Timex Group India Ltd has made aggressive retail expansion plans with the average selling price of watches doubled to Rs 1500 in the past couple of years.
In a press meet in the city on Friday, vice president (sales) of the company, Vikram Arora, said Timex will roll out 120 high-end watch stores across the country by the end of 2008-09 in keeping with the watch market’s compound annual growth rate of 20%. Out of these, six will be in the east.
Timex will spend Rs 50 lakh in setting up each store, putting up the infrastructure to display 500 to 1000 styles.
Besides marketing its own brand, Timex holds the licence to market 13 foreign style and luxury brands in India, which are making a rapid entry into the domestic watch market.
Arora said the company holds the licence to market foreign brands including Guss, Nautica, Versace, Valentina, Marc- Eko and Dkny. The company has recently struck a marketing alliance with the Fossil group of the US.
Although at a small base, the demand for the luxury brands is growing by 38-40%. With nearly all the foreign luxury and style brands now available in India, there is a total visibility of this category in the Indian market.
Timex, which has a 22% market share with its own brand, sold 16 lakh watches through various channels in 2007-08. The company clocked a turnover of Rs 125 crore in 2007-08.
Taking the foreign brands into account, Timex’s market share will be around 22.5%-23%. But the company is growing at a faster pace than the industry.