Tata group company, Titan Industries, plans to augment its store network pan-India by adding nearly 40 Titan stores by March 2010, a top company official said.
“We plan to add 40 stores of which half would be company-owned and the balance franchisee stores. For our ‘World of Titan’ stores, we have earmarked Rs 50-lakh per store,” Titan Industries COO Harish Bhat said.
The company has identified Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Salem, Pune and Madurai, amongst other locations for setting up its new stores.
Presently, the company has 260 stores. It plans to have a 275-strong network by end-March 2009. Of the existing 260 stores, 10 per cent are company-owned and 90 per cent are franchisee stores.
The global meltdown had not hit the company’s business, Bhat said.
“There are a few sectors such as automobiles, real estate and those selling high-value goods that have been affected by the on-going economic slowdown. But we should not paint all industries with the same brush–there is no recession-like effect on any of our categories,” Bhat said.