The Hindu Business Line : Titan plans to launch sub-Rs 300 watches

"We will be going to lower and lower price points to tap the huge rural market," the Titan Industries Managing Director, Mr Bhaskar Bhat, told Business Line.

Titan, which expects to post over Rs 1,500 crore in turnover during the current fiscal, is aiming at launching its low-end range Sonata watches at prices below Rs 300. The lowest priced watch in the Sonata range is around Rs 350.

Mr Bhat said the total size of the watch market in India is around 34 million. In the organised sector it is one-third of that, of which Titan itself sells 8 million watches annually, making it the largest player in the market.

Sonata's share out of that is around 4.5 million units. "There is a huge section consisting of `non-owners' spread across the rural and semi-urban markets. The challenge lies in converting them into owning a watch," Mr Bhat said. He said barely 2 out of 10 people own watches in the country.

Jewellery division to shine: Titan Industries, which is planning a rights issue to raise around Rs 127 crore, expects its jewellery range under the Tanishq brand to further outstrip sales of its watches during the current fiscal.

During 2004-05 itself, jewellery division's sales grew 26 per cent to Rs 535 crore while that of the Time Products' division, which sells watches, grew 13 per cent to Rs 534 crore.

"The market for jewellery is far higher than the market for watches," Mr Bhat said. However, because of the sudden spurt in gold prices, jewellery division grew 15 per cent during the festive season compared with the average sales of around 30 per cent, Mr Bhat said.

Mr Bhat said the company might introduce sports watches under the Fastrack range of watches. "There is a potential there and we hope to tap that," he said. He said sunglasses under the Fastrack range had performed extremely well but other brand extensions such as leather accessories may not be introduced immediately.

He said one of the main growth drivers in the watch as well as in the jewellery divisions during 2004-05 was the lower capital employed as compared with the previous year.

The Time Products' division reduced its capital employed to Rs 379.88 crore compared with Rs 449.89 crore in 2003-04 while the jewellery division to Rs 98.50 crore from Rs 112.11 crore during 2003-04.