In its biggest global push till date, Indian watch major Titan Industries is setting up an assembly plant in Vietnam. The move is intended to provide Tatas managed watch and jewellery company with better access to growth markets in South East Asia.

The Rs2000-crore Titan is set to unfurl a significant retail push in South East Asian markets. Titan, which is currently present across 30 distributors, now plans to set up exclusive stores in these markets.

The markets in South-East Asia present the company with new opportunities as other watch majors like Citizen and Seiko are moving up the value chain. This provides the domestic major an opportunity to go after the mid-priced segment, which the other global brands are leaving behind.

"According to the benefits that the trade agreement SAFTA gives, we are looking at setting up an assembly unit in Vietnam. Currently we are working out the tax benefits, concessions and other benefits that setting up an unit will get us," said Sandeep Kulhali, associate vice president, international business division, Titan Industries. "We are looking at expanding our presence in markets of South-East Asia through the manufacturing unit in Vietnam. Also, we can enter other markets like Pakistan through this route," he added.

According to industry analysts, Titan's mid-market strategy in South East Asian markets fits well with its core strengths. Titan's over 50 per cent share of the domestic watch market is primarily driven by its grip over the mid-priced segment.

The company's retail play in south east Asian markets - beginning with Malaysia, perhaps - is expected to be anchored around the exclusive World of Titan stores even though blindly replicating retail concepts is not on the anvil.

The retail models in overseas markets are expected to be 'younger' versions of the current retail concepts. The idea is to present affordable fashion for the mass markets in these countries. "We will expand our current collections of Fast Track or Titan Edge to enter these markets.

"For instance, our sports collection in Middle East market has done really well and we could look at similar collections for other markets," Kulhali said. Currently Titan sells nearly 800,000 units in international markets but hopes to sell around 1 million watches by next year.