Zoya can grow easily 25-30% each year, says Titan’s jewellery division CEO Ajoy Chawla

Zoya, a luxury women’s jewellery brand from Titan, will open five more boutiques in the current financial year to take its store count to 15. Unveiling the tenth outlet in south Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda area, Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division, told Business Today that for luxury branded jewellery, the approach has been to look at centres with discerning customers and then identify specific locations. “The address matters as much as the neighbourhood.” Apart from the 10 boutiques, there are seven more housed inside Tanishq stores.

The standard size of a boutique is 3,000-5,000 square feet. Zoya was launched in 2009 and Chawla says the rollout is not without reason. “We have been very selective. In 2020, we had just three stores,” he says. The existing boutiques are spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. “The five that are planned will be in the top 10 cities in the country.”

As a standalone entity, Zoya had revenues of just under Rs 300 crore last year, according to Chawla. “In the last 4-5 years, we have grown by 40% and from here, we are hoping to grow at over 25-30% each year,” he says. On a consolidated basis, Titan Company had revenues of Rs 47,624 crore in FY24. Jewellery was the single largest contributor, with net sales of more than Rs 42,000 crore with a profit of Rs 4,726 crore. Titan’s other businesses include watches, eyecare, with Indian dresswear and fragrances and fashion accessories forming the more recent forays.

A big challenge for a brand like Zoya is the limited supply of luxury real estate. Then, there is the time it takes to complete the entire boutique from when the location is identified, which Chawla says takes about 1.5-2 years. “Putting up the store alone takes 6-8 months.” The capex that goes into each boutique is Rs 25-30 crore and that includes the value of the products. The breakeven is taken on the basis of retail margin and, according to him, getting to that in the second or third year is the objective.

Luxury brands in general have been on the upsurge in India. “Disposable incomes have gone up sharply in addition to an increase in high networth individuals. A lot of Indians have truly become luxury customers,” maintains Chawla. Zoya, he says, wants to give an immersive and a personalised experience at the store. “This is an Indian brand at the end of the day. We want to create an inclusive, luxury brand with an Indian soul.”