In high festive spirits

But revenue trends are encouraging: Overall revenue growth at 9% was below estimates as jewellery revenues grew 6%. But a closer look reveals much more encouraging picture: (i) Retail sales growth in jewellery came in at 17%, more than reported 6% as dealers delayed purchases, a trend that is likely to reverse in Q3. Tanishq revenue growth was at 19%. (ii). Gammage (volume) growth was—11% as expected, but this was due to 30% decline in low margin coins segment, and plain gold jewellery volumes fell just 1- 2%, which in our view was much better than expected.

(iii) Early trends of festive demand have been quite encouraging and the management appears upbeat about a pick-up in the jewellery demand in Q3. (iv) Titan added about 34K retailer areas in Q2 and bulk of the expansion was in self-owned stores. Aggressive retail expansion is progressing well in Q3 and the target of adding 200K jewellery retail areas this year

... contd.