CaratLane continued its growth trajectory in Q4, as both online and brick-and-mortar sales continued to accelerate and delivered revenue of INR 253 crores in the quarter (60 per cent growth over Q4FY20), taking the total annual revenue to INR 715 crores (15 per cent growth YoY). The Company’s B2C business grew at 71 per cent for the quarter and 24 per cent for the year. CaratLane’s refreshing products have emerged as a popular gifting option and the company has been able to capitalise on opportunities such as Valentine’s Day taking it beyond the traditional auspicious occasions of Dhanteras and Akshaya Tritiya.
Apart from this, gifting related to wedding anniversaries also continues to be a driver for the business. The Company continues to drive the discovery of the brand online first, with the website enabling the customers to discover great products online and then helping the customer navigate to the best channel of purchase for themselves (online, CL Live, Try at Home, or stores).
The online channel delivered a 69 per cent growth for the quarter while the full-year revenue grew at 45 per cent. Try at Home and CL Live continued to gain traction with customers, with Try at Home delivering a 49 per cent growth. The Company’s retail channel also continued to see a strong resurgence in Q4. The channel delivered, a growth of 72 per cent for the quarter (15 per cent for the full year). The Company sees a large opportunity in opening small-format stores in underpenetrated and underserved markets across India in both large and small towns. The existing stores continue to witness good traction with 37 per cent like-to-like growth for the quarter driving profitable growth for the channel. The online influenced store transactions continued to grow in this quarter – specially on key occasions like Valentine’s Day. CaratLane opened 8 new stores in the quarter and 25 stores in the year, taking the total store count to 117.
The Company now has over 100,000 sq ft of retail space spread across 44 cities. Company is seeing good opportunity in various customer segments and launching products to exploit those opportunities. Peppa Pig collection was launched in the kid’s category, which continues to be a focus. The Company’s silver brand ‘Shaya’, continued its stellar performance, clocking a 116 per cent growth over last year. During the quarter, the Company launched the Tango collection along with Love Letters – the key collection for Valentine’s season. The company enabled real-time engraving viewability on the website to allow customers to see how their personalised jewellery will look before they placed their order.
Mithun Sacheti, Managing Director of CaratLane commented, “CaratLane achieved a strong 60 per cent growth in Q4 outperforming the industry while achieving another important milestone of turning profitable on PBT – on both quarter and full-year basis. It has been a very gratifying journey to establish a strong brand in the jewellery segment that is serving customers in a very refreshing way in an industry with very traditional practices. The business is now growing profitably, reflecting the underlying strength of the business model and culture of innovation. After establishing an online business model, CaratLane has successfully enhanced it to an omnichannel model by opening 100+ stores in a short span of ~ 4 years. The strength of the business is reflected in a 15 per cent YoY growth in FY’21, despite the moderations in the customer acquisition costs and temporary store closures, in the most challenging year for the industry and retail businesses in general.”