Jewellery major Kalyan will launch its first store in the US by Diwali this year as the retail chain eyes a global footprint much like rival Tanishq from the house of Titan.
On Friday, Kalyan Jewellers provided a business update on the April-June (2024) quarter, where it said it had drawn up plans to launch another 40 showrooms of Kalyan and 30 showrooms of digital-first brand Candere in FY25 as part of its broader agenda of rolling out over 130 outlets in the ongoing fiscal. The US foray, part of its store additions this year, will be the first outside of West Asia, where the Thrissur, Kerala-based, chain has 36 outlets so far.
Rival Tanishq has four outlets already in the US — New Jersey, Houston, Frisco and Chicago — and has plans to ramp up this number, targeting the Indian diaspora in different parts of the country, according to Titan MD CK Venkataraman. The company already has over 16 Tanishq outlets in markets such as West Asia, including Dubai and Singapore. It may also take its digital-first brand Caratlane to the US this financial year, according to industry sources.
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In a conversation with FE last month, Venkataraman had said that Indians were celebrating their Indianness like never before, prompting Titan to accelerate its global store launches.
Apart from the US, West Asia and Singapore, the company is also focusing on the Indian diaspora in Canada, the UK and Australia.
In its quarterly update, which it released on Friday, Titan also said that it saw a revenue growth of 9% year-on-year in the June quarter. Jewellery domestic operations, which gives it over 80% of its revenue, grew 8% versus last year, as high gold prices hurt consumer demand. Domestic growth, Titan said, came largely through the increase in average selling prices whereas the buyer growth was in low single digits.
The watches & wearables domestic business grew 14% year-on-year; eyecare and Taneira businesses grew 3% and 4%, respectively, versus last year. While Caratlane reported an 18% year-on-year topline growth during the quarter.
The retailer said that it added a total of 61 stores in Q1, taking its total retail network to 3,096 stores.
Kalyan Jewellers, meanwhile, said that it had witnessed a robust operating performance across India and West Asia in the April-June period, despite volatility in gold prices and a strong base quarter.
The company reported an overall revenue growth of nearly 27% year-on-year in the June quarter, with the topline growth for the India operations standing at 29% versus last year and the same-store sales growth at 12% versus the year-ago period.
Kalyan’s West Asian business witnessed a revenue growth of nearly 16% year-on-year in the June quarter, with the same-store sales growth at nearly 15% versus last year.
The company’s ‘digital-first’ jewellery brand ‘Candere’ saw a 13% revenue growth in the current quarter versus last year. And Kalyan also converted Enovate Lifestyles, the operator of Candere, into a wholly-owned subsidiary, in the period under review.
“We are upbeat about the upcoming new showroom launches and are gearing up with fresh collections and campaigns for the festive and wedding season across the country, starting with Onam towards the end of the current quarter,” the company said.
During the quarter, Kalyan also launched 13 franchise-owned-company-operated (FOCO) showrooms in India, with a strong pipeline of such outlets set to open in the coming quarters.
Kalyan Jewellers currently has a total of 277 showrooms across India and West Asia along with Candere. Twenty four new Kalyan and Candere showrooms were launched this quarter, it said.
Shares of Kalyan Jewellers ended little changed on Friday at `495 apiece on the BSE. The stock has risen 37.8% in the last six months. In the last one year, however, shares have more than tripled in value, rising 232.4% on the BSE.
From: financialexpress
Financial News
