Titan Aims For Annual Sales of $3B in Two Years

Titan Industries Ltd., a lifestyle and jewelry company from Tata Group, expects to achieve annual turnover of $3 billion by fiscal year 2014-2015 as it looks to expand.

''Plans are for aggressive growth in our existing business. We are exploring the footwear segment, but nothing is concrete yet,'' said Bhaskar Bhat, the managing director of Titan Industries, which operates nearly 700 retail stores.

The company sells its jewelry under Tanishq, Goldplus and Zoya brands, while its eyewear brands include Titan, Eye+ and Dash. It sells watches under Titan, Xylys, Sonata, Fastrack brand and also has a precision engineering division.

Titan is planning to open one or two more stores of its mass market jewelry retail brand, Goldplus, in this fiscal year that ends on March 31, 2012, Bhat said on the sidelines of a conference, after Tata Sons' chairman Ratan Tata unveiled the world’s first "gold jewelry" car that was crafted by Goldplus. The company currently has 30 Goldplus retail stores.

This past week, Muthoot Finance Ltd., a non-banking financing firm, and Goldplus entered into a partnership to finance and sell jewelry in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

''We have covered pretty much of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh is the focus now,'' Bhat explained. He added that Titan is planning to spend about $50 million (INR 2.38 billion) on expansion in fiscal 2012 and the expenditure could be around the same level next year. Bhat said that during the festive season, which runs from September to December, the company expects sales growth of about 25 percent to 30 percent.

''I think sales should be normal during Diwali season. High gold prices always affect volume but consumers will come back as soon as festive season starts,'' he added.

Due to higher prices people limit their purchases to the amount of money that they have, but they still buy gold in preference to many other goods as it is seen as an investment, Bhat explained. ''So there will be less volume but consumers would still buy gold. It is the most preferred category.''

Bhat stated the company expects fiscal 2012 sales to be around $2 billion (INR 90 billion), up from $1.39 billion (INR 65.90 billion) one year earlier.

Titan reported sales rose 62.5 percent year on year to $463.65 million (INR 20.48 billion) during its first-fiscal-quarter of 2012 that ended on June 30, 2011. The company attributed strong growth to improved sales across all its divisions and retail chains, mainly the jewelry business.