Citizen watches to foray into non watch business in India

Bangalore, Jan 22 (UNI) The Japanese watch multinational Citizen today announced its foray into machinery business in India, besides stepping up significantly its watch market.

Company President and CEO Makoto Umechara told newsmen here that intensified demand from the expanding sectors in India such as Automobiles, cellular phones, electrical appliance and medical equipments, had led Citizen to enter the non watch segment in India.

Declining to come out with the investment figure, he said that it would depend on how the business proceeded. The Company had procured some orders from a automobile company at the ongoing International Machine Tool Exposition (IMTEX) here and would initially have a representative office in the city. Mr Hideaki Nakazaki, MD of Citizen Watches (India) said that the Company might set up a machinery plant in the country if the business picked up.

Mr Umechara said that the requirement of high precision machinery by the Indian market had promoted Citizen to come to the country.

''We believe the market held tremendous potential for growth in the coming years'' he added. He said the company would aggressively promote recruitment of local staff and establish sales and service system in dealers.

Referring to the watch business he said the company had since inception had grown phenominally. The growth was steep since 2003-04. During the current fiscal the company aimed to sell around 240,000 watches with the revenue being around Rs.60 crore, a 172 per cent growth in value for the last three years. To achieve an annual growth of 30 to 40 per cent in future, the company aimed to made substantial investments. Currently around four million US dollars was being invested annually, he added.

UNI