Tanishq, the jewellery brand of Tata-owned Titan Industries Ltd, has set a target of touching the Rs 3,000 crore-turnover mark by 2008-09 fiscal. The company will embark on a retail expansion with an aim to increase sales by 50 per cent in the coming fiscal. Meanwhile, it plans to arrive at a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore by March 2008.
Speaking to Indiaretailing, VK Govindraj, VP Marketing, Tanishq, informed, “During the last nine months of the ongoing fiscal itself, we have already exceeded the last year’s turnover of Rs 1,292 crore. By March 2008, we expect to arrive at a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore, and by 2008-09 fiscal, Tanishq is targeting to become a Rs 3,000-crore brand under Titan.”
The company, in a statement, said that during the nine months ended December 2007, the watch division sales grew by 20 per cent to Rs 6.41 billion ($16.37 million) this year, while jewellery sales grew by over 61 per cent to Rs 14.97 billion ($382 million). However, profit before interest and tax in the jewellery segment fell 42 per cent, while watches saw a near 14 per cent rise.
In order to meet the sales target, the company is expanding the retail presence of its jewellery brand across the country. “Our jewellery division has been growing remarkably. The jewellery division alone reports an year-on-year growth rate of 50 per cent. The company plans to increase the number of EBOs to 110 from the current 103, by the end of this fiscal. We will also expand to three more cities by the same period,” Govindraj envisaged.
The festival season sales have been an important driver for both divisions. Specifically, it showed that, despite the dampening effect of higher and more volatile gold prices, its relatively new foray into the mass gold jewellery market under the store brand Goldplus, received good response and recorded sales of over Rs 1 billion ($25.54 million) during the first nine months of the financial year. The company now has 20 Goldplus stores across the country, in addition to about 100 Tanishq stores.
Tanishq showcased the Jodhaa Akbar jewellery collection, ahead of the release of the Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai-starrer period movie. The company was the official jewellery supplier for the film. “The film is slated for release on February 15 and after that, the set of jewelleries will hit the market. It will be priced between Rs 25,000 and Rs 12 lakh,” Govindraj said.
In 1995, Tata diversified into jewellery under the brand Tanishq, considered to be the country’s largest jewellery brand.
— Vishnu Rageev R and Shruti Badyal
