Aug 7 (Reuters) - India's Titan reported a 63% jump in quarterly profit on Friday, as demand for jewellery stayed strong and store footfalls climbed while elevated gold prices drove expenses higher.
Large jewellery chains including Kalyan Jewellers and Titan's Tanishq and CaratLane have been amassing customers from smaller independent jewellers as they rapidly expand across India, the world's second-largest consumer of gold.
Titan is the country's largest jeweller by both store count and revenue. The company, also home to Titan Eye+ eyewear and Fastrack watch stores, had 3,680 stores at June-end, up from 3,322 last year.
The company's profit surged to 17.77 billion rupees ($186.64 million) and overall margins for earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) expanded to 13.4% from 11.8%, as customers turned to buying higher-margin jewellery.
Revenue from the mainstay jewellery business, excluding bullion and digi-gold sales, rose 43%, with footfalls in Indian retail stores climbing at a low double-digit percentage pace.
Overall revenue jumped 40% to 207.87 billion rupees. Excluding customs-duty gains, profit rose 37%.
Total expenses climbed 26% to 190.75 billion rupees on higher gold prices and advertising costs.
Titan maintained its medium-term expectation of double-digit jewellery annual revenue growth, though executives said Titan recorded some softness in plain gold demand toward the end of July with some consumers delaying purchases as gold prices turned volatile once more.
Regarding its Middle East business, Titan said the conflict shrank store traffic and customer spending at its recently acquired Damas jewellery brand, pushing the business into a loss during the quarter.
($1 = 95.2075 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman
Source: Reuters