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Bindu D Menon

New Delhi, March 11 Chandigarh-based K.D.L. Ltd, the company which owns luxury watch retail chain Ethos, is broadening its horizon to add travel retail to its plans.

The company is betting big on the emerging travel retail in the country and has chalked out expansion plans to tap the sector. It is also carving out a separate entity from the parent company to focus exclusively on retail. The new company will be called Kamla Retail.

Ethos has already won the franchise for running the duty-free specialist watch store at the new Bengaluru International Airport, to open in April.

“Travel retail is a sector which is primarily dominated by international players. We will be making a bid at all major airports in the domestic arena to expand our footprint,” Mr Yashovardhan Saboo, CEO, Ethos told Business Line.

The company will be investing close to Rs 100 crore for its expansions, both in travel retail and in increasing store presence.

“Currently, we have 14 stores across the country which would be scaled up to 60 by the end of this fiscal. The expansions will be funded partly through debt and internal accruals,” he said.

Speaking on the travel retail scenario, Mr Saboo said it is mainly looking at setting up concessionaires with an average store size being 60 sq m.

The travel retail market (retail sales at duty free shops) in airports, cruise liners is estimated at almost $30 billion.

“Travel retail is still in its infancy in India, mainly on account of poor infrastructure. However, with the introduction of the new internationally designed and managed airports, travel retail is set to boom,” he said adding that outbound travel is growing at over 16 per cent and is expected to accelerate to 20 per cent plus.

Observing that Indian consumers buy a lot at duty-free outlets, comparable to what they buy outside, according to a study commissioned by TFWA, he said on an average Indian spend $440 at duty-free shops, which compares reasonably with the $590 they spend at non-duty-free shops at travel destinations.

Watches accounts for top ten product categories, accounting for nearly five per cent of overall duty free sales, he said.

Ethos has so far roped in 25 major international luxury brands for its retail stores, including Rado, Tag Heuer, Omega, Rolex, Tissot, Cartier, Seiko, Esprit and Casio.

More Stories on : Outlook | Retailing | Travel & Places

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