Titan may enter prescription spectacles mkt

Titan Industries is exploring options of foraying into the prescription spectacles market as part of its expansion plans.

The company is currently evaluating this market and a decision to go ahead is expected to taken in the next few quarters. Titan already has its presence in the sunglasses market through its 'Fastrack' brand.

A senior official of Titan said that this diversificiation is certainly on the agenda but there is no firm plan as of now to enter this market. "We are checking out various dynamics of this market and lets see whether we will enter this market or not," the official noted.

This is part of Titan's strategy to leverage its brand identity after having forayed into the accessories market and also the precision engineering sector.

"On an ongoing basis, we study various related sectors. For example we had studied the leather market, but eventually we dumped it. However, the prescription spectacles market seems a good option for us to diversify," he explained.

Titan Industries in the recent past has been capitalising on its precision engineering capabilities and has been taking rapid strides supplying to various high-tech engineering firms.

Besides this plans for diversification, Titan is also gearing up to launch its third brand 'Xylus' within this year. Xylus will be Titan's brand positioned against the Swiss-made watches being imported into India. The brand is expected to have models in the price range of Rs 15,000- Rs 30,000.

However, it is learnt the launch has run into some problems due to certain case models not really gelling into the 60-odd variants being planned with this watch brand. "There are some glitches and due to this we might have to postone the launch by a month," the official revealed.

The company is expected to spend close to Rs 6 crore for launch for this premium brand.

Titan while announcing its first quarter results on July 20 had said that the Board of directors has reviewed the long-term plans of the company and the related funding requirements and "will meet to consider firm proposals in this regard".

Commenting on this Bijou Kurien, COO, Titan said: "There are various options such as rights issue, preferential allotment, private placement which one can consider to raise money. Our current debt equity ratio is a bit skewed heavily towards debt and the fresh funds might be used to retire some of the debt and also for our expansion plans."