Tata Group’s cash cow
Bhaskar Bhat and another employee from Tata Group created world’s fifth largest watch manufacturer. It took them 35 years to reach the milestone. In 80s government regulated the watch sector and banned large companies from manufacturing watches.
Today Titan is a multibillion-dollar retail powerhouse. It sells watches, jewelry, eyewear, precision engineering components (through a separate subsidiary), and saris.It has 10 crore customers. In 2018 its sales was more than Rs19700cr (US$2.75 billion). Titan’s market value is more than one lakh crore (US$14.3 billion).
Bhaskar Bhatt says in an interview, “For me, the difference between a corporation and an institution is simple: It is the spring in your step on Monday morning to come to work. While there is a lot we can still do, many of our people say that we are family, and I’m happy to have contributed in some way to that.”
Titan’s core strategy is to disrupt unorganised consumer markets such as jewellery. Most of India’s economy is unorganised, which allows opportunities for the new businesses such as hotels, restaurants, clothing and groceries.
Dig deeper: Gold Rush — Demystifying Titan Company Link