Titan rejigs top management at watch and eyewear divisions

S Ravi Kant will take over as new CEO of watch & accessories division from July 1 following the retirement of H G Raghunath and Ronnie Talati will be new CEO of Eyewear division

Titan has effected major changes in its senior management team, which will come into effect from July. It has appointed S Ravi Kant, currently chief executive of the eyewear division, as the CEO of watches and accessories division following the retirement of incumbent H G Raghunath. Ronnie Talati, currently chief marketing officer of the watches & accessories division, will take over Kant’s role.

The changes in the team have come at a time when the watch maker is looking to take the watch division to the next level in terms of products and sales. Raghunath, Titan’s watch division CEO, retired on Tuesday after serving in the company for 29 years.

He had joined the firm in 1986 from public sector giant HMT Watches and served in various capacities to become CEO of Titan Watches in 2012.

“I have worked in various departments like customer service, manufacturing, sourcing, supply chain management and became its CEO four years ago. The company has grown to become the leader in watch industry over the past 29 years. During my time as CEO, we enlarged the business by adding accessories division out of watches division,” said Raghunath.

During his stint as CEO, Raghunath was responsible for the launch of new watches like Titan Ducati, Zoop Iron Man collection, Raga Cities collection, Nebula Rambagh Palace collection, Xylys Ceramic collection, Raga Perals collection, Raga Garden of Eden collection, Purple and Titan Celestial Time collection among others," Raghunath said.

He also oversaw the setting up of stainless steel watch case manufacturing plant at Coimbatore, which now supplies components and assemblies to Swiss watch companies.

Titan's watch division sales grew from Rs 1,530 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 1,921 crore in 2014-15, growing at a CAGR of 6 per cent.

During 2014-15, Titan Company rolled out aggressive expansion of its retail network with a net addition of 123 stores by watches, jewellery and eyewear businesses. As on March 31, 2015, Titan had 1,201 stores, with over 1.59 million sq ft of retail space.

Besides Ravi Kant and Talati, Titan Company has also named Suparna Mitra as chief marketing officer of watches and accessories division and Biju Alexander as Business Head-South for its eyewear division.