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Titan in talks with UK's Debenhams

BS Corporate Bureau

Titan Industries Ltd, the Tata-promoted watch and branded jewellery major, is in talks with Debenhams jewellery retail chain of the UK to export jewellery made by the company. Besides eyeing similar other retail chains in the Far East, West Asia and the UK, it also targets the Indians based in the US.

TIL, which owns the Tanishq brand, already exports its jewellery to the Damas retail chain in West Asia. "Though the company is targeting less than 5 per cent of its turnover through the export route in the current fiscal, the rationale behind the initiative is that it is a huge market and ensures huge profits," TIL deputy managing director Bhaskar Bhat said on the sidelines of a press conference organised to celebrate Tanishq's fifth anniversary.

In a marketing initiative, the company is offering up to 25 per cent discount on all products till August 14 to celebrate the occasion. TIL has also recently introduced 'golden harvest', an installment-based scheme to buy jewellery. Under the scheme, one can make monthly installments (minimum being Rs 500) and then buy jewellery worth 16-month installments after 15 months. Effectively, a customer gets one monthly installment free and also a gift worth one installment after three months.

TIL had registered a 35 per cent increase in growth last year and the growth this year has been pegged at about 25 per cent. The growth last year came because of rapid expansion in the number of outlets, which grew to 48 across 38 cities during the last few years. The company is likely to add another six outlets under its umbrella within this year.

The company has also launched a silver collection under the 'youth quotient' range. At present, the company is focussing on increasing the designs under the brand, Bhat said. The total gold market in the country is estimated to be at about Rs 400 billion and the organised sector represents a very small market share.

TIL has clocked a loss of about Rs 146 million during the first quarter of the year, but Bhat said it was a planned loss because the first quarter is generally not good for the watch and the jewellery business, which is festival-linked. Bhat said the condition will improve in the subsequent quarters and the projected revenue for TIL this fiscal is at around Rs 8 billion compared with Rs 7 billion last year. Of this, Tanishq is likely to contribute about Rs 2.50 billion this fiscal compared to Rs 2 billion during the last fiscal.

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