Titan Eye+ targets 30% sales growth

Titan Eye Plus, part of Titan Company Ltd, is targeting a 30 per cent revenue growth in the present fiscal and it will sharpen focus on the sunglasses category this summer. "We are targeting a 30 per cent revenue growth this fiscal and are planning to focus on sunglasses as it is an underpenetrated category and there is a huge scope for growth,” Titan Company Ltd Eyewear Division CEO S Ravi Kant said.

"The sunglasses market in India is estimated to be around Rs 1,000 crore and growing at 15 per cent annually,” he said. The company's business in this category grew by 20 per cent last year. In order to push sales from sunglasses, Titan Eye Plus is working on improving merchandise (product offerings) and re-doing the sunglasses section in the Titan Eye Plus stores. "We have added 70 new models under'Glares' brand this summer. Sunglasses in the Titan Eye Plus stores are priced between Rs 500 to Rs 30,000,” Kant said.

Apart from in-house brands Fastrack and Glares, the company also sells international brands like RayBan, Vogue, Espirit, Tommy Hilfiger, Mont Blanc and Bvlgari.

In 2012-13, the eye wear (Titan Eye Plus), accessories and precision engineering businesses contributed Rs 414 crore to Titan Industries' total revenue of Rs 10,213 crore, an increase of 25.9 per cent over the previous year. The company will also add up to 60 new stores this fiscal to the existing network of over 270 stores across India. Most of the new stores will be franchised, Kant said.

Titan Eye is also looking at setting up new manufacturing facility for lenses in north India by 2014 to improve faster delivery of finished products. At present, all of Titan Eye Plus lenses are sourced from its manufacturing plant in Bangalore.

Business Standard