Rajesh Exports Ltd , one of India's top jewellery manufacturer and exporter, plans to open 550 retail stores in three years in the country on the back of robust demand for gold jewellery despite rising prices, a top official said.

"Demand is consistent and good and so the idea is to have a retail store in every corner of the country," Rajesh Mehta, chairman told Reuters.

"Also we want to improve our margins which the retail business offers as the profit margins in the export business are in the range of 1-1.5 percent," he said.

Rajesh Exports in April 2010 had said it has plans to roll out 300 stores across India.

The company, which operates its retail stores under the brand 'Shubh', currently has 14 retail stores in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

It plans to invest 65 billion rupees in the coming three years to fund its retail expansion.

"Out of the total requirement, we will raise 25 billion rupees via ECB (external commercial borrowings) and the remaining will be internal accruals and bank finance," Mehta said.

The jewellery exporter plans to increase its contributions from retail operations to 55-60 percent in three years from the current 7 percent and expects revenues from retail to touch 250 billion rupees in three years, Mehta said.

Earlier in the day, the company firm posted a 73 percent jump in net profit at 761.2 million rupees for the quarter ended Dec 31. Net sales jumped to 51.76 billion rupees from 45.32 billion int he same period a year ago.

"The growth has been driven by our continued focus to expand our retail operations and the latest boost has come in from the strategy of having a retail gold revolution introduced at our stores," Mehta said.

The firm's current order book stood at 54.65 billion rupees and it plans to close the year with a topline of 200 billion rupees and a bottomline of 2.56 - 3 billion rupees.

Rajesh Exports also said it hopes to announce an overseas mine acquisition after three months.

"We are looking at South Africa and Australia and some other geographies and we hope to announce an acquisition after three months," Mehta said.

He did not give details about the size of the buy.

The company is also planning to set up a refining unit in 2012 at an investment of 2-3 billion rupees. (Reuters)