Titan Eye Plus, the eyewear retail arm of Titan Industries, expects the eastern region market to grow at 66 per cent in the current fiscal because of rising demand in specialised and fashionable spectacles, said a company official.
“We hope the eastern region will contribute about 20-25 per cent of the company’s net sales by the end of this year, up from about 15 per cent currently,” said Bikramjit Mohalanobish, regional business manager for East, Titan Eye Plus.
The company at present has 22 stores in the eastern region. It aims the number of total stores to touch 50 by the end of 2011-12.
The eyewear retail chain today opened its second showroom in the state in Bhuabanswar, after two years of its launch in Cuttack. It will open its third store at Patia next week.
In future, the company will open stores in other smaller cities in the state according to market demand.
“We have received requests from our customers from other towns of Orissa to open branches there. We are planning to launch stores at Angul, Rourkela and Balasore soon,” Mohalanobish said.
The official, however, did not divulge what revenue it is generating from its Orissa operations. “We are not currently looking at big turnover from the region. This is just brand building. We want to give our customers the assurance of Titan first,” he said.
Titan Eye Plus currently has 137 stores in 44 cities across the country which sell specialsed and prescribed lenses, contact lens and trendy frames.
It has tie-up with global brands such as Espirit, Tommy Hilfigure, Hugo Boss, Versace for sunglasses, with Bausch and Lomb products for contact lenses and for lenses, it has association with Essilor, Kodak and Nikon.
The eyewear retail arm from Tata Group also has plans to start its own lens manufacturing units.
Source : Business Standard
