Business - Titan eyes high precision market

Titan Industries, a Tata group company, is eyeing the Rs 135,000-crore global market of aviation and high precision automotive parts after bagging the Hamilton Sundstrand contract.Late last week, the company had signed an annual contract worth $10 million with the subsidiary of US-based United Technologies Corp to manufacture high precision components for auxiliary power units, ram air turbine, flap actuator systems, engine control, environmental control systems and electronic engine controls that are deployed in leading commercial aircrafts such as Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Dassault Falcon.Titan hopes to increase its revenues five-fold from this new business over the next five years, said Bhaskar Bhat, Titan Industries' managing director. He said the company's move from watches, jewellery and eye wear to aviation parts was only logical and not a departure from its core competencies. "We have already been certified to make these precision parts for aircrafts. Like watch-making, this business also requires micron-level precision, which we are capable of delivering," he said.Over the past couple of years, Titan has developed more than 100 components and hopes to expand this portfolio significantly. Precision Engineering, the division of Titan that makes these parts for Hamilton Sundstrand, currently employs over 400 engineers.Titan's foray into this new business also marks the beginning of its first attempt at a business-to-business (B-to-B) opportunity after successfully operating in a business-to-consumer segment like watches and jewellery for more than two decades. Bhat said that this new line of business will also enable it to address the "defence offset" market in India, which is currently estimated to be over Rs 55,000 crore.The Union government's, Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP) has a "defence offset" clause that mandates foreign suppliers for the defence sector procure certain pre-defined value of parts and services from India.Titan's foray into the new precision parts segment for the aviation sector was in part driven by this potent opportunity within India too. Titan Industries is a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.