Titan's 2Q Sales +1%, Profit +4% to $30M

Oct 31, 2013 9:16 AM By Deena Taylor

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RAPAPORT... Titan Company Limited, formerly Titan Industries Limited, owners of the Tanishq jewelry brand in India, reported that sales rose 1.4 percent year on year to $372.3 million (INR 22.9 billion) in what the company called a challenging second quarter that ended on September 30. Profit grew 3.6 percent to $30.3 million (INR 1.87 billion).

Bhaskar Bhat, Titan's managing director, said that the company witnessed weak consumer sentiment for watches and jewelry during the quarter. "The continued inflation and the weak rupee are affecting demand as well as costs and interest rates that continue to be at high levels," Bhat said, noting too, that regulatory issues on gold created a high demand supply gap in the market.

Jewelry sales, which included revenue from the company's three major jewelry brands Tanishq, GoldPlus and Zoya, rose 4.3 percent year on year to $292.4 million (INR 17.98 billion). Operating profit from the company's jewelry segment grew 12 percent to $39.2 million (INR 2.41 billion).

Titan's watch division was impacted by input cost increases and adverse currency movements during the quarter and experienced a sales drop of 6 percent to $71.9 million (INR 4.42 billion). Operating profit declined by 15 percent to $7.5 million (INR 464.3 million).

Sales at Titan's others segment grew by 17 percent to $18.5 million (INR 1.14 billion).

For the first fiscal half, Titan's sales increased 21 percent to $874.4 million (INR 53.77 billion), while net profit rose 9.7 percent to $60 million (INR 3.69 billion). Sales from the company's jewelry segment grew 26 percent to $717.4 million, operating profit increased 19 percent to $76.7 million and watch revenue grew 1.4 percent to $137.2 million, while operating profit declined 16.3 percent to $14.3 million.

As of the September 30, Titan operated 1,002 retail stores throughout India .

Tags: Deena Taylor, India, Jewelry, Titan Company, watches