Business - Titan expanding eyewear retail network

Titan Industries, on Wednesday, announced the national launch of Titan Eye + branded spectacles stores.In the current year, the company would be investing Rs 24 crore for putting up 80 stores in the metro, tier-I and tier-II cities. The company has a plan to rollout 200 stores in three years. It plans to enter the highly fragmented spectacles market with branded stores and standard services. It aims to bring transparency and professional approach to the business. About 15 per cent of the stores would be company run and the remaining stores would be managed by franchises.Addressing the media on the occasion of launching of the stores here, Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, said there is a huge opportunity in spectacles retailing as 30 per cent of the population uses spectacles for vision correction. The stores would be selling Titan’s own brand as well as global brands. The price range would be from Rs 400 to Rs 35,000, he said.Mr Bhat said that the company attempts to bring about transparency in retailing of frames, offering error-free eye testing and style consultancy to help the customer chose the spectacles according to their lifestyle. All the stores will have the same format where customers can browse, select and then buy spectacles according to their requirement, he said. He said that all the frames will carry a price tag and would be displayed in front of the customers. Trained optometrists would be deployed at all the stores, who will also undergo additional training at Shankar Netralaya Eye Hospital, he said. Titan Eye+ has already undertaken pilot runs in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Nagpur.