Tanishq eyes the American market

bangalore: with some happy news on the domestic front in terms of rising sales and profits after years of groping in the dark, tanishq, titan industries’ jewellery division, is now eying the us market through a franchised store. while tanishq had been getting enquiries for overseas franchisees for some years, it had been waiting to turn the corner in india which it did in fiscal 2000-01, recording a small profit on an income of rs 203.91 crore.while tanishq retails in the uae through a shop-in-shop, if the us foray works out, tanishq will be the first big indian jeweller to have an exclusive store presence overseas. jacob kurian, coo, tanishq, told the times of india that the company is planning a trial in the us and uk in the next 12 months, with the us probably being first. but it will be a gradual start since this business takes time to consolidate, he said. there has always been great demand for ethnic indian jewellery in these countries and the market potential is seen to be huge, given the large number of indians there. interestingly, despite the fact that indians constitute one of the highest earning populations in the us, only small, local stores service the ethnic indian jewellery requirement. according to kurian, ethnic indian jewellery in the us is a large market with few large players. estimates value this market at $500 million but this cannot be validated since it is a very fragmented space.