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The watches and wearables division of Titan Company is witnessing a healthy bounce back, with retail sales almost at pre-Covid levels and the average selling price rising by nearly 17 per cent on a four-year basis (following a premiumisation push).
The average selling price stands at ₹2,629 against ₹2,245 in FY18.
In the just-ended September quarter, the company reported nearly 98 per cent of pre-Covid level sales driven by higher numbers for its premium offerings, in price points of ₹10,000 and above. Compared to this, the first three months of FY22 saw sales at approximately 40 per cent of FY20.
However, for the first six months (H1FY22), recoveries were close to 69-70 per cent.
There has been an increase in off-take with out-of-home consumption and discretionary spends picking up, said Suparna Mitra, CEO, Watches and Wearables, Titan Company. Moreover, compared to the first wave, there has been an increased off-take for premium offerings post opening up after the second wave.
Also read: India wearables market reports 93.8% y-o-y growth in Q3 2021: IDC
“Watches in the ₹10,000 and above category have seen a sharp recovery. And festive demand was good. We are almost at pre-Covid levels in terms of recoveries even as we are into Q3FY22. We expect H2 to do well; with sales being better than pre-Covid ones. However, it will be tough to say if we can better pre-Covid levels for the full fiscal or not. A major part of H1 – mostly the first two months – were washed out due to local-level restrictions following the second wave,” she told BusinessLine .
New launches
The company will look at new launches in premium and in smart band & smart watch segments even as it goes ahead with scaling down investments in Favre Leuba – the world’s second oldest Swiss watch brand. With sales picking up, Titan will also look at store expansion and additions, while talks are on to bring in more international brands through its two retail outlets – The World of Titan and Helios. For the first six months of the fiscal, the company added 14 World of Titan stores and nine Helios stores.
When asked about a possible impact of the Omicron variant on business recovery, Mitra said these were early days and “it was hard to predict” the impact immediately.
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