Titan Company Limited (TITAN) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Titan Company Limited, Q4 and F526 on e-conference call. As a reminder, all participant line will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchdown phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ajayi Chawla, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited. Thank you and over to you Mr. Chawla.

Thank you. Warm welcome to the Titan Quarter 4 FY26 earnings call. Thank you for being here this Friday afternoon. We have ended the year with a superlative quarter for top-line growth, perhaps our best ever in the recent past. All our businesses have grown very well. And all our brands have enhanced their visibility and equity in the quarter and the full year that went by. Over to you for all the questions so we can get on with the Q&A.

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Devan Shubhansal from AMCIC Global. Please go ahead.

Yes, sir. Hi. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Sir, firstly, I wanted to check on gold sourcing. The industry sources are a considerable part of gold from Inglis, and there was some news flow also that there has been delayed removal of import licenses by DGFP. Checking if you could provide some color on the current inventory level as well as any cost related to sourcing that you foresee in the near term.

Hi Devansu, Ashok here. While some of those slowness we are also picking up from the customs point of view, but we are pretty much... Quite covered for, you know, quarter one. And also our gold exchange program is very, very successfully being run from the last quarter three onwards, actually. We always used to run this, but, you know, now we have another level of another short notice. We can end up if required further register. And some of the other plan Bs are also ready. So, we are at least not concerned in the short term as far as gold supply is concerned. For Titan, Tannisk, and Caratane perspective.

Thank you very much. Mr. Sunthariya. Sir, just a small follow-up. From an availability perspective, I understood, but do you foresee any increase in cost? Maybe our gold metal loan cost was around 3 odd percent. Do you foresee an increase there?

No, no, no, not yet. Actually, now, if you would recall, gold loan tenure has been increased from 180 to 270 days, and I think we are working on that, and we are successful in starting that also. So, we don't see any increase in cost in gold loan, at least in the short term.

Sure, sir. Second, a couple of bookkeeping questions. Sir, Dhamas is a recent acquisition. International loss has been around 80 crore in Q4. If you could guide us on the top-line scale growth as well as near-term loss run rate for Dhamas, it would be helpful in sort of forecasting for FI 27.

You know, one of the positive news for international business, if you look at the full year, at operating level, they become profitable. And this is the first year after, whatever, two, three years back, we started and we scaled it up. So, full year basis, it is profitable. Quarter 4 certainly had challenges, which we all are aware. March month was quite disturbed in the GCC, where not only the mass is present, but our tanisks also is present. So all those things have kind of come in the quarter 4 in the form of loss of 82 crore, what you are seeing. GCC continues to be an evolving situation which is unpredictable at this stage, and where the mass retail network is there, and TANIS is also expanding there through some conversion of the mass retail network. So, a lot of restructuring going on there. So, but over the... I would say... Two, three quarters beyond, if you want to look at, we are very, very positive about the aspects of whatever is happening in the integration, the operational improvement. We are quite positive about that. So the next four quarters, we started consolidating from the January. First four quarters, of course, we have started disclosure in some manner, and maybe you will see increased disclosure coming out of us as kind of we get better. You know, and then next year onwards, you will also have comparison. Then you will able to assess how the situation in terms of growth of revenue, margin of the mass, etc., is improving. But right now, we are not separately calling out. But it is not a major part of 82 crore, I can tell you. Whatever plan they had, it is actually they have done better than that plan.

Got it. So, last one, the unallocated losses, which used to be around 20-30 crores, this time is around 140 crores in QCore. So, what has led to this higher loss?

For corporate? Just give me a second. Okay, so this is, you know, there was a quite good performance. For the full year as Ajoy started and Titan, in past also we haven't spoken about, we have a tradition of sharing that superlative performance by sharing. We call it special reward, which is kind of announced once we know the result. And that is how in quarter four, it comes without much planning. And this year also, the good performance has been celebrated by sharing that with all the employees and all the people connected with Titan. So it's about 100, 120, 100, 120 crore roughly, and that is what the variation you are seeing.

Sure, sir. I have more questions, but I'll join back in the queue. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Soman from CLSA. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. So actually, two follow-up questions. So you said a lot of that 80 crore loss was not in demand. So that could be for titan's Middle East businesses. Is that the right assumption?

Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Okay, and which is why it's showing up in the standalone numbers, right?

No, it will not show in standalone. It is the international subsidiary.

Okay, in the international subsidiary. All right. And this 120 crores, this is not attributable. I mean, the reason it's in unallocated law is because it's not attributable to any space. So, it wouldn't be like a payment to the franchises, right? So, this is just bonuses to employees or other partners or would this also include payment to franchises?

No, it is not payment to franchise. It is mostly employees and the other employees through different agencies who are connected with us.

All right. No, very clear. And then just very quickly on the watches business, again, we've seen the reason.

You know, like my colleague just hinted me, one thing which you would see in a standalone in international, I don't know what page you are looking at, but we, from the 25-26, although we had a transfer pricing arrangement all through the start of international business, But we formalized that from 25-26, where we are treating our all subsidiaries at low-risk distributors. And that Titan, as a parent company, is in a way ensuring that a certain amount of basic profit is there. And that transfer pricing adjustment in the standalone books is about 80 crore plus minus. But in consolidated basis, that nullifies because it is between subsidiary and parents. So that I just wanted to point out for you as well as all the people who are on the call.

I understand. That's very clear. And that's why the standalone profitability will look lower.

Yes, yes, yes.

Okay. Okay. Very clear. And just quickly on the watches one. So any, you've given us a sense of how the analog watches have done, but can you give us a sense of what the contribution for the full year is from analog watches now?

Hi, this is Dini here. Analog watches, overall growth has been around 16% for the year. If you look at both smart and analog put together, because smart reduced in numbers, overall growth has been about 14% for the watches division. And you were asking about contribution. What contribution were you looking for?

No, just the revenue contribution of analog watches within the overall business. Or within the watch business that is?

Within overall business. Analog within the watch business. Analog within the watch is around 85%. Now closer to 90%.

Okay. Very clear. Thank you. That's it for me.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mihir Shah from Nomura. Please do that.

Hi, sir. Congrats on a good set of numbers. Thank you for taking my question. So, first question is on buyer growth. I just wanted to get a sense of what led to the return of buyer growth to 8% versus flat that we've seen for the past nine months. Was it a brief period of stable gold demand that brought it back or I'm sure you'll be doing certain activations, etc. on diamond. So, how should one look at the return of buyer growth? Was it more from gold point of view or from activation point of view?

Yes, thanks. This is Arun Narayan here. So very clearly we have seen resurgence in buyer growth in quarter four and what we have reported is 8% versus flattish for the period prior to that.

Now two clear types of buyers, those who are waiting on the sidelines for Dubai and pretty much we have seen gold rays go up from festive onwards. It has been climbing and

Many customers who were waiting on the sidelines who came in to buy in quarter four, and we've also seen an advancement in wedding purchases, because people were anxious that it could go up even beyond, and those who have weddings in their families in quarter one also ended up coming in the months of February and March too, but it's a mix of both. But also we have seen a resistance in buyer growth on the studded front as well. We did an enabled by the diamonds, which has been a very, very successful campaign, a very fresh campaign, very different from what we have done in the past. So on both sides, we have seen a good buyer growth. Lastly, I think the continued exchange campaign which we began in the month of just before festive really has, you know, worked extremely well. It helped get buyers in in quarter three and by sustaining it, it's also helped us to get buyers in quarter four. And now we are running the exchange campaign both as a standalone campaign, and you may have seen that a lot of our Tanish campaigns, which are new collection campaigns, also have an exchange section in the same campaign. So, in a sense, it's getting reinforced with every campaign that we run.

That's right. Arun, may I request if you can receive mortgage and how do you see the sustainability of this? Do you think the exchange program will help us ensure the level of buyer growth to continue?

We think so. We think so. We believe so. That's why we are sustaining the investment behind exchange. It's very relevant for wedding buyers. It's also relevant for others who are looking at, you know, updating their collection of jewelry. And I mean, the sentiment also of the campaign has resonated very well with people because it has a certain public service message and nationalistic angle to it. So, all in all, we think that, you know, it is a good thing to run, and it will give us rewards even going forward.

Got it. That is clear. So that's one. Secondly, I wanted to get a sense on the increase in ticket size that we've been witnessing over the past two quarters of 44 and 46. You know, should one extrapolate this growth given that the gold prices have gone up or do you think it is a phenomenon again because of, you know, wedding earlier, activation in fourth quarter? Can one expect this at least to continue for some more time?

Yeah, so if you track the gold trade trend of last year, you will see that there have been increases on a consistent basis and a big jump, which happened close to Dashara, and thereafter it's gone up significantly. So, therefore, they will be, you know, I mean, in that sense, if you were to compare, let's say, quarter one versus quarter one of last year, just the increase in gold rate will give us a certain ticket size benefit in quarter one and quarter two. But the second half of the year, we will have to see how the trend of gold actually, you know, how it kind of pans out. But perhaps for the first two quarters, we may see a certain benefit.

Got it. And lastly, on profitability, you know, you have been within the 11.5% band in the TMZ side of the business in domestic. Any confidence on sustaining these levels? I understand this quarter, while it is down YOY, but because of the diamond activation, it will be optically sequentially better. But ability to sustain these margins, any insights of that will be great. Yeah.

Yes, Ashok here, you know, I think this is completely, I would not say full correlation, but gold price is playing a significant role on the product mix aspect of it, and consequently, it is very difficult to... Tell sustainability. If gold remains at the current rate, it is sustainable. But if gold continues to go up, we may have to keep making effort, which has been a huge effort by the team on various things, which we have talked in the past, like doing 18-carat, 14-carat jewelry, doing mix, re-engineering, lightweight jewelry, a lot of things they have been doing. So, to some extent, you can offset that, but beyond a point, you know, there will be impact on margin, and that is visible. You know, some 10-20 basis point, we have been kind of losing, and the other thing which we are able to offset sometimes through the control of our overhead costs, etc., optimizing that. So I would not give you a good assurance that this is sustainable. A lot of things are going on. And maybe we will have more informed view to guide a little bit about this. How do we see it, you know, in the context of growth is number one priority. How do we see it maybe in our investor day, which we are planning in June first week. Yeah.

Got it. Understood. Ashwak sir, the whole crisis have constantly grown up and you've been able to manage well. And I was, you know, asking in that context only. But I hear you and we look forward to, you know, seeing more guidance from you on the first week of June. Thank you.

Just keep sending your blessings. We will hopefully continue to deliver. Just keep sending your blessings.

Thank you, sir. Wishing you all the very best.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Gold price is now stabilized at a fairly high level. How is the consumer managing with the high gold price? What is the behavioral change which you are seeing? Any changes in trends in exchange or shift towards lower caret or increase in the jewelry budget, buying gold coins? What's happening in the market?

Yeah, actually, all of the above with, you know, because I think people have started accepting gold at this level, and this small cool-off that we have seen in the last month or two is also kind of helped to bring people back, because there seems to be an acceptance that in the medium to long term, it's again going to go back to its trajectory of upward movement. That seems to be the sentiment with consumers. From a brand standpoint, I think we have said we need to make jewelry both exciting as well as accessible. So there are a set of things we have done to make it accessible. Exchange is one, 18-karat gold is the other, 14-karat studded jewelry is the third. Lastly is the jewelry purchase plan that we have, which is a Grammage purchase plan, which is ongoing for the last two years, which does a rupee cost averaging bike. By accumulation in grams and not in rupees, plus the whole lightweight piece where we are trying to get a significant difference in the weight of the jewelry versus the way it looks. So look to price ratio. So multiple things we are doing to make jewelry accessible and... Exciting as well for customers, but certainly there is interest in the category, which is what we have seen in quarter four by way of buyer growth. Both in diamonds, studded jewelry and in gold jewelry. And we are also expanding the pie by what we have launched also, this Akshay Trithiya, which is getting entry into a whole new world of natural gemstone jewelry to make jewelry more exciting and provide... We have collections and stories which have never been seen before. So a bunch of things we are doing to keep jewelry and the category exciting and accessible.

Understood. Just a follow-up there, FY26 was a strong year for you and the days will keep getting higher, especially in the second half. Can you share your early thoughts on FY27, January sales growth? Also, you mentioned customers might have pre-owned purchases. Is that a risk for FY27? And how, like, say, confident are you of, like, say, maintaining the growth rate or, like, say, at least 20% growth, which you've been talking about in the past? How doable is that?

Yeah, I think in the past, we have said between 15 to 20. So, in a sense, you know, that holds good and we hope to. To do that and maybe do a bit better. In a sense, this preponement is, you know, can keep happening, you know, because at each month you can keep advancing from the future because wedding dates are in a way sustained. But it all depends upon the trajectory of gold and what impact that makes on consumer sentiments. So, we'll, you know, too early to call on that, but we are hopeful to keep to the same guidance we will have given in the past. Whether we will sustain this trajectory, I think perhaps time will tell.

Understood. Just lastly, any comments on LGD4A beyond, would you look to scale it up this year?

Yeah, like we said earlier, we would certainly like to expand to around 10 to 12 stores in 2 to 3 cities and then kind of see how that, you know, because we've done a certain. We've done a lot of interaction with customers and we reached a point where we believe that, you know, that it is a twin engine approach to growing adoption in a very low penetrated diamond market, which is India. So our objective currently is very soon to scale up to, you know, the next step of 10 to 12 stores and then kind of see how that works for us before planning. So, right now, we are looking to get to that point. We are at two stores currently, and hopefully, we will get a bunch of stores in place, well, in Qatavan itself.

Understood. Thank you. That's it for me.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jam from HSBC Bank. Please go ahead.

Yes, hi team. Good evening. Couple of questions. The first one was on the 15 to 20% growth for next year that you mentioned. Does it depend on the fact of gold prices continuing to sustainably increase so that also becomes an additional lever for buyer growth or what are the caveats in terms of achieving that number?

See, I think this is the general guidance that we have given that we should be able to sustain this kind of a growth irrespective of gold rate because it's intrinsic to what we kind of try to achieve irrespective of the gold rate. And pretty much the playbook is very simple. If gold rate goes up, then we need to manage the buyer growth to deliver this number, and to keep the category, like I said, accessible. So, in a sense, that's the playbook that we've been following also for the last year or so.

I will just add to that, this is a joy here. These are fundamentals of jewelry category and industry. We are formalizing and therefore organized players growing more rapidly, certainly players with stronger balance sheets as gold price go up, as well as brands which are, you know, providing that trust and of course differentiation. So I think that formalization of the industry continues to be a very strong underlying factor for growth, interest in the category because of its preciousness, and thirdly, the India growth story. Therefore, the 15 to 20 percent is something that we ought to do. You know, if we don't do that much, we won't be doing justice to all these tailwinds. Caveats will always exist in terms of volatility in gold price, macro sentiment, etc. But those need to be managed.

Got that as well. Just one follow-up to that, that, you know, this is an exception there, and you've also mentioned there was a lot of FOMO buying, which would have paid off, say, in Q3, maybe in Q4, that, that kind of a customer obviously would have come in one time or would have upsized the amount he spent. So, potentially, if, you know, you don't see that kind of a gold price enough in this current year, maybe that customer goes out. Does that still have any impact on the 15 to 20%? Just asking your views on that.

See, I think this 15 to 20 percent, whenever we have given, we have never set it for a quarter or for a certain period. It's typically an annualized number and also a kind of a CAGR. Pluses and minuses will happen. Reponement, postponement can keep happening, but that's more noise which happens between month to month, quarter to quarter. Think of it over the next three to four years. What should be the growth? I think India's growth story and the formalization of this sector will land you in this space.

Final question, beyond obviously the mix of gold and diamond which is sort of changing, is there any other pressure on margin in terms of say comparative intensity or is it just mainly the mix that is leading to the answer to?

No, it's primarily that, nothing else there.

Coin plays a role these days because investment-led orientation is high and that and plain gold and diamond, you know, these are the three broad categories which interplays and impact the margin.

Understood. Thanks. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participant, we request you to kindly limit your question for two questions per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Kaivalya Bank from IFL Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. This is Percy Pansaki here. I just wanted to understand on the competitive and margin front for the jewelry business, what is the situation now in terms of competition? Is it still sort of on a YOI basis getting more intense in terms of discounting and so on? And on a standalone basis now for the India business, what kind of EBITDA margins are we confident of achieving in FY27?

Okay, thanks, Percy. I'll answer the competition question. I think competition is now has become business as usual. Nothing, you know, and I think we have shown that we've got a playbook to kind of, to deliver sustainable, sustained results. So, it's not something that we are so concerned about. And the competition is here to stay, and what Ajay mentioned on formalization is also resulting in... We have organized competition, putting up stores and adding stores across geography, so that's something that is now par for the course.

And as far as, you know, margin is concerned, I was answering to the earlier question where I was asked that 11.2% and how much it can sustain. So in a way, you know, we have been focusing on growth and in the current environment of gold prices, it's very difficult to predict or give you a number that or a small range that within that we will operate. The idea is that if we are growing revenue 15% to 20% in the same ballpark, can we grow our EBIT also? At least, you know, a little bit lower than revenue because the structural gold price impacts are happening. We talked about product mix, etc. But a healthy growth of EBIT, which would be a source of cash flow and value creation overall. But we will talk maybe more about that in our Investor Day, that how do we view this, which is going to be in June 1st week, okay.

And on the top line, supposing if the gold price remains roughly at $1,50,000 for the rest of the year, on a YOY average basis, that would still be a significant inflation. And although not fully to some partial effect, the gold price inflation typically has a positive effect on the top line growth. So when you are saying a 15-20% growth, aren't you low-balling the possible growth for FY27 given where the gold price is currently?

So, we are not low-balling. We said this is the medium to 3 to 5-year horizon, if you want to look at. This is the growth rate we are expecting. We are not giving any guidance to you for FY27. As Arun spoke about, quarter 1 and quarter 2 may have benefit of this gold price inflation substantially. Actually, quarter three, quarter four, already gold price was quite elevated, and it will completely depend on trajectory from there on. So this guidance of 15.20, you look more that we have the way we are running business, the way Indian macros are behaving, we believe 15 to 20%, three to five year kind of horizon is certainly to be delivered on a CAGR basis kind of.

Understood. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Jekanshu from Beltsin SG.

Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I just have one question. A lot of this has already been discussed. Wanted to touch base on Carrot Lane. The commentary seemed to suggest to me that one of the reasons why the growth sort of slowed from last quarter to this quarter was a preference for higher gold jewelry across customers, and which is why the studied jewelry value proposition for Carrot Lane had a challenge. This also suggests there is fungibility of goal versus studded or indeed caroline versus tanishq slash mia. Is this understanding correct or is the customer's use case and profile different for these two? How do you think about it structurally?

Swamin is there on the line? Swamin, are you there?

I am there, I am there. I will take. Hi, this is Swamin here. I need to draw that kind of a conclusion by one quarter's result. And I think if you look at even the studied sales of Tanishka or even otherwise, I think it has been a good sales, good growth for Caratlin specifically. Among other things, we have grown to the tune of 22, 23%, which is per se not bad, but we also had a big, you know, platform level shift. We moved from our legacy ARP to, you know, Oracle Fusion that had created some degree of operational challenges, especially in the month of January and first half of February. And February month is very critical for Carat Lane because Valentine is our next big month after Diwali. So at some level, we have not been able to fulfill some of the, you know, demand that were coming to us. So I would I would say this is a bit internal and this is a part and parcel of any big change that happens in terms of ERP migration. And if I, why am I saying it so confidently? Because if I look at my December figure or if I look at what I experienced in the month of April, that suggests that this is actually a more of a neglect. Yeah, so I wouldn't think there is any significant change in customer presence for diamond and therefore for character.

Okay, clear. Just a quick follow-up, then the margin profile changing for Karatlinen at 8.4% this quarter is also a function largely of operating leverage or something else as well?

Yeah, it is because the revenue was one big factor. And also, we have continued our investment on our campaigns in order to, you know, generate a lot more, you know, awareness among customers because you are also presenting across 160 plus towns. So these would be the two factors, but revenue would be the largest factor for the, but for And the year is almost nearly 10%.

That's it for me. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Siddhant from Goodwill. Please go ahead.

First question was about Tanera. What kind of metrics are you targeting till you start opening new stores again, like some inventory turn, profitability?

Yeah, hi, this is Aja here. I'll take that. On Tanaira, I think we are undergoing some kind of a review of the way we are managing the store operating model through a mix of merchandise change, price points, and strengthening the consumer value proposition. And therefore, the metrics we are looking at is twofold. One is, of course, same store growth. Buyer growth. And thirdly, we'll be looking at these stock turns as well as the sell-throughs of product merchandise that has been brought. These are the top-level pieces that we are tracking and a lot of work is underway to kind of bring in a lot more buyer growth, particularly in the sub-10,000 price band category. And some of that will start showing up in the next few months.

Okay, that's great to know. About the damas, I wanted to understand a little more about the minority stake. So, you know, because we're converting some damas to Tanishq, how does it work for the minority shareholder? And what is the acquisition plan like for the residual stake in three, four years, whenever it is planned? Because in case it is very successful, you might not want to overpay for it or something like that, right?

If it is very successful, we are happy to overpay. You know, it is about four years after that, that occasion would come where partners can discuss and transact. So, and some of the retail conversion which are happening in favor of TANESK in the catchments where Southeast Asian customers are dominant, they are under a franchisee model with the mass. So minority shareholder interest has been completely protected, and both the partners are in full partnership, taking some of these calls for the appointment of...

And the third question would be, would we expect the momentum at Teal to continue and how is the JustTech acquisition doing?

That has done wonderfully well, which you can see in the full year result, I think, which we have spoken about. and teal has good Opportunities unfolding under various domains, and they are a powerhouse of engineering, precision manufacturing. Ajay, you want to add something?

I think the deal business has some good growth tailwinds or opportunities sitting in front. A lot of India manufacturing is coming in, a lot of investments, aerospace sector, defense, infrastructure, electronic chips. So, manufacturing itself, because of partly government-led incentives, as well as the fact that internationally, many clients are choosing to have a China plus one strategy. Both of these augur very well. And the automation business as well having a lot of opportunities, thanks to a lot more new sectors also emerging, from batteries to EVs to so many other things.

Understood. Thank you so much. Thank you. And this question comes from the line of Ashish Kanu.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. So, the first question was on the bullion sales. You know, if I look at it on a full year basis, the bullion sales is substantially higher. So, one, is this bullion sales largely because of the, you know, benefit which we have on the custom duty, which is on 1% custom duty? So, you are just selling that gold? And if that's true, then where is the profit sitting? Is it sitting within the jewelry bit?

No, this is more inventory management. We have been running gold exchange program very, very successfully. You would have seen our campaign around that from quarter three onwards. And a lot of gold we are buying from customers, you know, from their vault, and we don't want to hold it for long, so we continuously keep updating that and replacing it when we really need that volume. There is no 1% angle to this. We are not getting enough quota from the government to get that 1% thing. You know, it is not at all linked with that. And actually, you know, there is no, in a way, profit because it is just inventory optimization.

The second question was on the jewellery EBIT. Now, when I look at on the standalone basis on the reported financiers, the jewellery EBIT is around 1,711 crores. And when I look at, you know, the revised disclosure of the TMZ business domestic, it's around 1,813 crores. So, there's a difference of around 100 and 200 and 300 crores. Now, Mayan, please help me correct if I'm wrong here, but this is basically the difference in revenue as well as on the EBIT, absolute EBIT is largely because of the primary sales which happened from India to international. And if that's true, why is there suddenly a 102 crore loss this quarter versus typically having profit because this is mostly gross margins on the primary sales?

So that, you know, I spoke about the transfer pricing adjustment of about 80 plus crore that is sitting into the India international business. That is why you are seeing that loss. Otherwise, and this is a new thing, as I spoke in the beginning, sometime during the call, that Titan as a parent company is ensuring that its international subsidiaries who are doing this jewellery business, they are low-risk distributors, and we ensure that they have a minimum profit there. So that is sitting there.

Sure. So maybe I will connect more on this offline. And just last question, I think, on the demand side is one, if you can help me understand, I think you talked about the Grammage Purchase Plan, which started two years back. So when did we start seeing the first, you know, like which quantity we started seeing the, you know, maybe the redemption of the same, because I think it's typically a one-year phenomenon. So that's one. And second thing is, this 1Q will have adhikmas as well. And when I look at historical numbers, 2018, we saw some, you know,

deacceleration in growth because of adhikmas.

The next year, 2021, because of COVID, et cetera, is not very clear. But 2024, we didn't see any impact from a growth point of view. Whatever was the trajectory, it kind of continued. So from Adikma's point of view, anything to look at or do you think that there are enough initiatives the company has taken to mitigate that impact on growth?

Okay. Thank you for that, for the two questions. Let me answer the first one first. The redemption for the Riva Golden Advantage Grammage Program started from Jan 2025. This is at a national level, though the program was run at a pilot level in Tamil Nadu prior to that. So Jan 25 was the national, at a national level is when redemptions began. The second question on Adikmas, honestly, you know, we haven't really given it too much of thought for me to, you know, answer that. But, see, there is a lot of seasonality in jewelry purchase. There are months which are auspicious, months which are not auspicious. So, it pretty much is part of an operating rhythm that we have. So, really, we don't, you know, worry too much about, too much about this.

Sure, sir. Thank you and all the best.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ali, Azgar, Shakir from Otila, Roswell, Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you a lot for the opportunity, sir. So, I have one question on the margins. So, we've seen margins slightly coming down, obviously, because of the prices going up and you also have to offer promotions, discounts to the customer. Now, as you mentioned that Q1, Q2, prices will be high, but beyond that, if prices remain at the current level, would we expect the discounts, promotions to now start coming down and therefore, So, in a flattish gold price environment, your margins could be better.

See, our reference was more from the growth point of view that quarter 1, quarter 2 may have a tailwind of differential gold rate compared to last year quarter 1 to this quarter 1, and quarter 3, quarter 4 might be much more closer if gold prices doesn't go further up. But, you know, if at all they go further up, then again something may happen. So it was more from the growth point of view than the margin point of view, you know, our response to that. And I think the margin pressures are more coming from the product mix aspect. Not as much as the discount, which happens, you know, which we have activations, and I don't think we have kind of doubled down on that in a very, very big manner. Exchange program, of course, exchange program does have an investment, and which is kind of helping us a lot in growth, in getting buyers, and all those stuff. So, we are quite comfortable in continuing with that.

Okay, but just to, you know, I mean, for the... You know, persist on this point that if at all the gold prices remain stable, do you think there is any possibility of improvement either from the point of view of also makes or maybe whatever activations we may be doing to, you know, increase customer intensity?

Sustainability of margin would become far easier if gold rate remains where it is, and then we will see whether there is a possibility to improve or what, but sustainability would certainly become far easier.

Got it. Okay. Thank you very much. Very useful.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tejas Shah from Avinas Park Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, just wanted to base on the current trends and data available, what would be assessment or assessment of the market share movement this year in jewelry?

Okay. Thank you for that question, Tejesh. Our sense is that perhaps we have gained about 50 to 60 BIPs is our sense on FI26 versus FI25.

Perfect. The second, if we have to look at the opportunity here and Julie from a consumer wallet share perspective, based on my rough calculation, we would have added, the sector would have added roughly 4 lakh crore kind of size in the last 4 or 5 years. So, how should we think about this number or the denominator is not only consumption basket, but it is tipping into investment basket of the consumer as well? And perhaps looking from consumer lens could be not the right way or the only way to understand. Just wanted your perspective.

I think it's a bit of a complex question. Better to, you know, discuss it in person when we are meeting just a few weeks from now. It's an honest answer. If you're going to answer that over a call, but there are multiple customers, multiple need states. The whole investment buying has really, you know, peaked in the last few years. That may not have been in the case between 2012 and 2019 when gold was very stable. Um, so, uh, Yeah, so we'll have to look at it by need state and maybe good to catch up in person perhaps or do it with the investor meet few weeks from now.

I will park it for them, sir.

Thanks a lot, Danald.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Utkash Sheenha from an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Actually, I wanted to understand that given the sharp increasing gold prices of the gold volatility, can you paint us a picture of how the demand trend progressed across January, March, particularly this quarter?

I think gold price increase has actually created more interest in the category, is my sense. This is Ajay Chandra. And it's not just for investment demand, but even for jewellery demand, gold as well as studded. I think Arun shared that how people have requirements for wedding, people have requirements for adornment. I think the interest in the precious jewellery category has... I got heightened with the high gold prices and across segments, young, old, modern tradition.

Mr. Suna, have you done with your question? Yeah, I guess it was a little bit. No, yeah, just a little bit. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Devan Shivansal from MCEGlobal. Please go ahead.

Yes, sir. Hi. Thanks for the follow-up opportunity. Sir, I wanted to check on this new gemstone based views collection that we have launched. What is the strategic rationale behind this launch? Is it also an attempt to address the current challenges at entry-level price points or is it to address the relatively slower growth in the studies event? And second sub-question is, how is the margin profile for this line of jewellery with the line with the studded jewellery?

Thank you. Thank you for that question. And also, thank you for noting this new development from our side. It's an effort to grow the category. So far, the category has been seen through the lens of coins, gold jewellery, and studded jewellery. We are adding a new dimension to it. of natural gemstones with gold, and therefore attempting to create another engine of growth for us. There are, you know, the category is a very, very, let's say, the category is penetration for gold is extremely high in India, and we are seeing that over the last few years The design seeker in the category is growing by leaps and bounds, in addition to the value seeker who is there to get the best value for their hard-earned money. And the design seeker in the category is looking for new expressions in gold jewelry. And we are adding a dimension to it by adding natural gemstones. And natural gemstones is a completely different world where there are multiple. Types of natural gemstones from different parts of the world, which can be embellished in gold to create a whole new range of jewelry. So that's what we are aiming to do with this. Hughes is just the first attempt or first collection, and there will be many more coming up in this. So, the, you know, we're not approaching it from a margin standpoint or from any other standpoint, but we are only approaching it from creating a new dimension and ensuring that the category in which we operate stays exciting.

Understood, sir. Small follow-up. If you could highlight the price range for this collection, is it at entry-level price points or more towards the premium price points?

Yeah, we have about 200 styles, 50% of which is between about 40,000 and 2.5 lakhs.

Okay, so this may help us.

That's the overall range.

Understood. So this may help us sort of address the challenges that we have been seeing at entry level price points as well.

It is seeming to do that as well. And a lot of the, yeah, it is seeming to do that as well. So very wearable jewelry, jewelry that you can wear every day. So it's not. And that's also the direction in which we are moving to have a greater part of the excitement also in variable.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Priyanka Dhingra from SBA Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

So, I just wanted to understand from the IK business perspective, there were 20 stores which were net closed in the quarter, and of course, the EBIT margin is also from a YOY basis a little suppressed. So, I'm just trying to understand that despite the premiumization and the store optimization that we are doing, why are the EBIT margins going down, and what are the plans to further improve this category?

Thank you, Priyanka. This is Raghavan here. So the store closures is a part of revamping the look and feel of our network. So this is a journey which we undertook for the past one and a half years. And that is the reason you see almost 32 store closures and the net being at 20. So that is to enhance the overall appeal. In terms of the EBIT, I think our focus is on growing the Top line revenue and if you look at the new growth, now we are clocking almost 16 to 17% growth. However, this was also supported by increased marketing spends and also we had a one of inventory recall where we recalls the certain stocks, which we believe were slow movers. So these are the reasons for that.

Okay, got it, sir. The second question I wanted to ask was about BEYOND, the LGD platform. I understand that at this point of time, maybe sharing separate numbers may not be possible, but how was the, let's say, the Valentine's period sale for BEYOND, and do you see kind of parity between Caraclain or, let's say, Nia versus BEYOND? Do you think that the footfalls are increasing? If you could give us some color around BEYOND.

Sure. Thank you for this question on Bihon. It's just one store, so, you know, it would be incorrect to extrapolate on a sample size of one. But we have seen good traction even in Bihon during the Valentine's period this year. So, nothing that we are seeing which is very different from what we are seeing in natural diamonds. But do allow us to open few more stores and have more data points too. You know, to answer that with more rigour.

Sure. Thank you so much.

Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I would like to hand the conference over to Mr. Shawla for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, once again, for a very engaging and interesting conversation. Thanks for all your questions. They make us think and look forward to seeing you soon in the next few weeks. Till then, take care. Bye. Have a good Friday and a weekend.

Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Titan Company Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining and have a good day.