Titan expects discounts to drive sales

Titan industries, the largest manufacturer of watches in the country, aims to increase its sales in Orissa by 30 per cent during the current fiscal.

The company, which achieved a sales turnover of Rs. 8.5 crore for the Titan brand during 2006-07, expects to achieve a sales turnover of more than Rs.11 crore by the end of 2007-08.

Titan group, which sells its watches under the brand Titan, Sonata and Fast Track, is targeting Rs.16.5 crore revenue from the Orissa market.

To achieve the target, the company will focus on the middle and higher income groups, Khokan Nag, area sales manager, Titan Watches told Business Standard. Nag, who was here to launch an 'Exchange offer' for Orissa customers, said, Titan as a brand has been doing very well in the state market.

While the company enjoys a market share of 70 percent nationally, it claims a market share of 75 percent in Orissa.

The company has a wide range starting from Rs.1000 to Rs.1lakh, which caters to all the segments of the population. Launching of Titan Buzzle collections has evoked very good response from the market, he said. Moreover, the company will launch the 'Xylys' range of watches aimed at premium customers in Bhubaneswar next week.

This particular watch has been made in Switzerland and the price ranges from Rs. 8000 to Rs.45,000 per watch.

The company which opened a store in Bangladesh recently is planning a foray into the US market. As part of its marketing strategy it will keep launching new products every month.

"As the number one brand the customers want new ranges from us and we need to do that", he pointed out.

Under the Titan exchange offer, the customers can exchange their old watches and get a flat discount of 25 percent on purchase of new Titan watches.

The offer will be open September 9 at all Titan outlets.

However, the offer will not be valid for Nebula, the 18 k gold watches. Currently, Titan has five franchisee showrooms in Orissa. While it has two showrooms in Bhubaneswar, it has one showroom each in Cuttack, Sambalpur and Rourkela.

It intends to open one more showroom in Bhubaneswar by the middle of the next year depending upon availability of mall space. Apart from the exclusive franchisee showrooms it has 2 exclusive time zones in Cuttack and Angul.