The shine that costs cash

Summary: BlueStone posted its first full-year profit and its stock is up 50 per cent since listing. This story runs the cohort math on its FY30 targets and shows why today's valuation already prices in a generous outcome.

Summary: BlueStone posted its first full-year profit and its stock is up 50 per cent since listing. This story runs the cohort math on its FY30 targets and shows why today's valuation already prices in a generous outcome. BlueStone Jewellery listed to a shrug last year. Fourteen years of losses sat behind the IPO, whose pitch centred on design-led products, higher margins, a rapidly expanding store network and a path to profitability. Unsurprisingly, the market wasn’t convinced. BlueStone’s issue was just three times subscribed, and its shares opened below the offer price. A year later, however, the stock is 50 per cent above its IPO price and BlueStone has reported its first full-year profit, though growth still needs a lot of capital. Selling design, not metal BlueStone sells gold and diamond jewellery but is built almost the opposite way round to a traditional jeweller, avoiding the heavy bridal gold the industry depends on for lighter, everyday pieces: over 60 per cent of revenue is studded jewellery, against roughly 30 per cent at both Titan and Kalyan. It now runs 352 stores, with the majority of sales in store and average order value roughly doubled in three years to about Rs 66,000. Every piece has two parts: the gold or diamond, priced by the market, and the making charge, which capture