Titan plans Rs 200 cr expansion

Titan Industries Limited, the watch and jewellery major is looking at a capital expenditure of over Rs 200 crore in the fiscal 2012-13 to expand its retail network. For the current year, the company has spent around Rs 150 crore, about 35 per cent less than the budget earmarked for the year.

“On an average we spend about Rs 200 crore annually on expansion. But, this year we have postponed our investments on retail chain expansion mainly due to unavailability of right real estate. However, we have added the highest space in terms of square feet area this year. Overall, we have added 30 new World of Titan showrooms, 15 Tanishq stores and 60 Fast Track stores this fiscal. Next year, we are looking at crossing the 400 store mark for World of Titan stores,” Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries Limited told Business Standard.

He said the company does not see any big impact on its sales from the current downward trend in the economy. “I think, we have seen the bottom and the January retail sales is better than October 2011 and compared to same period last year, it is much better. For the next fiscal, we can expect at least 25 per cent growth in the sales,” he said. For the current fiscal, the Tata Group, company hopes to achieve its target of 30 per cent sales growth, Bhat said without giving financial numbers for the third quarter as the company is in silent period. Titan Industries is announcing its third quarter results on January 31.

“We have opened new outlets, launched campaigns and brands. As a company we are confident of 30 per cent annual growth in the topline and bottomline,” he said.

However, Bhaskar Bhat said, Titan does not have any plans to expand the retail network under Sonata brand. It has only 10 exclusive retail outlets under Sonata brand.

The company will continue to sell its products through the existing outlets and 8,000 other outlets across the country that includes multi-brand outlets and small watch stores in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Further Bhat said, the company is also aiming at an aggressive growth for its watch business in the next two to three years. It recently overtook Seiko to become the fifth largest watch seller in the world.

The company also aims to occupy the third slot in the next three to four years and to achieve this place, it needs to sell over 20 million watches, Bhat added.