Joyalukkas Chairman Sees Gold Prices Rising Further Amid Global Uncertainty

Joy Alukkas has nearly 16,000 kilograms of gold sitting in his stores, and he wants more. The 69-year-old chairman of the Joyalukkas Group told Bloomberg on March 5 that he expects gold prices to continue rising over the coming years, driven by geopolitical tensions, inflation, US interest rate dynamics, dollar strength, and eroding global investor confidence.

Gold was trading close to $5,200 an ounce at the time of his remarks, having surged more than 75% over the preceding 12 months and reaching a record high in January. Alukkas is unbothered by that run-up, at least strategically. He has spent decades accumulating inventory precisely to absorb short-term shocks, and his stockpile, which includes both finished jewellery and bullion bars and coins, provides a buffer against price swings of 10% to 20%. What he cannot avoid is the compounding cost of replenishment. "Working capital goes up, and every refill costs more," he said.

His position on risk management is equally direct. "We believe in the long run gold is going to be in one direction and we don't believe in hedging," Alukkas told Bloomberg. That conviction has shaped Joyalukkas's operating model for decades: hold inventory, absorb volatility, restock as needed, and trust the long-term trajectory of the metal.

The business built around that philosophy is considerable. Joyalukkas Group operates somewhere between 178 showrooms in 12 countries, according to company history, and over 200 stores across the UAE, India and the US, with different tallies appearing across reporting. Multiple outlets describe the footprint as nearly 200 showrooms. Expansion into Canada and New Zealand is planned. India remains the group's largest market, followed by the UAE and the United States, the same geography where Joy Alukkas's father, Alukka Joseph Varghese, planted the family's first international flag. Joseph Varghese had founded a small jewellery store in Kerala roughly 70 years ago; his son began working alongside him at 16 and then opened the group's first overseas showroom in the UAE in the late 1980s.

That international ambition now registers on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which places Joy Alukkas's net worth at $5.8 billion.

The price surge has not dampened demand so much as it has reshaped it. Customers, primarily of Indian origin and driven by cultural anchors like weddings, festivals, and birthdays, are not abandoning gold. They are buying less of it by weight. The steep rise in prices has pushed buyers toward lighter jewellery pieces, a direct response to compressed purchasing power. At the same time, investment-grade gold bars and coins have gained traction, and a newer shift is emerging in silver: clients who once bought decorative silver ornaments, anklets and hip chains among them, are now asking for 10-gram and 50-gram silver bars as investment vehicles.

Alukkas is careful to distinguish between the noise of regional events and the structural forces he believes are driving gold. While geopolitical flare-ups, including recent tensions in the Middle East, can produce short-term volatility, he frames sustained price appreciation as a function of broader macro conditions: where US interest rates are heading, how strong the dollar remains, and whether global investors continue treating gold as a refuge. Unless those fundamentals shift decisively, his long-term directional call stays intact.