Bangalore, Dec 16 (IANS): Leading retail chain Titan Industries Ltd Monday opened its 1,000 store here, becoming the first Indian firm to have a thousand outlets across the country in seven formats.

"It has been a fascinating journey for us since 1988 when we opened our first watch store in this tech city. It was a bold step then when consumer products and retail market were unorganised and underserved," Titan managing director Bhaskar Bhat told reporters on the occasion.

With a retail footprint in 177 cities across 26 states and a retail area of 13,95,712 sq ft, Titan has stores for watches under World of Titan, Helios and Fastrack, jewellery under retail brands Tanishq, Zoya and GoldPlus and Eye Plus for multi-brand eyewear.

"As our manufacturing expertise produced world-class products, we envisioned an elevating experience for customers when buying. This is where we saw an opportunity to start retailing through our stores, which worked well for us," Bhat said.

In a retail journey spanning a quarter century, Titan has changed the retail fabric of the country, he said.

"For us, retail is beyond stores, which has become our company's face to consumers across country and a commitment to deliver service and experience through human and technological intervention," Bhat noted.

Noting that technology changed the rules of the game, Bhat said laser engraving service at watches store, Karatmeter at jewellery stores and visual map developer at eyewear stores had given the company a competitive edge in the retail space.

As a joint venture of the Tata group with the state-run Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco), Titan recently entered the fragrances segment with Skinn and forayed into making helmets under its Fastrack brand.

The company posted 15 percent growth in fiscal 2012-13 with net sales of Rs.10,009 crore.