Titan Seeks To Debut Its CaratLane Jewellery Line In The US In FY25

Jewellery and watch retailer Titan is looking to debut its Caratlane jewellery line in the US in FY25, a move that follows international launch of the Tanishq brand in 2020.

As per Mint’s report, the company aims to meet the increasing demand from the Indian diaspora abroad and Tanishq could open 40 stores overseas by the end of FY25.

“We have a target for it (international business) for the near term, but I am 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 climbing, it’s a scorching pace of growth (in international markets),” C K Venkataraman, managing director of Titan, told Mint.

Tanishq opened its first international store in Dubai’s Meena Bazaar in October 2020 and performed exceptionally well, as noted in the company’s FY21 annual report.

Currently, Tanishq has expanded to North America, the GCC, and Singapore. In the quarter ending December 2023, the brand grew its global reach by opening two new stores in the US, in Houston and Dallas, and another in Singapore, as per Titan’s Q3 FY2023-24 report. 

Additionally, Titan introduced its lightweight jewellery brand, Mia, in Dubai, bringing the total number of its international jewellery outlets to 14.

Within the same quarter, Tanishq opened 18 new stores and Mia introduced 16 new stores in India. This expansion brings the total to 453 Tanishq stores, 161 Mia stores, and 8 Zoya stores across the domestic market.

“Currently, our focus is GCC and North America, at least for FY25. We will look at the other countries after that, but within these, the ambition is very large, the expansion is quite aggressive,” added Venkataraman.

Founded in 2008 by Mithun Sacheti and Srinivasa Gopalan, CaratLane is an omnichannel brand that manufactures and sells jewellery items in India. It competes against the likes of established brick and mortar players such as Kalyan Jewellers, Malabar Gold, as well as new-age brands such as BlueStone and GIVA.

CaratLane’s turnover stood at INR 2,177 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), up from INR 1,267 Cr in FY22 and INR 723 Cr in FY21. However, its net profit dipped 8% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 82 Cr during the year under review,

Meanwhile, CaratLane has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the watchmaking company. On February 27, Titan announced the acquisition of the remaining 0.36% stake in CaratLane for INR 60.08 Cr.

Prior to this, Titan owned 99.64% stake in CaratLane. Last year, the company acquired 27.18% shareholding in the startup for INR 4,621 Cr at nearly INR 17,000 Cr valuation. The proposal was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in November last year.

The new deal has also been signed at the same valuation, pegging CaratLane at the earlier valuation of INR 16,666 Cr (nearly $2 Bn).