Titan net down 3% as sales of jewellery business drops by 10%

Titan Company, the publicly held retailer of watches and jewellery from the Tata Group, has reported a 3% drop in net profit to Rs 177 crore for the first quarter of Fy15 as compared to the corresponding previous quarter. Sales of the company dropped by 7.6% to Rs 2853 crore largely on account of an unprecedented Q1 of 2013-14 which had witnessed a 47% growth in jewellery business last year when gold price fell sharply.

The jewellery business, which has been at the receiving end due to a string of regulatory pressures, witnessed a decline of 10% during the quarter to Rs 2325 crore. The watches business however recorded a growth of a little over 10% to Rs 439 crore.

Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan said: "The consumer discretionary spend in the quarter was far more stable than what we witnessed in the past few quarters. With stability in the political environment, the market mood has been positive. However, due to an extraordinary first quarter witnessed by jewellery business last year, the topline growth in this quarter was touch. Regulatory pressures faced by the jewellery industry have amplified the challenge."

Despite the various macro-economic factors affecting the business, the company continued its network expansion with a net addition of 22 stories across all its businesses in the first quarter, ending the period with a retail area of 1.48 million sq.ft nationally.