Titan to focus more on small towns, to open 100 more stores

Leading watchmaker Titan will add about 100 more outlets across its retail formats of World of Titan, Fastrack and Helios this fiscal to increase its presence in small towns, a top executive said.
"We currently have about 650 stores of World of Titan, Fastrack and Helios. We will add about 100 more this fiscal," HG Raghunath, chief executive officer, watches and accessories at Titan told PTI.
Over the last three years, the company has focused its retail expansions in tier II & III places with the increase in consumer spending, he added.
Quoting a recent Nielsen report, he said, there are 400 booming small towns in the country and "we have put our expansion strategy in those towns. We will focus on 200 of these."

"Our expansion will be mostly in towns where there is not much consumer experience available of our brand. We are seeing the aspiration of the middle India consumer in every store that we have opened in these towns so far," he added.
Besides its own brands, Titan markets other international brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Emporio Armani, DKNY and Fossil among others through licensing agreements in the Helios multi-brand watch retail outlets.

Speaking about Titan Watches focus on the premium segment over the past few years, he pointed out that despite subdued sales for watches and accessories over the past year, "the premium segment is growing at over 20 per cent".

Titan has lined up four new launches in the premium segment this fiscal, he said.
Last year, the company set up a Rs 100-crore plant with technical assistance from Seiko Epson Corp of Japan to manufacture high-end stainless steel cases to meet global standards. The plant started production two months ago, he said.
Titan is also keen to enter the smart watches space, he said but did not offer a timeline. "It is always an R&D effort, but we expect to be in this space," he said.