BANGALORE:
Titan Industries, the watches and branded jewellery major, has announced launching of its third business-prescription eyewear, here on Thursday.
Company plans to open first ten `Titan Eye+' (Eye Plus) standalone retail stores in Bangalore, Chennai and Nagpur with first to be opened here.
Titan will have 150 such stores within five years, including franchised outlets.
Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, told reporters that the entry into this fashion-plus-utility value segment followed a consumer survey of 1,200 persons across eight cities. "The survey showed that people not only wanted glasses to see better but also look better. Fifty-seven per cent wanted both looks and functionality and they are our target market," he said.
Titan plans to have three types of eye glasses, with lowest costing around Rs550, which includes lenses and frame. The lenses and frames will be outsourced and there will be a technology tie-up with Essilor for the lenses.
Eyewear design will be based on European trends by trained optometrists.
Designer brand frames from Armani to Mont Blanc will be offered along with Titan brands. “There will be a separate brand for children," Bhat said.
Each store of 1,100 to 1,850 sq ft carpet area, will display frames on a `look-browse-buy' format.
"Despite the high taxes on imported frames, we safely anticipate a 40 to 50 per cent return on capital within a few years, based on our transparent pricing and choices offered," he added.
marketing@alchempro.com
