Titan shines in September quarter as jewellery sales sparkle on festive demand

Titan Co. Ltd reported a profitable September quarter, underlining its dominant position in the Indian jewelery market, supported by strong festive demand despite rising gold prices.

Tata group company’s revenue from operations increased by 21% year-on-year ₹16,407 crore ( ₹18,837 crore, including bullion and digital gold sales ₹15,547 crore estimated by surveyed analysts Bloomberg. Net profit increased ₹1,120 crore against ₹704 crore a year ago.

“Our jewelery business in particular has benefited greatly from this latest increase, underlining the brand strengths and enduring consumer affinity for our brands Tanishq, Mia, Zoya and CaratLane,” said CK Venkataraman, managing director of the company.

“The quarter saw a slow start and performance gradually improved with the early start of the festival in September. Demand momentum during Navratri was particularly strong, leading to healthy growth of 21% in the quarter.”

He said the Bengaluru-based company “continues to focus on strengthening brand awareness and accelerating growth across all our businesses” and that the festive season has positively impacted consumer sentiment.

Titan operates four main businesses: jewellery, watches and wearables, eye care and ethnic wear brand Taneira, perfume brand Skinn by Titan and others including Titan Engineering and Automation Ltd.

between ₹16,407 crore in operating income (excluding bullion and digital gold), jewelery business accounted for approximately 86% or ₹14,092 crore, followed by watches and wearables ₹1,477 crore, others ₹557 crore and eye care ₹220 crore.

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The jewelery division remained Titan’s biggest growth driver, with revenue rising 21% year-on-year. ₹14,092 crore and segment profit up 55% ₹1,506 crore. In this, sales of Tanishq, Mia and Zoya increased by 18%. ₹12,460 crore, while CaratLane’s sales increased by 32% ₹1,072 crore. International operations nearly doubled ₹561 crore, driven by strong demand in UAE and North America.

Bullion and digital gold sales nearly doubled ₹2,430 crore ₹1,099 crore a year ago. These are not included in jewelry revenues and are recognized separately within general consolidated revenues.

Titan also announced that it plans to acquire a majority stake in Damas Jewellery, one of the most prominent and trusted brands in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries.

“This acquisition marks a significant step forward in our ambitions and reinforces our commitment to deliver exceptional value to our customers worldwide. With the festive season driving positive consumer sentiment, we remain focused on strengthening brand awareness and accelerating growth across all our businesses,” Venkataraman said.

Venkataraman said high gold prices caused a brief pause in consumer buying, but sentiment picked up strongly once prices stabilized. “There was a certain bounce back from consumers during the material rise of gold, but when they didn’t see it coming down and it remained high throughout the festival, a lot of perceptions came back. The month of October and the festival season in general has been very good for the industry and it’s certainly very good for us as well,” he said during the post-results call with analysts.

He said Titan’s aggressive replacement program played an important role in stimulating buyer demand. “Apart from Diwali collection launches and campaigns, of course, we also had a very strong trade-in that may have impacted demand significantly,” he said, adding that the company consciously positioned the trade-in scheme not just as a discount offer but also as an emotional appeal to customers to “unlock their wardrobes”; This is good for both you and the country.

Titan has added 34 new jewelery stores in the country, including six Tanishq, 18 Mia and 10 CaratLane stores, and opened a new Tanishq store in Virginia, USA.

Watches and wearable devices

The watches and wearables division performed consistently, with revenue growing 13% year-on-year. ₹1,477 crore and segment profit up 22% ₹238 crore. Stronger interest in analog and premium watches is offsetting the decline in smart wearables.

The company added 15 new Titan World, Helios, Helios Luxe and Fastrack outlets.

Titan’s viewing margins remain healthy, Venkataraman said. “Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins of 16-17% for watches are good numbers given the type of investments required; we went beyond that this quarter.”

The eyewear business, although smaller in scale, saw a 9% increase in revenue. ₹220 crore led by sunglasses, surpassing other categories. The division added five new ‘Runway’ stores in the quarter. Runway stores are Titan Eye+’s new premium format stores designed to offer a wider selection of eyewear, advanced eye testing technology and a lifestyle-focused retail experience..

“Others” segment nearly doubled its revenue ₹557 crore, helped by expansion of Taneira’s ethnic wear stores and strong growth at Titan Engineering and Automation Ltd.

In emerging businesses, fragrances were up 47% year-on-year, women’s bags were up 90%, and Taneira saw double-digit growth.

Consumer sentiment

The management noted that despite the fluctuation of gold, buyer growth in jewelery was stable. “Buyer growth overall was -2% in the quarter, gold -11%, but studded jewelery buyers’ growth was positive at +3%, indicating better traction than plain gold,” Venkataraman said. “The contribution of studded jewelery in the second quarter was approximately 14% of the total business volume, up one percentage point year-on-year.”

Venkataraman added: “After 10 days of the festival, even after Diwali, sales growth has continued on par with the beautiful festival, largely due to a good wedding season and the ongoing change we are executing.”

Titan expects “growth to continue to be good, even historically high,” while margins are expected to stabilize as gold prices moderate. “If gold prices stabilize, growth prospects will improve because more buyers will come to the market and margins will also stabilize,” he said.

The company also reiterated its store expansion goal. “The target for the full year remains 35 to 40 new Tanishq stores,” Venkataraman said. “We also expanded and renovated nearly 35 stores in the first half, which is giving us very good results.”

It was Venkataraman’s last earnings call with analysts as he prepares to retire at the end of this year. Titan’s board of directors has approved the appointment of Ajoy Chawla as managing director and chief executive officer, effective January 1, 2026.

While Titan’s reported growth looks strong, some of it was due to a positive festive calendar change, according to Ambit Capital equity research analyst Pratik Prajapati.

“In 2024-25, Navratri fell in the third quarter, whereas this year it fell in the second quarter; hence, the significant increase in festivities in the September quarter is partly due to this shift,” he said. “If you normalize the quarters, Titan still posted healthy growth as jewelery demand continued despite higher gold prices.”

“If you take into account last year’s import duty cut, EBITDA grew around 14% year-on-year. Growth at the PBT level is solid, but margins at the gross level have narrowed slightly. Sequentially, profitability tends to improve from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, with the second half generally delivering stronger margins,” Prajapati said.

Titan’s shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.4% lower. ₹While it gained 3,724.5 points per capita on Monday, the Nifty 50 index fell 0.2%.