Titan net profit jumps in Q1

Titan Company Ltd on Thursday reported a whopping rise in its standalone net profit by 106 per cent to Rs 266.91 crore in the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 129.29 crore in the year ago period.

Its standalone revenue from operations during the quarter under review was at Rs 3,944.49 crore, up by 42 per cent from Rs 2,769.55 crore in the year ago period.

The company said its jewellery division recorded an income growth of 54 per cent in the quarter to Rs 3,307.71 crore as against Rs 2,150.59 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The watches business grew by 2 per cent to Rs 509.92 crore in the three months ending June 30, from Rs 499.73 crore during same period last year. Its eye-wear business was flat at Rs 110.67 crore in the June quarter.

"Our jewellery business has delivered a stellar performance in the first quarter due to a combination of one of the best Akshaya Tritiya sales, a very successful gold exchange programme as well as an element of advancement of sales in June 2017 in anticipation of higher GST rates," the company's Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat said.

He also said all retail formats of its watches business recorded a growth but the "topline growth was subdued due to postponement of Titan and Fastrack brand activations".

"The performance of our eye-wear business has been adversely impacted due to slowdown of the sunglass category. Driven by the jewellery business, our profits saw an outstanding growth this quarter," he added.

The company's retail expansion continued with a net addition of 31 stores across all its businesses in the quarter, taking its total store count to 1,397 as of June 30 and is expanding with growth plans in place for all its retail businesses.

--IANS

bdc/amit/mr