says Diamrusa prices range upwards from US $500 for rings to US $10,000-to- US $20,000 for necklaces, and between US $5,000-to-US $10,000 for bracelets. But of course, this will depend on the design and client’s preferences, he adds.

            The important thing is to find a niche, says Salil, adding that Thailand’s definite advantage, which he intends to pursue, is in labor intensive designs for jewelry.

            Since its start-up in September 1986, Diamrusa has seen its sales grow from a first year’s turnover of US $5 million to US $15 million in less than four years.

            Geared mainly towards exports, Salil identifies Diamrusa’s market – 70% jewelry and 30% colored stones and diamonds – as Europe, 50%; United States, 25%; and Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, 25%.

            Business for the Thai gem and jewelry industry is definitely on the upswing, he says, pointing to the country’s growing reputation as a buying source for colored stones and fine workmanship. “The potential is here for Thailand to replace Hong Kong,” Salil is convinced.

            It was while attending Bombay University, studying for a commerce degree, that the Shah brothers got their first acquaintance with the gem and jewelry business.

            The way Samir tells it, Bombay in 1977-1978 was emerging as a world diamond cutting center and the two brothers easily found work in a diamond export office. The business proved to be both fascinating and challenging and Salil, the more enterprising of the two, even spent a year in Sierra Leone exploring the rough diamond market.

            Once back in Bombay, Salil then 24, joined an American gems and jewelry export firm, which subsequently sent him to Thailand to learn more about colored stones.

            When, three years later in 1986, he decided to go into business for himself, he sent for Samir in Bombay, to join him in managing Diamrusa.

            With plans to open a showroom in the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza shopping plaza, “concentrating on wholesale but with a retail section,” Salil, Diamrusa’s managing director, is engineering an expansion plan he feels the operation is ready for and can be comfortable with.

            “We have seen an extraordinary expansion of the industry in Thailand over the last three years and luckily we were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it. Now, things are becoming more stable and we can really plan ahead. Opening the Holiday Inn showroom is just one step we have been contemplating for some time.”

            For Salil, who travels overseas three or four times a year as an exhibitor or visitor to some of the big international fairs, Basel is the one he rates “the best”.

            As to worldwide trends and preferences, diamonds, he says, remain number one; with Japan and Europe favoring rubies, and America sapphires. About manufacturing, he says he finds it harder work than trading. “We always have to be creating something.”