Titan eyeing mass jewellery market

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Titan Industries is looking to establish itself in the mass jewellery market by extending its pilot `GoldPlus' retail project, targeted at the semi-urban buyer, to more tier-II towns in the country.

Currently, there are two GoldPlus stores in the country - in Erode, Tamil Nadu and Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh. The company plans to open 10 more stores this fiscal year, primarily in the South.

"While our jewellery brand Tanishq has a more urban image, GoldPlus will be present in non-Tanishq markets, especially tier-II towns. It will target the investment-oriented customer; the jewellery will be more traditional and have a local flavour," said Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries.

Titan Industries' retail expansion plans also include adding 25-30 World of Titan showrooms this fiscal. It plans to have over 100 Tanishq stores by the first quarter of the next fiscal. Six large-format Tanishq stores, extending over an area of 5,000 sq. ft, are also planned for this fiscal year. Currently, there are 193 World of Titan and 84 Tanishq stores across the country.

The investment plans for this fiscal include a capital expenditure of Rs 55 crore and an advertising budget of Rs 130 crore. The company is also setting up a jewellery manufacturing unit in Uttaranchal at a cost of Rs 3-4 crore; production is expected to begin before March.

Overseas presence

On Tanishq's plans to enter the US, Mr Bhat said the company is evaluating the possibilities of entering this market next year. It is looking at New Jersey, Chicago and Atlanta to set up exclusive stand-alone stores.

Tanishq is already present in Dubai and Singapore in the store-in-store format. Titan is present in over 31 countries in the Middle East, Far East and Europe, across 1,000 outlets, including eight exclusive stores.

The watchmaker had announced a joint project with Innoviti Solutions to develop a watch that can display news, cricket scores, stock market updates and weather reports as scrolling messages. "This is still in the R&D stage and could take about eight months for the launch," said Mr Bhat, updating on the smart watch project.

He also said that Titan is thinking of re-introducing its solar-enabled watch that went off the market due to low consumer response.

It also plans to roll out its premium sunglasses brand Shades nationally after the festival season. (Currently, Shades is available only in Chennai and Bangalore.)

This fiscal, Titan Industries is eyeing a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore, at a topline growth of 30 per cent and a bottomline growth of 40 per cent.

Taken from Business Line

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