Titan Company Q1 profit rises 6% to Rs 371 crore, watches business grows by 20.4%

Jewellery and watch manufacturer Titan Company on Tuesday reported 6.17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in standalone net profit at Rs 370.73 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2019.

"The Tata group company had posted standalone net profit of Rs 349.17 crore in the same quarter last year," Titan Company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Standalone total income increased 14.72 per cent to Rs 4,995.64 crore in Q1FY20 against Rs 4,354.52 crore in Q1FY19. The sales income grew to Rs 4,885 crore from Rs 4,269 crore in the year ago period.

On the consolidated basis, Titan posted a net profit of Rs 363.74 crore, while total income stood at Rs 5,208.17 crore during the quarter under review.

The jewellery business recorded an income growth of 13.3 per cent in the first quarter to Rs 4,047 crore versus Rs 3,572 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. "Growth in the jewellery segment was adversely impacted by high gold prices, especially during the month of June 2019," Titan said in the regulatory filing.

The watches business grew by 20.4 per cent to Rs 715 crore in April-June period of this fiscal as against Rs 594 crore in the same quarter last year. The company's eyewear segment rose by 13.1 per cent to Rs 149 crore for Q1 this year. The other businesses comprising accessories, fragrances and sarees, grew by 37.9 per cent to Rs 36 crore this year.

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"Retail expansion continued with a net addition of 45 stores across all its businesses in the first quarter, ending the period with a retail area of over 2.1 million square feet nationally," Titan said in the exchange filing.

As on June 30, 2019, the company had 1,640 retail chains across India. "The network expansion effort remained undiminished across all its businesses - watches, jewellery and eyewear," it added.

Commenting on Q1 earnings, Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director of Titan said, "The macro-economic environment coupled with lower consumption has 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."

"The profit growth for the company appears subdued due to investments made in biennial overseas conferences for our business associates across all divisions as well as the impact of wage settlement with our unionized employees that was cordially concluded in this quarter," Bhat added.  

Going forward, 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, he added.

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In a separate development, the company's board has approved appointment of C K Venkataraman as an additional director designated as the managing director of the company with effect from October 1, 2019, subject to approval of the shareholders.

"The term of appointment of C K Venkataraman as the managing director is effective for a period of five years, from October 1, 2019 up to September 30, 2024," the company added.

Following Q1 earnings, shares of Titan Company closed trade at Rs 1,038.05 apiece, up 0.12 per cent, on the BSE on Tuesday.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar