Fastrack makes ‘smart moves’ to stay ahead

“Fastrack has been the biggest gainer as far as the e-commerce channel is concerned. Last year, it was a good year for overall watches, Fastrack – in particular. The watch industry was not doing well, as it was growing in single digit. The category was under stress as gifting was replaced by other options. The youth had stopped wearing watches and turned to mobile phones and gadgets instead,” said S Ravi Kant, CEO - Watches & Accessories, Titan Company Ltd. 

“We saw an opportunity for positioning Fastrack as a youth brand. We introduced the fitness band – Reflex that has resulted in a big success,” he said, noting that this strategy had helped Titan in re-jigging its whole portfolio of the smart range. This catapulted Fastrack as the numero uno wearable brand for the Q2 of last year and even for the year, it was at number three. The brand also recorded robust growth from e-commerce. “The revival of our Fastrack store channel also enabled it to become the highest growth brand for us last year,” Kant said. 

“We are in multiple channels, and in terms of retail, the footprint is the highest in the south. Of the 170 Fastrack stores, 100 are in this region, with TN being the biggest contributor, having 34 stores. But the distribution network (8,000 multi-brand dealers) and large formats (Shopper Stop) are evenly spread in the country. There, the regional skew is not visible,” Kant said, when asked about the growth hotspots. Fastrack stores now retail smart watches in the range of Rs 2000 to 4000, in an aggressive pricing strategy.  

“We have been in 25 plus countries for many years now and each region has behaved differently. Last few years, the Middle East economy has been struggling. Saudi Arabia de-grew for all brands but our degrowth was lower. On the Far East side, there has been good news in markets like Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam (restructured with partner), Indonesia (looking at a different strategy, relooking or re-working with our partner),” Kant said. 

International operations, which currently touched double-digit, are slated to go up to 15 per cent in the next three to four years. Meanwhile, Titan has roped in Amazon for exclusive distribution  in the US.