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The company reaches full-scale production at its first stainless steel watch case plant in Coimbatore
Titan Company Limited, India’s largest manufacturer and retailer of watches, on Tuesday announced commencement of full-scale production of stainless steel watch cases at its new facility in Coimbatore.
This is its first stainless steel watch case plant in India and will help the company replace a large portion of imports. Till now, the company was dependent on imported watch cases.
Set up at a cost of over Rs 75 crore, the new plant will manufacture around one million cases per annum, which will be scaled up to two million cases per annum eventually. The plant has been set up with technical assistance from Japan’s Epson Corp, to manufacture high-end stainless steel cases that meet global standards of quality. The plant has employed 250 persons.
“Titan has been making in India since its inception and the commencement of Coimbatore facility is a part of this journey,” Bhaskar Bhat, managing director, Titan Company Limited said.
The plant will cater to the company’s watch case requirement for the domestic market. Some of its popular watch brands such as Raaga, Xylys, Edge, Octane and Tycoon will be made with the cases manufactured at this plant.
Titan is the sixth largest manufacturer of watches globally with a manufacturing unit in Hosur and three assembly units in North India. The company started first with Watches, moved into Jewellery making, followed by developing Automation Solutions and Precision Components manufacturing and then onto optical lens manufacturing, he said.
The stainless steel watch case plant is spread across an area of 11.3 acres and is capable of addressing all domains of stainless steel case manufacturing which includes tool design, tool manufacturing, press shop, machining, polishing and assembly supported by related service functions like planning, facilities management, machine maintenance, costing, and quality management.
“Titan’s strategy is to be a self-reliant watch maker and not just a seller, which many global watch brands do not possess. The new plant is part of this strategy,” Bhat added.
This plant will cater to the increasing demand for premium watches which are differentiated on the product’s look and finish and use of high quality stainless steel cases, H G Raghunath, chief executive officer, Titan Company Limited said.
“By investing in a new stainless steel watch case manufacturing plant at Coimbatore, we aim to cater to the emerging demands in premium segment,” he said.
The new facility possesses latest technology with special processes, world-class machinery and trained work force, he added.
For the fiscal ended March 2014, Titan Company reported an income of Rs 10,815.08 crore (Rs 108.15 billion), registering a growth of 8.1 per cent over the previous year. During the nine months ended December 2014, the income of the company was Rs 9,316.61 crore (Rs 93.17 billion), recording a growth of 16 per cent.
