High gold prices add glitter to Titan's watch sales

Gold plated watches contribute 65% of company’s sales in watch segment.

The soaring gold prices has added glitter to Titan's sales, especially in its gold plated watch segment, which contributes to about 65 per cent of the company's overall sales in watches. With more and more people turning to gold plated watches, the sales of Titan gold-plated watches have gone up by 15 per cent nationally and about 22 per cent in Gujarat, said Ajoy Chawla, VP and Global Business Head-Titan Industries Ltd.

"Compared to gold jewellery, gold plated watch provide wide range of choice to buyers in limited budget. Thsi year the sale of gold plated watches has increased as gold prices have climbed to record highs. Besides, our watches offer more choice to buyers in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,000 which might not be the case with gold jewellery," according to Chawla.

Titan produces about 10 million watches every year. The watch division sales grew by 9.6% from Rs. 609.90 crore last year to Rs. 668.45 crore this year.

From last one year gold price is seen in the levels of Rs. 12000-14000 per ten grams. Presently gold average is about Rs. 13800. With marriage season on, people are diverting their choice from jewellery to gold plated watches as gold prices are not affordable for middle and higher middle class people.

A similar kind of scenario was seen last year and as a result gold plated watch sales had gone higher by around 22 percent nationwide. According to company source last year in Gujarat the sales of gold plated watches were 152 in numbers which valued Rs. 57,63,000. Talking about their expansion plans in Gujarat Chawla said, "The company is planning to open new showrooms in Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Gandhidham besides adding one more in Ahmedabad. Currently Titan has 16 showrooms in Gujarat."

In Gujarat Titan sale stood at Rs 33 crore. Gujarat has a share of 5-6 per cent in the company's total business. The present economic slowdown has had some impact on the company's operations during the quarter. The watch division has seen lesser walk-in's in malls and large format stores in big cities resulting in lower growth. Recently company launched new brand of watch 'Zoop' designed for kids. Currently, it is available in five cities namely Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta, Jaipur and Surat on a pilot basis and will be rolled out shortly at a national level. Presently including main brand Titan company have Sonata, Fasttrack, Xylys, Orion brand are available in market.