Leading watchmaker Titan Company is planning to add 10 new international brands in the next 12-18 months under Helios, its premium and luxury watch retail format, a company official said on Friday. Besides, it will continue to add 50 more stores in the current fiscal year under the ‘Helios’ format, which contributes around 10 per cent of its overall business, Titan Vice-President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Watches and Wearables, Rahul Shukla, said.
Titan retails 45 brands from Helios stores ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,00,000 from leading brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Tissot, Swarovski, Fossil, and Frederique Constant.
Asked about the growth, Shukla told PTI, “Helios plans to launch 10 new international watch brands in the next 12-18 months.”
The leading watchmaker has onboarded Italian premium watchmaker U-BOAT. The company expects 45 per cent growth in revenue from Helios portfolio in the coming festival season.
“The brand is forecasting a growth of 40-45 per cent in overall sales, with 20 per cent of this coming from new collections and limited editions. Additionally, targeted festive promotions and campaigns are expected to boost footfall and online sales by 20-25 per cent,” it said.
Under Helios, Titan operates 240 stores spread across 95 cities, which reported 34 per cent growth from Helios sales in FY24.
Titan, a JV between Tata Sons and Tamil Nadu government’s TIDCO, operates over 1,110 stores in several retail formats such as Helios, Titan World, Fastrack, Raga, ZOOP and SF spread across the country.
Titan’s revenue from its ‘Watches & Wearables Division’ was at Rs 3,904 crore with an 18.4 per cent growth for 2023-24.
The company has also adopted an omnichannel strategy for its watch retailing business besides its large format stores to modern trade, Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs) and Multi-Brand Outlets (MBOs).
Now, sales through its online channel partners and its own websites contributed 18 per cent in FY24.
“It is likely to grow because that’s the proportion of younger consumers who are shopping online. Most of the on-ground journeys, where the consumers end up buying from the on-ground stores originate online,” he said.
As per its strategy, Titan would pursue its offline and online combination, which is “growing pretty fast”.
“Our growth trajectory will continue with the same robustness that it has been in the past. Every year we add close to 150 stores across different formats. For Helios, we plan to add another 50 stores this year,” he added.
The Indian watch market is divided into — value, mid-premium and premium segments — he said.
“Our strategy is to operate in each of these three segments and occupy the leadership position which we already have, and expand it and towards that retail serves a very important purpose,” he said.
In the June quarter, Titan’s revenue from watches & wearables was up 12 per cent to Rs 1,023 crore. Its analogue segment recorded a 17 per cent revenue growth led by Titan, Fastrack, and Sonata brands. While volumes in the wearables segment clocked healthy double-digit growths, though the average selling prices continued to decline leading to a 6 per cent drop in revenue compared to the June quarter of FY24.
Asked as to whether Titan’s wearables are impacting the growth of the traditional analogue watch, Shukla said there is no “fungibility” between them.
“Both are very different, unique positions, functionalities need that the consumer buys them. Both are very big markets and we are operating in both segments and continue to have the leadership position in both segments,” he added.
In the wearables segment, the company is focusing on value-added products between Rs 2,000 and Rs 7,000 category.
