Venkat Times It Right For Titan's Global Forav

Titanian chalks out plan to take India's lifestyle brand international, this time with greater firepower and an eye on the Indian diaspora.

- Manoj Sharma

WHAT DOES IT take to build a complete lifestyle company? A brand ubiquitous, yet distinct in every possible fashion? Of all the factors, vision in leadership is the most crucial ingredient. Titan Company MD C.K. Venkataraman, 64, proves that to the core.

The Tata Group’s cultural ethos and his predecessors’ blueprint for Titan helped Venkat (as he is fondly known) go big on his mission. The Titanian, as he likes to call himself and the other 70,000 employees, joined the company 34 years back in 1990 as an advertising manager. After proving his mettle as a leader across its watches and jewellery divisions, he was appointed as Titan MD in October 2019. In the past five years, Venkat steered the company to new heights. Revenue and profit, both have surged around 2.5 times since then, and the company has become synonymous with India’s rising consumer power.

Having scaled Titan across most key segments in India, Venkat set his sights on global markets in FY24. This time, with much learning, greater firepower and a vast customer base of the ever-expanding Indian diaspora. Led by Venkat, the company embarked on a ‘Turbo Ambition and Strategy’, an expansion plan to take it global. Early signs are promising. Titan, says Venkat, is already eying an “impressive $500 million in UCP (uniform consumer price) value by FY27.” UCP is the maximum retail price of a product.

Leading the company’s global plans is its crown jewel — the jewellery business. Driven by Tanishq, jewellery, which Venkat headed for 14 years from 2005 to 2019, does the heavy lifting for Titan, accounting for 80% of its revenue and profit. It also comprises other brands, Mia by Tanishq, Zoya, and CaratLane.

A multi-pronged strategy for retail expansion, portfolio upgrade, and premiumisation, with a signature products pipeline, seems to be working well. Titan’s international business crossed ₹1,000 crore in revenue in FY24, up from ₹100 crore three years ago.