Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 February 2009 10:00 pm)

BANGALORE: Fastrack announced that it has added shoulder gear and hip gear - bags, belts and wallets to its existing portfolio of wrist gear (watches) and eye gear (sunglasses) on its journey to being a fashion accessories brand for the youth.

Fastrack is a brand of jewellery and watches major Titan Industries.

Titan Industries Limited (Titan) managing director Bhaskar Bhatt also announced that company plans to open 50 Fastrack stores by 2010 in 25 cities in India. By the end of 2010, Titan plans to increase the number of outlets such as World of Titan, Tansihq, Gold Plus, Fastrack, etc., from the current 460 to 600.

The group has shifted its advertisement strategy from theme and brand building to product related and offers related strategy, revealed Bhaskar. Once the all India roll of the new Fastrack accessories has been completed, Titan is planning a mass media communication campaign. Of late, due to downturn in outdoor media prices, Titan has been using that medium to a greater extent than it was earlier.

Titan’s first Fastrack store at Pune has already started operations and will be officially launched in the next couple of days, informed Bhaskar. Besides being available at the new Fastrack stores, Fastrack’s existing and the new line of accessories will also be available in multi-brand stores, hypermart’s, malls and large retail chains.

Despite the global slowdown, Titan’s research has indicated that the propensity to spend among certain categories of buyers in the metro cities and tier 2 and tier 3 towns has not been pared down. Said Bhaskar, ”With the accessories market growing at 15-18 percent year-on-year, and the branded segment in particular seeing a growth of more than 25 percent, we saw an opportunity to expand the Fastrack portfolio.”

For the present, Titan estimates peg the bag market in India at around Rs 14.7 billion, the belts market at about Rs 8.5 billion and the purse market at Rs 5.55 billion.

Fastrack contributed Rs 2.5 billion out of the Rs 30 billion revenues to the Tata’s Titan group last fiscal. Titan COO Harish Bhatt is optimistic that over the next two to three years the Fastrack brand turnover will touch Rs 5 billion, to which the new line of accessories announced today will contribute about Rs 500 million.

Titan Industries spends about Rs 18 billion towards advertisement across all its brands and categories. Company sources put the Fastrack annual ad spends at 10 per cent of turnover or about Rs 250 million. Lowe handles the creative work for Fastrack, while Maxus handles the media buying.