Releasing its preliminary update for the three months ended June 30, 2018 (Q1 FY ’19), Titan Co Ltd, which owns the Tansihq jewellery brand said that the the Indian jewellery market has been going through a “significant soft patch” and “demand for adornments continued to be muted”.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, Titan said that the weakness in consumer sentiment has  had an impact on sales, and while growth has been “muted”, total sales have been below the Company’s “own intemal targets”.

The decline in demand for bullion and to some extent weak demand for adornments has been reflected in the 39% decline  in volume of  gold imports during the fiirst five months of CY 2018, Titan added, stating that channel checks have corroborated that, while Akshaya  Tritiya day itself had “decent sales”, the remainder of the quarter witnessed “a significant decline compared to the previous year”. 

However, the statement noted, the quarter also had a very high base for comparison (54%  YOY growth in the same quarter of previous year). It said that Q1 FY ’18, apart from having a good growth, also had a favorable one-off  impact of an estimated lNR 250 crores sales getting advanced from Q2 last year in anticipation of higher GST rates. 

Despite this, Titan’s jewellery division added 10 net new Tanishq stores, with a net space  addition of around 24k square feet. The Company reported that the revised gold exchange  programme continues to bring in new customers and along with the Golden Harvest scheme, is a major contributor to customer acquisitions.

The Company stated that its “efforts  in  re-crafting Watches and Eyewear division has  started paying off and both the divisions have shown good growth in  Q1 '19,  although  reported  revenue growth for these two segments will  look optically subdued due to the transition to GST”.

It also said that the new expnasions into the fragrances and ethnic wear segments has been positive, with the former continuing in “a high growth phase”, continuing to be a best-seller in its category in departmental chain stores and the latter receiving an “encouraging  initial  response”.