IndiaRetailBiz

“There is a huge opportunity in spectacles retailing as 30% of the population in the country is using spectacles for vision correction.” –  Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries Limited (A Tata Group Company).

Titan Industries, the country’s largest maker and retailer of watches (Titan) and jewellery (Tanishq), has announced the national launch of its Titan Eye+ branded stores for spectacles and other eyewear products.

This announcement comes after carrying out successful pilot runs of the project in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Nagpur.

Titan, according to S. Ravi Kant, Chief Operating Officer, Eyewear Division, will be investing Rs 24 crore this year, to set up the chain for optical products. In the short run it will have 80 stores located in the Metro, tier-I and tier-II cities. Eventually, the company plans to have 200-odd Eye+ stores across the country in the next three years.

The Eye+ chain of optical stores, which will deploy trained optometrists at all stores, will offer products and services in a transparent and professional manner. Apart from in-house Titan and Dash (children’s spectacle frames), Eye+ will also offer a large selection of spectacle frames of global brands like Christian Dior, Elle and Tommy Hilfiger. All the frames will carry a price tags.

Apart from offering a wide range of frames and glasses, Eye+ stores will also offer facilities for accurate testing of eyes and consultancy on style, among others.

Titan, like its other retail chains, will heavily rely on franchisee model for expansion of Eye+ chain as well. 85% of all Eye+ stores will be franchisee owned and operated.

Titan has tied up with the Chennai-based Sankara Nethralaya (Eye Hospital), to provide technical training to its personnel. While, Titan would recruit technicians, Sankara would train them in scientific ophthalmic dispensing, style consultation and optometric. Titan Industries is also setting up an integrated training facilty at Hosur in Karnataka. Currently, there is a huge shortage of eye technicians in the country.

In the organised sector, Reliance Retail is also setting up a retail chain of optical products called Vision express in partnership with the Netherlands-based Pearle Europe.