Boult Audio expects business to double to Rs 1,000 cr this fiscal

Smart wearable maker Boult Audio expects 100 per cent growth in revenue to reach Rs 1,000 crore in this financial year on the back of expansion in sales channels and growth in the smartwatch category, a senior official of the company said.

Boult Audio founder and CEO Varun Gupta told PTI that the overall audio category business has grown more than 30 percent, but the smartwatch category is growing in triple digits.

“We expect 100 percent growth. We plan to go offline and dig deeper into online markets. We’re scaling our D2C platform which means retail on our website. Smartwatch is a category that is exploding and growing in triple digits. And that’s It gives us a push and push to launch our brands in this category,” said Gupta.

The company’s business has grown by around 66 per cent in 2022-23 to around Rs 500 crore and it expects revenue to grow to Rs 1,000 crore with a fourfold jump in sales of smartwatches.

Gupta said that in 2021-22, his revenue came entirely from audio equipment.

The company entered the smart watch business in the second half of 2022-23 which contributed around 20 per cent of the total business worth Rs 500 crore.

“In terms of the segment this year, 60 per cent should come from voice because that’s the category we’ve been very strong in and smartwatches will be 40 per cent. If you get Rs 1,000 crore, it should be Rs 600 crore coming from voice and about Rs 400 crore It has to come from smartwatches,” Gupta said.

According to market research and analysis firm IDC, Boult Audio reported 366.5 percent year-over-year growth and 9.3 percent market share in the wearables segment in the March 2023 quarter.

It retained the second position in the true wireless earbuds category with a share of 15.5 percent and growth of 341.2 percent year-on-year.

Despite being a new entrant in the smartwatch category, it ranked fifth with a 3.2 percent share, according to IDC.

Gupta said the company puts its revenue back into quality of products, R&D, enhancing customer experience etc. which helps in maintaining more than 4 star ratings on products from users.

“The highest specification that one of the biggest smartwatch players in the world sells for is probably around $1,000. Our average high-tech smartwatch will be around $50. That’s how far apart we are on price. Even so, we’re able to Offering 4 to 5 star rated products with amazing design and great technology to our customers,” said Gupta.

He said the company has brand ambassadors like A-rated Indian cricketers like Surya Kumar Yadav, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and is collaborating with top influencers, content creators to be more relatable to Indian consumers across different languages ​​from different parts of the country.

“We try to do everything under the sun to make sure that we build a great product and thus reach all potential consumers,” said Gupta.

He said the company is gradually doubling its production capacity in India to 10 lakh units from 5 lakh units at present with the same proportion of sales.

Gupta said that government schemes such as incentives linked to production and import of concessional goods (IGCR) have made domestic production very competitive compared to import.

Under the IGCR, the government exempts imports of raw materials for domestic manufacturing.

“We have made a lot of achievements and development in the Make in India project. In 2021, we were barely making in India. In 2022, we are starting to lay the foundation for Make in India and 2023 is the year of expansion for us in Manufacturing in India. We have made approx. 2 million units across the country under the Make in India scheme,” said Gupta.