Titan
Titan Company Limited (earlier known as
Titan Industries Limited) is an Indian consumer goods company. It is a
joint venture between the Tata Group
and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development
Corporation
It commenced operations in 1984 under
the name Titan Watches Limited. In
1994, Titan diversified into jewellery
with Tanishq and subsequently into
eyewear with Titan Eyeplus. In 2013
, Titan entered the fragrances segment
with the brand Skinn and, later that
year, it ventured into the helmets category
under its brand Fastrack. Also, Titan
announced recently (during the last
quarter of 2016) about launching a
series of affordable Smartwatches
under its brands like Sonata and
Fastrack soon.
Today, Titan Company is Tata Group's
largest consumer company.
1984–1990
Titan Company Limited was inaugurated on 26th July, 1984 under the name Titan Watches Limited in Chennai. A plant was set up to manufacture quartz analog electronic watches in the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu, Ltd. Industrial area at Hosur. In November 1986.
Titan Company and Casio signed a MoU proposing
to manufacture 2 million digital and analog-digital watches
. In 1989, a satellite case plant was set up in Dehradun,
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand at present with a manufacturing
capacity of 500,000 watch cases annually.
1991–2000
In September 1993, the company changed its name to
Titan Industries Ltd. as it ventured into other range of
products other than watches.
In 1994, Titan launched its jewellery brand Tanishq.
In 1998, the company launched its watch & accessories
brand, Fastrack, targeted at a younger audience in a
bid to compete with Timex.
2000–2010
In 2001, Titan launched kids’ watches brand, Dash.
The brand saw poor performance and was discontinued
in 2003. In 2004, the company entered into an
agreement with Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group,
to service the latter's range of watches in India through
its customer care centres. In 2005, Fastrack was
positioned as an independent accessory brand targeting
the urban youth. With the objective to become a fashion
brand, Fastrack launched sunglasses in the same year
and launched bags, belts and wallets in 2009.
2011–present
Titan acquired Swiss watch maker Favre-Leuba in
2011 to enter the European market. In 2013, Titan
entered the fragrances segment with the brand Skinn.
In the same year, it changed its name to Titan Company Ltd.
In 2014 it entered into a joint venture with Montblanc to establish
its retail stores in India.
In 2016, Titan opened prescription lens manufacturing
facilities in Noida, Kolkata, and Mumbai to improve its
order processing time.[25] In 2018, Titan merged its
jewellery brand, Gold Plus targeted at customers in
South India with Tanishq to establish the brand's
presence in South.[26]
Products
Watches
The watches division comprises brands Fastrack, Sonata, Raga, Octane and Xylys. In 2011, the company secured, licence for marketing & distribution of Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss watches.Favre Leube was incorporated in 2012. In 2018, the division accounted for ₹2,126 Cr in revenue which was 10% of the total of the company.
Eyewear
In 2007, Titan Industries forayed into the fashion accessories industry with the launch of sunglasses, an Rs 330-crore market. It introduced Titan Eye+ that has a wide range of frames, contact lenses, prescription eyewear, & sunglasses. The division accounted for 415 crore in FY 2016-17 maintaining a stable growth of 8%.
Jewellery
Xerxes Desai started the brand Tanishq in 1995. Zoya was launched in the luxury segment, while Mia, a sub-brand was under Tanishq for work-wear jewellery. Titan's total revenue grew 20.44% in 2017-18 to ₹15,656 crore, of which jewellery sales fetched 13,036 crore. In 2016, Titan invested in CaratLane who reported a turnover of 290 crore in FY 2017-18.
Perfume
In 2013, Titan launched six variants of perfume in the Indian perfume market under the brand name ‘Skinn’. They collaborated with world-renowned perfumers including Alberto Morillas and Olivier Pescheux.
