Titan to expand its capacity

Titan Industries will increase its wristwatch manufacturing capacity to 11 million units over the next year from the current 9 million units.

The company will also spend Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) for the expansion across its three units at Hosur, Himachal Pradesh and Dehradun besides an outsourced facility.

Bijou Kurien, COO (watches), Titan Industries said: "The demand for our products is growing at a fast clip and we are seeing increasing demand across all our range of products. We will increase the capacity to 11 million units from the current 9 million over the next year. We plan to invest around Rs 10 crore for this expansion."

Kurien added that Titan is also gearing up to launch its luxury watch brand, Xylus, and has outlined a spending of Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million) for this new brand to start with.

This will be Titan's third brand after Titan and Sonata. Xylus, which might be launched during Diwali, will be positioned head-on against Swiss-made watches and is expected to offer a compelling price point for people desiring 'Swiss-Made' style of watches.

Commenting on its European operations which took a beating, Kurien said that over the last three years Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) has been written off. Titan is consolidating its European focus to a handful of countries.

"We intend to consolidate in UK, Spain and Portugal besides a couple of other countries. In addition to its focus on Europe, we will increase our presence in South East Asian countries," he added.

Titan on Tuesday also announced the relaunch of its Fastrack brand of watches with a new range of watches and accessories. It also announced a pact with MTV under which there will be a Fastrack MTV Masala Collection, which will be priced at Rs 500.