Leading watchmaker Titan Industries Limited today announced to invest about Rs 100 crore for opening 50 premium watch outlets Helios in next five years to attain a sales target of Rs 400 crore.
"We have plans to open 50 outlets of Helios, which may involve an investment of close to Rs 100 crore in next five years," Company's Vice President (Retail) Ajoy Chawla told reporters after unveiling firm's second such outlet here.
In the first phase, the company will open 15 stores in top 10 cities within a year in line with its plans to have pan-India presence. "We are looking to open Helios outlets in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad etc in next 12 months," he said.
Titan Industries had come up with its first Helios store in Bangalore one and a half years back.
Although, Chawla refused to share details of revenue collected from the premium watch stores at present, he said the company targets sales of Rs 400 crore in a span of five years.
Stating that the company would also explore options of opening stores through the franchise route, Chawla said it would like to have outlets of size ranging between 1,500 square feet to 2,000 square feet.
The size of the premium watch (starting from minimum Rs 5,000) market is around Rs 500 crore and has the potential to grow further, he said.
"Last year, the market for premium and luxury watches took a hit due to slowdown. But this market has the potential to grow 30 per cent per annum in next five years in view of the growing purchasing power of people, who are highly brand conscious," he asserted.
Helios houses 34 fashion and premium global watch brands including Emporio Armani, Burberry, FCUK, Movadao, Fossil, Guess, Casio, Seiko, Titan etc.
Titan Industries is a joint venture between Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.
