BANGALORE: Citizen opened it's 16th exclusive franchisee outlet at Coimbatore this week. The company also plans to take the tally up to 100 across the country within the next five years, with an ultimate target of 500 mutli-brand "Citizen-Corner" showrooms.

The company plans to promote and sell it's eco friendly watches in India emulating it's successes in other countries such as Japan, and it's recently launched 'Eco Drive' watches have been well received.

Spurred by a growth of 30 per cent by volume as well as value, the company has reached a sales figure around 200,000 units annually with a 40 per cent market share in the Rs 5000 to Rs 25,000 price per unit segment.

Citizen is confident of sustaining this growth due to rising incomes and expects the demand for high value watches to go up, but has no plans to set up a India based manufacture and assembly plant in the immediate future because of unavailability of high quality components. According to company source the components manufactured in India don't meet with it's specifications.