India’s Titan Reveals ‘Grand’ Plans for US Expansion

RAPAPORT… Titan Company, one of India’s largest jewelers, intends to open approximately 20 international stores within the next three years, including in the US.

“Our grand vision is to become the jewelry brand of choice for the [Indian community] in the Gulf Cooperation countries and North America,” Titan jewelry division CEO Ajoy Chawla said last week in an investor call. “We are doing everything we should be doing to get there in scale, and at a very, very fast pace.”

Titan will focus on areas with a high concentration of Indian expats. Its first North American store is slated to open in May or June in New Jersey. The jeweler is also eyeing other areas along the east coast of the US, Texas, the San Francisco Bay region, and Canadian locations in Toronto and Vancouver.

Titan opened its first international store, a Tanishq brand jewelry shop, in Dubai in 2021, which has since performed “exceedingly well,” Chawla noted. Over the past year, the company launched two more stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — a second Dubai shop, and one in Abu Dhabi. It will open a few more Gulf stores over the next two to three months, focusing on Qatar, Bahrain and other countries, Chawla explained.

As the retailer gains more traction in those places, it will ramp up its plans for further openings, with places like Australia and England “a little down the road,” Chawla confirmed.

In its most recent results, Titan saw sales rise 32% year on year to INR 100.94 billion ($1.35 billion) in the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, while profit surged 91% to INR 10.12 billion ($135.5 million).

Image: A Tanishq jewelry store. (Titan Company)