More Eye+ stores this fiscal

Titan Industries Limted (TIL), a Tata group company, plans to raise its Titan Eye+ showroom count in the city to seven by this fiscal in a bid to boost sales in the eyewear market.

TIL feels more stores will boost sales in the highly unorganised eyewear market in Kolkata, now largely dominated by the small local wholesaler optic stores found in dozens in Bowbazar and Canning street, said Krishanu Moitra, eastern regional manager of TIL.

The company set up its first Kolkata store this August and at present has theee stores in Kolkata, at Mani Square, Shopper's Stop and Camac Street.

More stores will follow at Elgin road and CIT road, cutting across all segments of the population, with products priced between Rs 350 to Rs 10000.

TIL would be targetting malls too, he added.

Although he refused to disclose investments, Moitra pointed out that Kolkata and the eastern region taken together represented roughly 20 per cent of the total eyewear market in India.

Estimated to be worth close to Rs 250-300 crore, it was largely untapped and unorganised.

The total eyewear market in India was around Rs 1500 approximately.

The company aimed to open franchise stores in Jharkhand and Orissa within this fiscal.

TIL's aimed to capture the market both in metros and tier II and tier III towns, said Moitra.

TIL would be targetting malls besides standalone stores at various locations across all segments, he added.

Existing showrooms had been doing well in the last four months, said Moitra.

Kolkata and Guwahati were the main Titan Eye+ markets in the East.

Stores in Kolkata were between 600 and 1500 square feet, smaller compared to those in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Sales shot up in Kolkata in the last four months by around 50 per cent, claimed Moitra.

There was good demand for international brands apart from the home brand 'Dash', popular with both price conscious consumers and brand conscious consumers.

TIL would be looking at building a dedicated customer base in East through its 12 stores with 20-22 per cent of national eyewear sales from the region, said Moitra.

Titan was aiming at 25-30 per cent eye wear market share by 2010 through its 200 stores all over India.

The Rs 1500 crore eye wear market was growing at 15 per cent.