Profile
Titan Industries, a manufacturing company, produces India's largest and best-known range of personal accessories — watches, jewellery, sunglasses and prescription eye wear. The company was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. It has grown to become the largest watch manufacturer in India and the sixth largest in the world.

Started as a watch company, Titan Industries' main focus has been to increase the breadth and depth of its portfolio of product offerings. International labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss are now a part of its basket, along with Fastrack — a brand targeting youth — and the mid-range brand Sonata. The company manufactures more than nine million watches every year, has a customer base of over 80 million, and accounts for 60 per cent of India's organised watch market.

In 2005, bolstered by the success of Tanishq —- a range of premium branded jewellery — the company launched its second jewellery brand, Gold Plus, aimed at the mass market. The company has recently diversified into fashion eyewear by launching Fastrack Eye-Gear sunglasses and prescription eye wear. Titan's manufacturing capabilities were leveraged into a new business unit called the Precision Engineering Division in 2003.

Titan's manufacturing units of the watch and jewellery divisions at Hosur, Karnataka are certified under ISO 9001: 2000 Quality Management System standards and ISO 14001 Environment System Standard.

Areas of business
The company has four main business units: watches, jewellery, eyewear and precision engineered components.

Watches
Titan currently has four main watch brands. The premium brands are Titan and Xylys — a Swiss made watch designed to attract the highend market segment. The company has launched two sub-brands under the Titan umbrella; Titan Edge incorporates the world's slimmest watch movement and Titan Raga is a brand aimed at women. Apart from these, the other offerings are Heritage, Wall Street, Regalia, Aviator and the premium brand Nebula, which is crafted with gold and precious stones. Sonata is India's largest selling watch brand. Fastrack focuses on youth and trendy fashions. The company also markets Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss under licensing arrangements.

The company has more than 200 exclusive showrooms, christened 'World of Titan', across 112 cities, making it one of the largest chains in its category. Its watches are sold through over 12,000 outlets in over 2,500 cities and are available in over 30 countries, primarily in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions. Titan's after sales service is a benchmarked operation, with a network of 750 service centres and amongst the world's fastest turnaround times. The company has a world-class design studio for watches and accessories.

Jewellery
Tanishq is India's largest jewellery brand, offering a range of gold and platinum jewellery, embellished with precious stones. It is available in more than a hundred specialty boutiques in 71 cities across the country. The new brand `Gold Plus' is a retail offering for the mass market, selling plain gold jewellery in more than 20 cities. The jewellery division has an exclusive design studio.

Eyewear
Eye+ is Titan's new division, selling Fastrack sunglasses and a range of prescription eyewear — frames, lenses, sunglasses, accessories and contact lenses.

Precision engineering division
This unit supplies precision components to the avionics and the automotive industry. It also manufactures dashboard clocks as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to car manufacturers in Europe and America. The division also provides fully integrated automation solutions.

Location
Headquartered in Bangalore, the company has manufacturing and assembly operations at Hosur, Dehradun, Roorkee and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and an ECB plant in Goa.

Contact
Jayanthi. A — Corporate Communications
Titan Industries
Tower A, Golden Enclave
Old Airport Road
Bangalore 560 017
India
Phone: +91 (80) 66609666
Fax: +91 (80) 25269923
Email: jayanthi@titan.co.in