Story of Taneira - A Tata Product

Taneira, the youngest brand of Titan Company Limited was conceived during internal crowdsourcing of ideas around 2015. Multiple teams suggested sarees as a product category and rigorous rounds of evaluation finally resulted in sarees as the winner for a pilot project. Sarees was a natural extension of Titan's value proposition: design-led lifestyle brands that enable self-expression - Titan, Tanishq, Raga, Fastrack among others and now Taneira.

Derived from the word 'tan' meaning body and 'Eira', the Sanskrit name for Goddess Saraswathi (Patron God of art, music, craft, and knowledge) and meaning 'earth' in Greek, Taneira aims to provide the rooted yet progressive Indian woman with exclusive design, diverse workmanship, the authenticity of handcraft, pure and natural fibers: the best of India under one roof.

There's something about Titan Company that refuses to let it rest on retail laurels secured. The urge to expand into and explore new terrain, with due diligence and without undue complications, typifies an enterprise that has established its presence in watches, jewelry, accessories, and eyewear. Titan has now made time to take a taste of the ethnic-wear business. 

Tapping into India’s rich traditions in ethnic weaves and clothes appears to be a natural progression for Titan. It is the basis for its latest venture, Taneira, which is all about garments sourced from the cultural heartlands of the country. The jewel in this collection is the saree—that enduring and exquisite icon of grace and elegance.

Titan is looking to turn the largely unorganized saree business into an organized one by catering to the mid-premium to the premium segment of the market with a starting price of Rs 2,000, which can go up to Rs 2 lakh. The brand competes with organized saree retail chains such as Nalli Silk as well as Meena Bazaar. Sarees—as a category—is exciting but equally challenging because it is stock keeping unit (SKU) intensive, assortment sensitive and has design complexity.

The first Taneira store, housed in a remodeled villa in Bengaluru's Indira Nagar, recently opened its doors to business. Sarees are the main draw here. They come from 20 different states of the country, each of them handwoven, and made from natural fibers such as cotton, silk, and linen.

The Taneira team traveled the length and breadth of India to bring under one roof a fabulous collection that includes mugas from Assam; cotton from Chettinad; tussars from Bhagalpur; ikats from Gujarat; Andhra Pradesh and Orissa; chikankari from Lucknow; classical Banarasi silks and kanjeevarams; and heirloom pieces like Patan patolas from Gujarat and muslin jamdanis from Bengal.

Attractive prices

The store also sells lehengas, stoles, ready-to-wear blouses and exclusive yardage that can be converted into any kind of garment. Prices have been calibrated to attract the widest possible base of consumers, with the cost of a saree ranging from Rs 2,000 to ₹250,000 (this for the stunning Patan patola version).

A second Taneira store is set to open soon — in Bengaluru's Jayanagar area — and the company is in the process of unrolling exhibitions all over the country to spread the message of the new brand among consumers.

Taneira aims to deliver a differentiated retail experience. It's a place where customers can touch and feel the purity of the fabric and admire the craft that goes into their making. Taneira offers is unique in many ways. Take, for instance, those who may not buy a piece at first chance, but then change their mind and return, only to find it gone. 

Taneira is aiming to double its existing business to touch Rs 40-45 crore in revenue in 2019, said the company’s managing director Bhaskar Bhat at the launch of brand’s biggest flagship store in New Delhi. Our primary target is to open 10 stores in the next 12-18 months in the top 15 cities of the country. Currently, we are doing between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 70 lakh a month per store. The company will end this year with Rs 20 crore in revenue, which we want to more than double and take it to Rs 45 crore by next year

Titan wants to reach not just the metros but also Tier I cities where demand for high-quality branded sarees is increasing. The company is looking to open stores in cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Patna, Lucknow and Indore.

Similar to the jewelry market, when Titan began, The 5,000-year-old category is a large, unorganized market and underserved in terms of the authenticity of the product. With an average ticket size of Rs 8,000, Kanchipuram (handwoven silk sarees from Tamil Nadu), Benarasi (silk sarees from Varanasi), Bhagalpur (silk sarees from Bihar) and south silks are the top-selling varieties of sarees at Taneira. The brand is sourcing its products from over 400 weavers’ communities and cooperative societies across India.

Latin Manharlal Group