Transition Time Twenty-three years after re-inventing the Indian watch market, Titan Industries wants to morph into a retailer selling everything from jewellery to prescription eyeglasses. It's also expanding its global footprint and banking on its new ventures to help slow declining margins.

Business Today, September, 2007 by Rahul Sachitanand

It's a rainy Saturday evening in Bangalore and regular weekend shoppers are hurriedly wrapping up their buying. At Infantry Road's Safina Plaza, a once hip mall (now more used to housing saree exhibitions and the occasional upscale boutique), a few people walk past a brightly lit end-of-season garment sale and head for one corner. Their destination; the 1,000-sq. ft Titan Eye store to leisurely browse through dozens of frames and try on everything from a Rs 300-pair to a Rs 30,000-high fashion brand. While eyeglass shoppers have been used to squinting at their options often through stained and scratchy glass, this store hands power literally back to the consumers. So, row upon row of frames are kept in the open for people to try on and smart salesmen (or more correctly, fashion...

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