Watches to jewellery maker Titan Co. Ltd, widened its play in the lifestyle space by launching a range of perfumes for men and women. Branded Skinn, the perfumes will be made in France by top French fragrance houses such as Firmenich and Givaudan. The six perfumes launched, three each for men and women, have been developed exclusively for Titan which owns the rights for them.
Announcing the launch here on Monday, Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat said that Titan, which has emerged as a lifestyle products company, has said that it is always looking to create a footprint in “underserved, underpenetrated and unorganised segments of the market.”
Bhat said that it did the same a few years ago when it entered the eyewear category. The current Rs 2,000-crore perfumes market in India either has many expensive international brands or low-end brands. It’s a fast growing market which is witnessing a CAGR of over 30 per cent, but almost 30 per cent of the market is unorganised. There is a big opportunity in the mid market for a quality Indian brand name and Titan, he said, hopes to fill that space. Its brand foray has come after three years of research. The investment in the project, he expects, will be around Rs 50 crore over a three-year time span by which time he says the perfume business will be about Rs 250 crore. “We expect Skinn will redefine the Indian fragrance industry like the way we transformed our watches, jewellery and eyewear business,” emphasised Bhat.
He added that while the climbing Euro is pinching, since the product is imported from France, the company did not tinker with the original pricing it envisaged for the brand. Perfumes also attract an import duty of 12 per cent.
To be retailed from select World of Titan stores as well as multi-brand lifestyle and accessories stores across the country, the 50-ml variants are prices at Rs 990 each and the 100-ml variants will be retailed at Rs 1,790.
Developed by six master perfumers for the two French perfume houses, the perfumes, said Rajeshwari Srinivasan, Head, Fragrances, have a 15 per cent fragrance content as against the norm of 12 per cent. One of the insights it gleaned while researching the brand, she said, was users wanted longer lasting perfumes. A higher fragrance strength ensures that. They also do not contain any dyes, making it strain free. The brands, Raw, Extreme and Steele are for men while Imera, Celeste and Nude are for women.