The Hindu Business Line : It’s time for Titan to grow in overseas markets

Having grown and consolidated its presence and market share in the domestic wrist watch market, Titan Industries intends to make further forays into overseas markets with the Titan brand.

While Titan’s international business is small — at about Rs 90 crore, less than 10 per cent of its watch business, the watches-to-jewellery and now eye wear maker intends to grow the overseas business aggressively.

Titan has opened exclusive showrooms at Lahore in Pakistan, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and a couple of kiosks in Bangkok as of now. It already has one exclusive showroom in Bangladesh.

“We would like to open around 2-3 more stores in KL, many more kiosks in Bangkok, depending upon the success of the current two, 4-5 stores more in Bangladesh and several stores for Sri Lanka after piloting one store in Colombo. Overall we believe that retail is a way forward for several of these countries,” says Mr Ajoy Chawla, Business Head, Titan and Retail, speaking to Business Line. Mr Chawla recently took on the portfolio of the international business as well.

Based on how the store and brand progresses in Lahore, Titan may consider adding a few more in Pakistan though it has a key task of building distribution and brand visibility in Pakistan right now, says Mr Chawla. Titan will also look at other markets in the Asean such as Singapore and Thailand. Asked about the competition that Titan could face in these markets, Mr Chawla said there is intense competition in most Far East markets as most of the Swiss, Japanese and other brands are already there.

Besides there are “store brands” of chain stores which are locally popular and well promoted. “Chinese brands per se have not made significant impact,” he said. Watch buying has moved into the fashion space and today, he says, Titan has the portfolio to follow a strong retail-led strategy.

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Titan to launch watches in Pak, jewellery in US

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