Titan net up 4% at Rs 215 cr in Q4

Titan Company Ltd, the watches to jewellery and eye wear to precision engineering products maker from the Tata Group, on Thursday reported a marginal growth of 4.3 per cent in net profit at Rs 215 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2015 compared to Rs 206 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The drop in profit is being largely attributed to a decline in sales due to poor consumer sentiment during the quarter.

Operating profit for the company during the quarter went down to 9.42 per cent to Rs 250 crore from Rs 276 crore in the corresponding quarter.

Net sales during the quarter declined 11.2 per cent to Rs 2,474 crore as against Rs 2,787 crore a year ago. The drop in sales is notable despite an aggressive expansion of its retail network during the year. The company added 123 stores by watches, jewellery and eyewear businesses. As on March 2015, the company had 1,201 stores, with over 1.59 million sq.ft of retail space delivering a retail turnover in excess of Rs 11,770 crore during the financial year 2014-15, a growth of 9 per cent over the previous year.

"The economic outlook for the year 2014-15 was quite good but improvement in consumer demand has been quite lukewarm. Our jewellery business was also adversely impacted due to regulatory changes and termination of the consumer friendly Golden Harvest Scheme," Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Company said.

He said the company witnessed good growth during the first half of the year, but post-Diwali season the growth tapered. The company will however continue to invest in strategic initiatives taking into account its long term growth plans, he added.

The Board of directors of the company has declared a dividend of 230 per cent for the year 2014-15.

Titan Company witnessed lower sales in its major business verticals like watches and jewellery during the fourth quarter. Its watches division recorded sales of Rs 511 crore as against Rs 501 crore, while jewellery sales were down by 15.2 per cent to Rs 1,828 crore from Rs 2,157 crore a year ago.

The company's shares ended 3.19 per cent lower at Rs 370.05 per share on BSE on Thursday.