Titan to introduce its Caratlane jewellery line to the US in FY25

The company’s lightweight jewellery brand, Mia, was also introduced in Dubai, expanding Titan’s international jewellery store footprint to 14 outlets, which also includes the Zoya jewellery brand

New Delhi: Leading jewellery and watch retailer Titan Co. Ltd is gearing up to debut its CaratLane jewellery line in the US in FY25, said a top executive. This move follows the successful overseas launch of the Tanishq brand in 2020.

According to C.K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan, the company seeks to cater to rising demand from the large Indian diaspora overseas, and Tanishq could end FY25 with 40 overseas stores.

“We have a target for it (international business) for the near term, but I’m not yet ready to share it in public. But by March 2025, we hope to have 40 Tanishq stores outside India. Considering that we had zero stores outside India till September of 2020, we are really climbing, it’s a scorching pace of growth (in international markets),” Venkataraman said in an interview.

Tanishq inaugurated its first international store in Dubai’s Meena Bazaar in October 2020 amid the pandemic, but it did exceedingly well, according to the company’s FY21 annual report. 

Presently, Tanishq has established its presence in North America, GCC and Singapore. In the December 2023 quarter, the brand further expanded its international footprint by adding two new stores in the US, located in Houston and Dallas, along with one more store in Singapore. 

The company’s lightweight jewellery brand, Mia, was also introduced in Dubai, expanding Titan’s international jewellery store footprint to 14 outlets, which also includes the Zoya jewellery brand.

“We are currently focusing on the Indian diaspora, which is substantially present in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi, etc., apart from Singapore, the US, a few cities in Canada and a few cities in the UK and perhaps in Australia,” Venkataraman added.  

Tanishq had first launched in the US in 2007 with one store each in New Jersey and Illinois. The strategy back then was to cater to American customers. “We exited around 2008-09. Now, our strategy revolves around the Indian diaspora.”

Venkataraman said the overall demand for gold also remains “positive,” despite the World Gold Council forecasting “subdued” demand for gold jewellery in India over the next couple of months. “We are quite positive about the gold market. The network expansion continues to be aggressive at a brisk pace in virtually all the businesses.”

In February, in its update on the Indian market, the council had said: “A pickup in demand in the near term could be gradual and limited in the absence of a significant drop in price levels.” 

In the December quarter, Titan’s jewellery division delivered over 20% year-on-year revenue growth despite muted demand in other consumption categories. Venkataraman said the company’s core consumers—more upwardly mobile shoppers—remain unaffected by broader macroeconomic concerns. 

“The income classes from which Titan derives maybe 80-90% of its business are the top income classes of the pyramid. If you take inflation, job losses as well as job creation challenges, as factors which inhibit demand, the top income segments are relatively less affected,” he added.

Courtesy: livemint.com