Titan sees up to 30 percent rise in sales with stores expansion

PANAJI, India (Reuters) - Titan Co, India's biggest listed jeweller, expects its jewellery sales to rise by 20-30 percent in 2017/18 fiscal year ending March, as it plans to add more than two dozen retail stores to boost its presence in small towns, a senior company official said.

"We are planning to add 25 to 30 stores on franchise basis this year on top of existing around 250 stores," Sandeep Kulhalli, senior vice president, retail and marketing at Titan, told Reuters.

Titan shares rose as much as 4.6 percent to a record high of 636.65 rupees on Monday. They have risen 86 percent this year up to Friday's close.

The company's total income in June quarter surged 43 percent to 40.50 billion rupees ($632.6 million) from a year ago due to higher jewellery sales during annual Hindu and Jain holy festival of Akshaya Tritiya.

The government's efforts to bring transparency in bullion trading by making large cash transactions illegal and mandating tax code for such deals is also helping the company, he said.

"Earlier people were buying from small jewellers as they were not asking for PAN card or accepting cash. With the government restrictions, they don't see any benefit in buying from small jewellers," Kulhalli said.

($1 = 64.0250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)