Increasing use of digital devices for work, study, entertainment and communication during the ongoing pandemic has meant growing opportunity for eyewear makers, as people spend more time online, staring at screens.
The eyewear division of Titan Company Ltd has said it added 100 exclusive stores in the last nine months alone, across the country, to take its national footprint to more than 700 exclusive stores.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the eyewear division of Titan, Saumen Bhaumik said: “In spite of limitations in a category like ours, especially in the diagnostic phase which cannot be done remotely, where the optometrist needs to look at a person’s eye and prescribe, we have successfully moved to a ‘phygitial’ model over the last 18-24 months.”
Titan, a part of the Tata Group, is a life style company which sells everything from watches, jewellery to skincare products and fashion accessories. Bhaumik said just like the watches and jewellery division of Titan helped formalise those sectors, the eyewear division setup in 2008 has been expanding its offerings and footprint to achieve a similar goal.
Titan sees huge market opportunities
Admitting that currently a large part of the market was either under-served or being catered only by unorganised local mom and pop shops or regional players, Bhaumik said the market opportunity was thus very attractive.
“Today there are just two national players including us. The market opportunity is huge as nearly half of the 130 plus-crore people in the country require some kind of vision correction. Only a small percentage of that market is being served currently and our aim is to both grow the market and serve it with better offerings.”
New products
Pointing out at product innovations, the executive said Titan had launched anti-fog lenses so that even when wearing a mask, the lenses on the glasses worn do not fog up. Also recently it launched Titan EyeX which it says is smart eyewear for everyday use, which has open ear wireless audio, with touch control, fitness tracker, voice enabled eye care notifications, sweat resistance and a companion app compatible with both Android and iOS.
Read more: Titan watches, wearables retail sales bounce back to pre-Covid levels
“Our other offerings include clear sight lens, oleophobic lens, glasses which offer protection from blue-ray and UV rays. Apart from that we have launched antiviral lenses and frames to combat the current threat,” Bhaumik added.
Titan eyewear also said they have launched exclusive frames to custom fit majority of Indian faces after undertaking extensive studies. “If somebody is wearing something on their face for 12-16 hours they deserve that to be comfortable and stylish at the same time,” he added.
Expansion plans
Stating that Titan eyewear was one of the few players who had extensive backward integration having setup a manufacturing unit for frames in Chikaballapur in Karnataka, Bhaumik said the company’s capital expenditure plans for the near future include an additional investment of ₹40-50 crore to strengthen the backend, for manufacturing and supply of frames and lenses.
To appeal to the youth, the company has also launched eyewear under the Fasttrack brand. In the last full financial year, the eyewear division contributed ₹375 crore in revenue and in the first six months of the current fiscal it has already done ₹227 crore.
“We will continue to expand and by December of next year, we intend to have a network of 1000 exclusive stores,” Bhaumik added. Apart from the exclusive stores, its eyewear is also sold in more than 7000 multi-brand outlets where it sells frames and sunglasses.