Temendous potential for watch manufacturing in India: Bhat

Of the total 55 million watches sold every year in India, around 35 million are imported, presenting a tremendous potential for local manufacturing, a top official of Titan Company said today.
Even if 10-15 per cent of this potential is tapped, it will create huge employment opportunities and also revenue for the government, Titan Company Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat told reporters at the launch of commercial production at its Kannampalayam plant here.
Of the 55 million watches being bought by customers in India only 16 million to 17 million are Indian made and rest being imported, Bhat said.
Stating that of the Indian made watches, Titan was making and selling 14 million watches, leaving a potential to tap over the demand of 35 million watches annually, the space which was filled by imported watches.

"Titan Company Ltd has commenced production of world class stainless steel cases at a new facility in Coimbatore, set up at a cost of over Rs 75 crore," the company said.
The Coimbatore plant would cater to demand for premium watches which are differentiated on the product's look and finish and use high quality stainless steel cases.

Bhat said that the plant has a production capacity of one million cases, which would be scaled up to two million cases in another three years.
Titan Company Ltd is a Joint Venture between Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and Tata Group.

When asked about dilution of stake in on either side, Bhat said that relationship between Titan and Tidco will remain in tact and ruled out the possibility of change in the stake, even as the foreign partners would gradually phased out in another three years.
Titan, which is also present in eye wear sector, jewellery and fragrances, is also planning to start an eye wear frame making unit soon, for which the process of identifying the location was on, Bhat said.
As far as gold segment, with its Tanishq brand, the company was also going good in diamond jewellery business, Bhat said.

On the turnover, Bhat said that during the first nine months of this financial year, the income of the company was Rs 9,316.61 crore, recording a growth of 16 per cent.