Joy Alukkas, the chairman of jewellery group Joyalukkas, recently recalled the time he bought his first Rolls Royce and the incident that prompted him to acquire the luxury car. Alukkas, 67, is the 50th richest person in India with a net worth of $4.4 billion.
It was the year 2000 when the Malayali businessman visited a Rolls Royce showroom in Dubai , UAE. A staff member at the glitzy showroom approached Alukkas and asked him what he wanted. "I said I want to see the car, a Rolls Royce," Alukkas told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.
He then recalled being told by the showroom staff: "No, no, no. If you want to buy a car, you go to the Mitsubishi showroom, you will get a car there," the staff reportedly told Joy Alukkas whose jewellery chain is headquartered in Thrissur, Kerala. "Then I thought.
.. I felt ashamed with this type of behaviour I decided to buy a car.
..the same care.
I purchased it," Alukkas said. After buying the Rolls Royce, he felt that he did not need the ultra luxury car and so, decided to gift the car to the winner of an annual raffle draw that his jewellery chain ran in the UAE. In March this year, Joy Alukkas reportedly bought his latest luxury car, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, worth ₹ 6 crore.
(Also Read: Billionaire Nikhil Kamath's dinner at liquor baron's home in Delhi ends with Rolls Royce, Bentley ) Who is Joy Alukkas? A school dropout, Alukkas went to the Middle East to open his family's first overseas store in 1987 in Abu Dhabi. Later, he broke off from his father's jewellery company to launch his own Joyalukkas brand, which now has 100 outlets spread across India and 60 overseas with over 9000 employees. The group also owns the world's largest gold jewellery retail outlet in Chennai.
His wealth has seen a steady rise in the last decade, shooting up from $2.8 billion in 2023 to $4.4 billion, according to Forbes.
He is ranked at the 712th spot on Forbes Billionaires List 2024. (Also Read: Indian businessman takes Range Rover with Kerala number plate to Dubai, parks it outside Burj Khalifa ).
