Titan posts 11% rise in profit, faces headwinds from consumption slowdown

Jewellery to watch maker Titan on Tuesday reported a 10.84 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 363.74 crore in the first quarter ended June when compared with the corresponding period last year.

Total consolidated income of the firm rose 16% year-on-year to Rs 5,208.17 crore in Q1FY20. The company's growth was backed by a healthy growth in the watches division though sales in jewellery segment took a hit.

"The macro-economic environment coupled with lower consumption have impacted some of our businesses. The retail growth in jewellery was driven by encouraging performance in the studded as well as wedding jewellery segments. However, there has been a weak consumer sentiment prevailing across, especially in jewellery with additional factors like price volatility and customs duty increase," said Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director of Titan.

The Tata Group company said that its profit growth was subdued due to investment in one biennial overseas conference for its business associates, apart from a one-time wage settlement with some its unionised employees.

For the quarter ended June, the jewellery division logged a moderate growth of 13 per cent to Rs 4,047 crore. Growth in the jewellery segment was adversely impacted due to high gold prices, especially during June, the company said. However, its watches division grew 20 per cent to clock a revenue of Rs 715 crore.

Similarly, Titan's eyewear business grew 13 per cent to Rs 149 crore, while its other businesses comprising accessories, fragrances and sarees grew 38 per cent to clock a revenues of Rs 36 crore.

"The company is gearing up on all fronts across its portfolio of brands and businesses to stimulate demand in the coming quarter through innovative campaigns and new product launches," added Bhat.

Despite the consumption slowdown, the company continued with its retail expansion. It added 45 stores across all its businesses in the first quarter which took the number of retail stores to 1,640 at the end of June quarter. "The network expansion effort remained undiminished across all our businesses - watches, jewellery and eyewear," the company said.