Market watchers applauded the move by Titan Company management when CK Venkataraman picked up the baton from his former boss Bhaskar Bhat in October 2019. Venkataraman is a company veteran like Bhat and his experience as the chief executive of Titan's jewellery business would come in handy, they said.
That was not the only concern he had. The undisputed leader of the branded jewellery market gets the majority of its revenue from its jewellery business, but that is just one part of the story. Titan has a much wider portfolio than most of its patrons are aware of, as it is known for its market-leading streak as the favourite choice of Indians for wristwatches.
The Bangaluru-headquartered Tata Group firm has expanded into segments that complement its core product line of Titan and Fastrack watches and branded jewellery over the years.
Venkataraman went from handcrafted sarees to perfumes to a company that was more diversified than his long-standing boss Bhat, who had transformed the company's business over his 17 year stint as its MD. Venkataraman said that the mandate is to focus on expanding its other businesses, unlike earlier when Titan was primarily known for its jewellery and watches.
For instance, take its perfume business. Titan's perfume business is under a mother brand named Skinn, which was launched in 2013. Six award-winning perfumers, including Harry Fremont, Michel Girard and Fabrice Pellegrin, have developed their perfumes in-house, which are now pushed through thousands of branded outlets.
Titan entered the saree business with its first store opening in Bangalore in 2017 with its saree brand Taneira. Venkataraman is equally excited about the future of these businesses as much as he is about jewellery. Our brand Taneira is in a market that has a 50,000 crore opportunity, while Skinn's opportunity could be much smaller. The perfume business may be smaller than the saree business. It is not important for Titan, but that does not mean it is less important. Since the revenue share may be smaller for some categories, it could be that more customers are being touched through them than a larger category like jewellery. He told Business Today that the objective is to become a market leader in each of them and to be a wholesome company that satisfies multiple types of customers.
He believes that making the newer businesses and brands bigger is a priority for Titan's five-year plan. The plan is to grow fast and unlock substantial value, even though we will be new players in those categories. He said non-resident Indians NRIs and PIOs of Indian descent are a focus area in the international market.
While the jewellery business has expanded across brands like Tanishq, CaratLand, Zoya and Mia, the jewellery business has been expanded to attract customers and wear formal wear for working women, jewellery for parties or lavish weddings, etc. Venkataraman says that Titan is expanding into new categories like branded sarees. The plan is to grow fast and unlock substantial value, even though we will be new players in those categories. Non-resident Indians NRIs and PIOs of Indian descent are a focus area in the international market. The price of a bottle of Skinn perfume may be Rs 3,000, while a piece of jewellery could cost 50 times that. I want our customers to use both. There are opportunities galore in the luxury products market, he explained.