Titan Ind has $1 bn plans for FY09

Pallavi Srivastava and Swati Khandelwal , CNBC-TV18

Titan Industries , the world's fifth largest watch manufacturer is looking at becoming a billion dollar entity this fiscal. The company expects jewellery retail, which saw a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore last year to drive the numbers.

A billion dollar entity by the end of this financial year, that's what Tata Group 's USD 750 million company Titan is working towards. The company also has aggressive store expansion plans.

V Govind Raj, VP-Retail and Marketing, Titan, said, "Watches have about 240 stores currently and will be well under 300 stores at the end of the year. Jewellery - currently around 110 stores will see 150 stores by the end of the year and maybe into the next three years, it would see a change of 300 stores of eyewear."

Titan also plans to extend its eyewear brand Fastrack to accessories like bags and belts. The company sells Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger in India and now plans to bring more foreign brands into its stores.

The company has a presence in almost 30 countries and sold 10 million units of watches globally last year. The company launched its first exclusive Titan store in Malaysia in May this year and plans to launch an exclusive Tanishq store in US by next month.