Titan to add 20 franchise stores by end-FY'09

MUMBAI: Watch maker Titan Industries on Tuesday said that it would add 20 franchise stores pan-India by the end of this fiscal, in addition to the 35 already added so far, a senior company official said.

"We have added 35 stores in the current fiscal. We plan to add 20 more in the remaining months of this fiscal," Titan Industries Vice President (Global Business Head--Titan and Retail) Ajoy Chawla told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

The company currently has 260 franchise stores across 130 towns pan-India, apart from an overseas presence in the Middle-East, south-east Asia and SAARC countries.

The Tata group company is currently clocking a 14-15 per cent growth as against an expected 22-25 per cent growth, Chawla said.

Ruling out any price-cuts, he said that there was a pressure on margins and input costs because of high inflation (till recently) and cost of imported raw material.

"The dollar is still quite strong," he said. Titan had to hike its product prices by 3-4 per cent during the last 7-8 months when inflation was very high but even then it could cover its cost only partially.

"We cannot afford to cut prices now," the Titan official said, adding that the company was also not offering any significant discounts to woo customers.

The company was cutting down on wasteful expenditure "but there are no severe contingency steps or lay-offs on the radar," he said.

The economic situation would remain turbulent for at least the next six months, he said.