Titan Company to exit belts and wallets category by next year

Lifestyle accessories major, Titan Company Ltd, plans to exit the belts and wallets category, which was launched over a decade ago, by next year.

The company, which primarily operates in the jewellery, watches and eyewear categories, has also diversified into wearables, Indian dress wear, fragrances and fashion accessories with the launch of brands like Skinn, IRTH, Taneira, Bags by Fastrack and Titan Belts and Watches.

Manish Gupta, CEO, Fragrance and Fashion accessories division at Titan Company Ltd, said, “Titan Belts and Wallets are available in all large format stores like lifestyle and shoppers stop. In these stores, we enjoy a share of about 40 per cent. Our whole purpose of being in this category is to exist in our own stores like Titan World and Fastrack. But we have huge space constraints there. And it’s also not a core category of ours. It’s a great place to be in; we have done a fantastic job in the past 10 years. But from commercial viability and relevance point of view from our Excel Branded Outlets (EBOs), we are exiting the category.”

• Also read: Titan plans to add 14 more Tanishq stores by the end of FY24

Titan fragrances

According to the company, the market size of perfumes in India is around ₹2,500 crore and Titan fragrances holds about 10 to 12 per cent of this market share. Furthermore, its current revenue is around ₹200 crore from this segment, with a customer base of 2 million consumers.

By FY27, Titan’s fragrances category aims to become a ₹500 crore brand - Skinn and Fastrack fragrances combined, serving about 5 million customers.

“In the last two years, customers of the premium category, which is available between the 3k to 5k price points, and customers of the luxury category, which retails for 8k and above, are growing at a much faster pace than the consumers of entry level products.” Gupta continued.

• Also read: Titan Co. reports profit of ₹1,053 crore in Q3, up by 15 per cent y-o-y

Titan fragrances are available in Titan’s flagship watch store, Titan World, with about 670 outlets in 300 cities. They are also sold in over 200 Fastrack standalone stores and 11 major retail chains across India.

As per the company, nearly one-fourth of the fragrances business comes from e-commerce platforms. Titan fragrances are available on six platforms apart from its own brand website. The company is also collaborating with three more platforms, which will be functional in a month’s time.

The company also offers a Skinn discovery kit containing tester vials of 5 fragrances for ₹395. These tester kits are available online on platforms like Nykaa, Myntra, Amazon, Smytten and Flipkart.

“We are promoting testing and trial at all places that we are present, and we incur significant costs for that. But the belief is that as you try Skinn, the conversion chances are far higher. So our current customer acquisition costs are somewhere around ₹150,” said Gupta.

• Also read: Why Titan share price fell 7% after earnings release

Titan bags

The company’s bags category includes IRTH, which was launched in 2022, and Bags by Fastrack, which have been available in the market for more than 10 years.

Titan intends to achieve a target revenue of ₹1,000 crore for IRTH and Fastrack bags by FY27. The company has sold about 1 lakh IRTH bags in the last two years and plans to open five flagship stores by November 2024.

The company had previously stated during the launch of the brand in 2022 that they would be opening exclusive outlets and flagship stores for IRTH in three metros by March 2023, which has, however, been delayed.

There has been a six-month delay in launching flagship stores. We have been trying to get the right locations since November 2023. Finding the right sized stores in properly located malls was difficult. We are working on that. But nevertheless, we will have five flagship stores by Diwali,” Gupta told businessline.

(Reported by BL interns Nivasini Azagappan and Vidushi Nautiyal)