Titan eyewear plans foraying into frame-making biz

Titan today said it is planning to foray into frame-making business beginning this year with an initial investment of Rs 40 crore, with a capacity to produce one million frames per year.
"We are planning to foray into frame-making business in two phases. The first phase begins August-September this year," company's CEO (Eyewear Division) Ronnie Talati said told reporters after inaugurating a Titan Eyeplus store here.
Titan would make an initial investment of Rs 40 crore and "...(we) plan to make one million frames per year at our Chikkaballapur (Karnataka) manufacturing unit," he said.
"We want to make our own frames to save money frombeing spent on imports, which will benefit consumers, cost-wise," Talati said, adding it would also help the company sell the end-product in smaller cities and towns.

On company financials, Talati said it had been growing 'handsomely' over the last five years. Last year, it grew at 17 per cent in April-December period doing a business of Rs 400 crore and would continue to grow at double digits.
He further said Q3 result of the company was bad due to unknown reasons, but January-February had been extraordinarily goodand it expects it would be good further.

During the course of next financial year, the company would unveil its detailed digital strategy for omni-channel platform including going online, he said.
On foraying into overseas markets, Talati said the company was actually testing the waters in markets like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which aresimilar to Indian market. "We have been misquoted that we would foray into overseas market. We are actually testing the waters."

He also said Titan was planning to set up two more satellite lens processing units in Noida and Mumbai shortly.
"We have set up a satellite lens processing unit at Madhyam Gram in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 5 crore. We will open such units in Noida and outside Mumbai, shortly," he said
The company plans to carry forward the same expansion plan of opening 60 to 70 Titan Eye Plus stores next year as it was doing this year, he added.
"This is an aggressive expansion strategy for the prescription eye wear products and sunglasses," he said.

At present, there are 395 outlets, both company's and franchisees.