Post on Medial

Aman Gupta’s boAt Lifestyle seems to be navigating really bad times 📛📛 The company is downsizing its highest growth unit, sort of re-treating from the market there. Meanwhile, its mainstay audio business is just not growing. Let’s cover this in detail. .. So, where does Boat get its sales from? -> About 20% from wearables (primarily smartwatches) -> Remaining 80% from the audio segment .. The problem with the wearables segment? The company has simply proven not fit for the segment. It is consistently losing market share, where the competition like Noise have come up with innovative products at much lower price points. As a result, the market has seen average selling prices crash by over half in the last two years, which is something that Boat has not been able to keep pace with. And thus, bleeding margins, it has decided to re-treat and focus all energies on the core audio devices business 📛📛 .. And what’s the problem there? The audio segment is just refusing to grow! As per a recent report from The Arc (from which this post is inspired), the company is aiming for a 15% sales growth in the segment, driven by a 15-20% growth in average selling prices in the next year. That means, practically, the company is expecting to sell even less number of devices. That’s practically ceding the market share 📛📛 .. So, the bigger problem for the company? It’s downsizing the only high-growth segment it operates in and is doubling down on a segment where it doesn’t even expect a big growth. And worse, it does not have any other growth segments beyond these too. So, what next for the brand? That’s the bigger concern. .. The silver lining though? Profits! With the loss-making wearables business being scaled down and audio segment set for a big jump in margins, profits may show up once again. And that is a much-needed deal for the company which had a history of growing profitably for years before plunging into losses in the last few years. And that will surely be a good win. .. Meanwhile, Boat's retreat from wearables opens up an opportunity for its competitors, such as Noise, to further solidify their market position. This could lead to a consolidation of the wearables market, with a few dominant players emerging. Thus, congratulations to them, right? What do you think?