Mumbai: Titan Industries will enter the prescription eyewear segment and open around 150 outlets in the next 3-4 years. The company will launch eyewear, including spectacles and lenses, under its new brand `Titan Eye+' as well sell its `Fastrack' range of sunglasses and other global brands.

Titan Eye+ stores will also provide services like eye check-ups and style consultancy. This will be the company's third business after watches and jewellery.

The stores will also sell sunglasses under its homebrand Fastrack and a host of other global brands like Vogue, Esprit, Gucci, Dior, Prada, Adidas, Police, and contact lens under the company's own brand and other established brands like Bausch & Lomb, J&J, Silklens. The stores will sell both prescription and cosmetic lenses.

The first Titan Eye+ store will open in Bangalore next week and, by the end of April, the company will have five stores in Bangalore and Nagpur.

Titan, which is investing Rs15-20 crore initially in this venture, has tied up with Essilor and Nikon for lenses and with several international vendors for spectacle frames.

The company expects revenues of Rs15 crore from the business in the first year itself and projects contribution from the eyewear business at 15 per cent of Titan's total turnover in five years.

"We are hoping to capture about 20 per cent of the market in the next 3-5 years," a company executive said.

The total eyewear market in India is about Rs1,800 crore and is growing at around 15-20 per cent per year. Of this, only about 10 per cent is in the organised segment. There is also no clear market leader in the prescription eyewear market in India.

The 150 stores will be opened across the country mostly in A and B segment towns. Each store will be between 1,100 sq ft and 1,800 sq ft.

"Most of our business is likely to come from customers who view glasses as a necessity as well as a tool for personality enhancement. In India about 300 million people need glasses but only about 84 million people wear them. The market is about 30 million pieces per annum so obviously there is a gap we can fill," Titan's managing director Bhaskar Bhat said.

Glasses under the Titan Eye+ brand will start at Rs395. The company is also creating a special brand for children called Titan Dash, glasses under which will start at Rs395. Frames bearing the Titan brand will start at Rs950. Dash had earlier existed as a watch brand for children. It will also sell frames under brands Elle, Vogue, Versace, Dior, Steppers, Hugo Boss, Armani,Levis, Esprit,Oxydo, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Silhouette, Swarovski, Dunhill and Mont Blanc.