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Titan Eyewear is in the process of strengthening its network presence across the country and giving a new retail identity to its product range.
Ronnie Talati, CEO, who was in the city at the relaunch of the company's store on Avinashi Road here told BusinessLine that Titan Eyewear has over the last decade revolutionised retailing of eyewear.
Bringing transparency
“It wasn't a very transparent business till about 10 years back. In pure Tata tradition, we began giving it a transparent, touch and feel format,” he said, pointing to the frames rack on display at the store.
“We introduced a whole line of frames — from premium to cater to the requirements of the mid-market segment. The business has been growing well, at a CAGR of 20 per cent, in a flat market considering that the industry average is a little over 5 per cent,” he said, adding “traditional players have started feeling the pressure, particularly after the roll out of GST, with many customers shifting to the organised sector,” he said.
“But unlike watches, where the brand is the key, eyewear is not an impulsive purchase. It has more to do with customer service, quality and so on. Our customers are our brand ambassadors,” he said in reply to a query.
The company recently set up a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru with annual installed capacity of one million frames. It has in the first year of operation of this plant, manufactured 1.6 lakh frames.
Reiterating the need for such a facility, Talati said that most of the frames are at 0present being imported from China. We saw the huge potential to make spectacle frames in the country, constituted a dedicated team to design frames with an eye on international eye-wear trends and thereby reduce imports.
Frames and lenses
Apart from frames, Titan Eyewear produces its own lenses as well. It has satellite labs at Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru. A lab at Patna and Chennai is to be opened very soon, Talati said.
The company has invested around ₹70 to ₹80 crore on establishment of its manufacturing plant and satellite labs.
On network expansion, he said, “There are 550 Tital Eye+ showrooms across the country, of which 200 are located in the South. We plan to add another 500+ showrooms over the next five years. We have started distributing our frames by placing our product range across 1,500 non-Titan outlets this year.”
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