Titan takes big leap towards 'Make in India'

The company reaches full-scale production at its first stainless steel watch case plant in Coimbatore

Titan Company, India’s largest manufacturer and retailer of watches, today announced commencement of stainless steel watch cases production at a new facility in Coimbatore.

This is the company’s first stainless steel watch case plant in India and will help replace a large portion of its import of watch cases.

Set up with over Rs 75 crore with technical assistance from Japan’s Seiko Epson Corp, the new plant will manufacture around one million high-end stainless steel cases per annum, to be scaled up to two million cases. The plant has employed 250 persons.

“Titan has been making in India since its inception and the commencement of Coimbatore facility is a part of this journey,” Bhaskar Bhat, managing director of Titan Company Ltd, said.

Bhat said the company was looking at 8-9 per cent growth in sale of watches during the current fiscal year ending March 2015. The opening of new plant would help the company in its premiumisation drive. It would cater to a large portion of its requirement for cases for premium and luxury watches, Bhat told Business Standard.

To begin with, the plant will cater to the company’s watch case requirement for the domestic market. Some of its popular brands such as Raaga, Xylys, Edge, Octane and Tycoon will have cases manufactured at the plant, he said.

Titan is the sixth largest manufacturer of watches globally, with a manufacturing unit in Hosur and three assembly units in north India. The company started first with watches, moved into jewellery making, followed by developing automation solutions and precision components manufacturing and then onto optical lens manufacturing, he said.

For the current fiscal, Titan is aiming at sales of 16 million watches, Bhat said, adding it would touch around 25 million watches in the next four years.

The plant is spread across in 11.3 acres and is capable of addressing all domains of stainless steel case manufacturing, which includes tool design, tool manufacturing, press shop, machining, polishing and assembly supported by related service functions like planning, facilities management, machine maintenance and costing.

“Titan’s strategy is to be a self-reliant watch maker and not just a seller, which many global watch brands do not possess. The new plant is part of this strategy,” Bhat added.

For the fiscal ended March 2014, the company reported an income of Rs 10,815.08 crore, a growth of 8.1 per cent over the previous year.  During the nine months ended December 2014, its income was up 16 per cent at Rs 9,316.61 crore.