Manikanchan, which houses the jewellery unit.

Calcutta, April 17: Silver Charms and Jewellery, a fully mechanised unit at Manikanchan, is readying itself to capture the markets in Europe and the US during Christmas.

?We have set a target to ship jewellery worth Rs 10 crore between June and December,? said Pradip Sureka, a director of the company.

The Rs 20-crore project is a diversification venture of the city-based food and ice cream major Farinni Group, real estate baron Surekas and the US-based NRI Mayur Seth, a big name in the diamond and precious metals business. The three promoters will have equal stakes of 33 per cent each.

The company has set up a fully air-conditioned mechanised modern jewellery unit, spread across 7000 square feet at Manikanchan, the country?s first greenfield special economic zone dedicated to the gem and jewellery industry. The unit has been set up under the technical guidance of Tyler Teague of the US, a leading consultant on jewellery trade worldwide.

According to Sureka, about Rs 8 crore has already been spent in the first phase and the unit is ready for commercial production with a design team and trained workers in place.

In the first phase, the unit will have a capacity to convert about 50 kg silver per day to various kinds of jewellery.

As the entire project will be implemented in three phases ? the second and third to be taken up in 2006 and 2007 respectively ? the ultimate target is to export jewellery worth Rs 70 crore annually, Sureka said.

The computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) wings of the company has already employed a number of designers to generate up to 3000 designs and styles every year. The unit will generate employment of over 100 people, according to Sureka.

He said Tyler Teague would visit the factory from time to time to train people and upgrade the machinery and equipment.

Sureka said Silver Charms has already entered into a marketing tie-up with Portland-based Fire Mountain and Allen Bell of New Mexico, whose primary business was to market jewellery through mail order. These companies had provided a number of master designs and work was on at the Manikanchan factory.

Sureka said the promoters have decided to set the factory as an example for other jewellery exporters to manufacture precision jewellery under automation and amalgamate this with the traditional and skilled stone setting. ?We also proposed to invite people, who are interested in similar units, to visit our factory and will assist them in setting up similar modern automated units,? Sureka added.