Titan to focus on licensed watches

Titan Industries, India's largest publicly-held watch and jewelry retailer, is increasing

its focus on another revenue stream, apart from its own watch brands. It is aggressively building on its licensed watches business, which lends its portfolio a variety beyond what its home brands such as Titan, Sonata, Fastrack, Zoop and Raga can provide. Titan's watch business brought in Rs 1,687 crores in 2012-13, a growth of 9.6 percent over the year before.

The company, which has the exclusive license for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and French Connection, has recently added Timberland and Police to its licensed offerings. Titan is also expanding its presence in multi-brand watch retailing through its Helios chain. The chain sells 50 more brands such as Guess, Fossil, Esprit, DKNY, Gucci, Versace, Emporio Armani, Tag Heur and Raymond Weil, as a dealer, apart from Titan's four licensed brands.

While Titan has got the pan-India license for Timberland, it has a limited license for Police.