Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Titan Company Limited's Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all calls from now will be in the living room remote, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please visit an operator by pressing star and zero on your best known phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. C K Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Venkataraman.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. It's been a very satisfying quarter for Titan Company across businesses, markets, and subsidiaries. You know the results have been published, and the deck has also been up for review. I will hand over for the questions to start.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their best known telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on a good margin performance across segments. First question is on growth for the jewelry segment. The rest of the quarter's average is higher based, obviously because there was INR 900 crores due to contract tax relief. Do you foresee some growth moderation in the rest of Q3 or we should be able to sustain the overall Q2?
Sure, you're right, Devansh. That quarter two particularly had a higher base effect, has a higher base effect going forward because of last year's custom duty reduction and some deferment of sales from quarter one into quarter two because people were on the phone. I think 22nd or 23rd July onwards, we saw that impact. That is one factor. The other factors are, of course, you know we've been simply using the leverage of ticket size growth and repeat customer base. That has given us good results even while gold prices are high. I'm not sure to what extent this was manifest in quarter three and quarter four. In as much as it may manifest, the base effect may manifest more in quarter two. It's too early to conclude anything. I would say that you know we started well in quarter two.
Of course, we've had to advance the Festival of Diamonds, which has the studded activation, and that has helped us. Overall, I would wait and watch. I wouldn't necessarily come to any conclusion given the significant uncertainties that we are seeing every day due to, you know, external factors and therefore consequent impact on gold prices.
I have a couple of things for this. Secondly, I want people to understand on the margins. There is indication that there is some effective risk of one-off in the Q3 segment for Q3, and there was some one-off in Q4 as well. Firstly, I want you to understand what is the nature of this and whether both these one-offs are successfully reversed in Q3. Consistent margin has also that if you exclude this one-off, there has been still not pretty robust margin performance as the mix was repaired due to lowest better than higher volume sales. Do you sort of see hope of beating the upper end of your margin high, if you lay any laying half % in a staggering case?
I showed here. In this quarter, we had a benefit of INR 100 crore one time, distributed equally between jewelry and watch sales. Watch sales division, we have the, you know, some valuation of inventory, which we do annually, our run. That is what has led into this benefit. Every year, a small benefit does come, you know, because of the input cost and wages going up. This time, it was pretty mild. That adds, just watches division reported margin by almost 4%. You know, like 22 point some percent we have reported. You should think that 4% will be this one time. Actually, this one time will reverse as we move forward. In quarter two, quarter three, when that inventory, which has got revalued, gets liquidated, it will hit the COGS. To that extent, the division has to kind of absorb this thing.
As far as jewelry is concerned, we have about, which accounts for about 50 basis points. This is also one time outstanding hedging because of too much volatility in the market. There is NTM again sitting in our favor, which will also, as these forwards and futures get squared up in quarter two and quarter three, this will also reverse its call. These are the two major reasons in this quarter, which has benefited overall company as well as jewelry and watches in particular. As far as going forward is concerned, apart from these reversals, which would happen in quarter two and quarter three, and several actions which are being taken by the jewelry division in particular, about, to tackle, you know, whatever pressure they have. We will not say that we will operate at upper end or lower end.
11%- 11.5% still remain our guidance on which we are trying to work on.
Understood. Thanks for this. Just a small follow-up. That's Q4 gain that was there. That will also revert in the following quarter?
Q4? There was some gain. Q4, I don't think there was something very specific. I'm trying to remember what exactly was it significant. I don't think anything was significant, but I'll just review that and maybe during the call, I will revert back. Okay?
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhimanyu Meta from Acquired Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. I wanted to get your thoughts on the market share in the jewelry segment. For the last few quarters, we've seen a situation where our same-store sales growth momentum has been lagging the other larger listed players. I wanted to know how are you seeing this and what do you think is the way forward? Is this something that is because of the size and is expected? I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Yeah. Hi, Abhi. Ajoy. See, I think given the construct of the jewelry market, this is a multipolar play. It is not just two players or three players fighting for share amongst each other. Therefore, it's not easy to compute. There are at least seven, eight large national players. There are 8 to 10 large regional chains, and then there's a host of regional players who are selected to given cities or states or markets. Typically, we believe we have, even last year, we have gained market share. We triangulate it in different ways. We look at overall market data, we look at our own tracks, we look at World Council data, all of that. To us, last fiscal, last financial year, we have gained market share. In some markets, we may not have gained. In some other markets, we have gained. National picture, I'm telling you.
In quarter one, our understanding is we have sustained market share when I look at the total win. This is after triangulating all these data points that I shared with you. How it will play out, I don't know. Our base certainly is much, much higher. Therefore, in certain markets, where our base is very, very high and many of the other national players are kind of entering there on a small base, early entry, in those markets, it may suddenly look like our same store growth is comparable to the same store growth of some of those other players. Very often, we see that it is possible that growth is there in many players and some growth, some share is lost by regional players. It becomes very difficult to assess. When we look at it, we look at the market share on the total addressable market in that segment.
Quarter one, summary, we have, I think, sustained share nationally. Last year, we have gained share marginally, I would say, or in the previous year.
Okay. Where I'm coming from is, is this a case where the segment that we cater to is where you're gaining market share, or is it more a geography mix? That's the clarification that I wanted to understand more. Please follow up on that.
It's a geography mix, I would say. In a way, geography also leads to segment because certain geographies are more towards gold, some geographies are more towards studded, and some to higher values, some to lower values. To answer your question simply, geography-led is what I would say.
Got it. Just to follow up, I'll come back to follow up, but just the second question that leads to it. From a margin point of view, now, you have had a range of 11%- 11.5%. Wanted to understand, is margin at all a lever to change or which we need to evaluate to remain competitive, or this is not the right approach when you look at the segment? That was the last part.
We are not constraining growth by way of trying to somehow keep a high margin. We have been very competitive and aggressive when it comes to gold rates. We have been very responsive in those markets. In fact, we have also consolidated a lot of that. We have also been quite competitive when it comes to introducing products, especially in the gold segment at lower making charge and lower complexity. We are seeing that product mix also play out in a particular way. We have introduced gold-intensive studded products also. Many of these, we have done, keeping in mind both consumer and competitive response. We have not held back on retail expansion or renovations and increasing the footprint of our existing stores. We have continued to invest in marketing in as much as it's needed. None of our growth engines we are holding back on.
Therefore, I don't know whether we are referring to whether we can do more of those and compromise some of the margin. We have not really gone out there and cut our investments in growth to kind of fund margins.
Thank you, Ajoy. That's all from us. I'll come back and take you to the other question. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question, it's from the line of Videesha Sheth from Abbott Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. I come with a question with the non-store thrillist one from my side. With 9-carat also coming under the purview of Walmart King, how are you thinking of exposing multiple formats, multiple brands of yours, be it CaratLane or Mia, or maybe even have a separate brand? I understand that you've already launched it. You've launched certain assortments under 9-carat in CaratLane and Mia last quarter. Just wanted to know where do you stand or where will this CaratLane be focused on?
Mia is still early days. CaratLane has done a lot more work on 9-carat. I'll let Saumen answer that.
Hi. We launched, you know, 9-carat jewelry in the last Valentine. It was kind of a response to where the gold rate was spiraling upwards and was certainly putting a lot of pressure on the hardness factor of the company. We were also vacating price points. CaratLane was predominantly playing between INR 30,000-INR 40,000, and a lot of products which were at sub-INR 30,000 moved away from that price band. We needed to pitch. 9-carat, 14-carat are used to sort of make sure there is a little more range for the customer to look for. Since then, we have been, it was originally only an online play. Thereafter, we've started, you know, placing in a limited number of stores. So far, we are seeing a very steady fashion. The hesitation that we had, we launched it even before 9-carat was Walmart. I mean, announcement of Walmart happened in 2018.
We have seen a steady growth of this. There are people who are buying the jewelry, 9-carat, Batu Chandan, diamond jewelry, and pretty comfortable is this. We didn't see any resistance at all, whether it's online or offline. Our view is that with the gold price increasing, all those earlier resistance of customers towards CaratLane, I think, especially in the lower segment, which is not more on the adornment space, less on the nesting investment space, I think it's going to be the way. We are banking on it and therefore, we are expanding it. In fact, it was decided that we'll be taking it to all periods very shortly.
Okay. I understand it's early days, but do you believe it warrants a separate format, or will you be playing this pool separately through CaratLane and Mia only?
For CaratLane, I speak here, is that customers who are looking for price points more often than not, which is in the listing segments, they come with the budget. Within that, I suppose if you have an offering, it plays out well. 9-carat jewelry is basically addressing this issue of gifting, which we are not able to otherwise pay rental after gold price went up so much. 14-carat jewelry was the initial set, and now 9-carat jewelry is the next set. I suppose it is a segment we are actually, that is a segment CaratLane lost some customers below INR 30,000. It is in a way our effort to get those customers in the category. Yeah. I don't think it needs a separate brand. Even in Mia, as we roll it out, it is going to be under the same brand.
In fact, Mia also sells a little bit of silver. It's under Mia brand only. I don't think it'll require a separate brand or format. It may have a greater play online is my sense because of the price point it can cater to.
Got it. Got it. The second question was around studded jewelry. Any indication beyond besides CaratLane, any indication on improvement of the studded ratio or studded assortment?
I didn't follow the question. What do you mean by any?
Studded. Is there any indication of the overall studded portfolio growth picking up versus the 11% growth which we saw reported?
We hope it will pick up. Already, we advanced our Festival of Diamonds, which had the offer that has given us good results in July. How it will play out for the rest of the quarters, you are in date to see. We always target the good part, I'll tell you. The buyer growth on studded is actually better than the buyer growth on gold jewelry, I'm keeping coins aside. That indicates that there are many more customers, new customers, and new buyers in the market for studded relative to, let's say, gold. That's a positive sign. Of course, how we leverage our repeat business and repeat buyers to also give us ticket size-led growth to complement this becomes in how well they grow in the subsequent quarter.
Okay. This buyer growth to which you're referring to in studded being better versus plain gold, that would be inclusive of CaratLane or excluding CaratLane?
Excluding. Excluding CaratLane.
Got it.
Carrot Lane.
Thank you.
This is a complete draft.
Understood. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tajas Shah from Evander’s Park. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. For the change, I'll start with watches and then eyewear. Watches delivered exceptional quarter. What led to this growth and how should we think about the thing of the sale?
It was, you know, many things that we have been working on for many quarters kind of came to a pinnacle of results. Premiumization as well as in the volume side, a lot of work on mass customization, especially for brands like Sonata and Fastrack . We have seen exceptional growth across channels, both retail as well as multi-brand and e-commerce. I think it is that growth building up in this quarter was probably, you know, where it all kind of came together very well. In terms of continuing, of course, this was an exceptional quarter. We are hoping quarter two will also be good and effective. We will wait and watch. Things are looking good and quite, call it, from a building block point of view.
Perfect. On eyewear, despite store closures, we are delivering decent growth. What's the strategy there going forward?
Hi, this is N S Raghavan here. We have been reimagining the eyewear business in terms of positive CVP. For us, the positioning of Titan EyePlus is multi-price and multi-brand so that we are able to cater to a larger set of an audience. As far as store closures are concerned, stores which we believe are not performing well and stores which are not relevant are the ones which are being closed. This is something which we will continue to do. Parallely, we're also opening stores. It is the stronger consumer value proposition and the greater shopper experience that we believe is leading to greater engagement with these brands.
Given the U.S. tariff environment, have you seen any impact on demand, pricing, or hosting strategies for the international jewelry business, especially in the U.S.?
First quarter has gone pretty well. We were aware of the build-up towards the U.S. tariffs, and we had prepared everything on the ground to deal with it. Actually, we have done very well in the first quarter of 2026. The current signals are quite volatile, and we don't want to take any knee-jerk reaction with respect to pricing because they're at, you know, the same are at bloating levels. We'll wait out August to end to see what timelines develop, finally administering a price that we think we should go with. That's on the price. On the sourcing, and because the US share to our company sales is just about 2% or a little more than that, it's not a deal breaker for us to approach this in any knee-jerk fashion. We can just wait it out and calmly do that.
As far as supply chain is concerned, the international business is becoming, jewelry business is becoming bigger and bigger for us. With our recent entry into the GCC in a bigger way through the new investment, the GCC business itself of jewelry will be very large soon. That combined with the US could swap 6% or thereabouts of the company sales. By itself, it merits independent of tariff advantages. It merits thinking about the global supply chain and getting those parts of the world. That's something that we are starting to think about in a store, but no concrete plan before at the moment.
Got it. Thanks a lot, Abhim.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Siddhant Dand from Goodwill. Please go ahead.
Hi. I had a question regarding sales. You know, could you speak more on the numbers, the scalability, the sustainability of this quarter's numbers, and the semiconductor business that we are doing?
Yeah. Siddhant, hi. There are three parts to the seal business. One part is the manufacturing services business. Traditionally, our customers have been aerospace customers from outside India. That sector is starting to improve. Our ability to move up the value chain from parts to minor subassemblies has been successful over the last few years. We are seeing more and more traction. For example, if we were to take a company like Raytheon or Pratt, our ability to move sideways into other parts of Raytheon, other parts of Pratt, is giving us annuity businesses. That business is actually an annuity business. Once you strike a deal after a year or a year and a half of preparation, it's for many years. That is a sustainable business. We certainly expect to continue growing in the manufacturing services fold. The second part is the automation solutions, which has two parts.
One is the traditional automation where it's a bit for automation and assembly and testing solutions, which we've been very good at both in India and outside, like Singapore. That continues. It's not an annuity business. It's not that predictable, but because of a decent mix between automotive, CPG, medical, and some other categories, it builds a certain predictability. Also, the international versus domestic mix gives a certain predictability, and there's a lot of TV-related work that we are doing in that. The third is for a single large global customer, which uses the capabilities of the same automation solution business, and it's also related to the recent acquisition of a company called JustTech. That team gives a compound back. That's the third stream, which is more like a product business, but it uses the capabilities of the same automation services solutions division. These are the three parts.
Because they are very different from each other, in a way, it also gives a good balance in the mix to the predictable growth. We are very, very excited about the overall growth prospects of seal because, for example, Raytheon, we keep getting the best supplier award from Raytheon, and that's given to the top 10 or 15 suppliers out of 12,000 plus suppliers globally, and seal is one of them. Because of the reputation that seal has today for creating very high-end technology solutions and very reliable solutions, it's very strong. From a sales growth point of view, we are very, very bullish. From a profitability, I wouldn't comment about the future.
Okay, that's wonderful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec . Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. My first question was on the watches business again. Even adapting for the INR 50 crore, the 13.5% EBIT margin is extremely strong and way ahead of our expected guidance. For the full year, is it likely to be a higher profitability year for watches, or is there something sustainably that you think is going to get a higher amount? That's my first question.
I think we are hopeful that with the kind of number we should be able to deliver on a full-year basis for FY 2026.
Got it. Got it. Got it. Just to follow up on this, you know, analog seems to be doing significantly better. There's not much talk of wearables in your release now. Is there a shift in the market or a reinversion that's happened towards analog? If you could just give some sense on that.
Yes. Analog for us is doing really well, as you saw the numbers. Smartwatches have gone through a big correction. I think a lot of it happened last year in calendar year 2024. It continues to be somewhat subdued right now. A lot of correction in terms of oversupply, undercutting of price, etc. We were relatively better off. We are at this point maintaining and gaining market share and coming out with newer products which should do well. The very overheated kind of growth that we've seen in smartwatches in calendar year 2021, 2022, and 2023, that phase is over now.
Got it. The last question was on finance. Over the last two quarters, we've seen a lower rate of store expansion in this quarter Q4. Just wanted to get a sense, is this year going to be tightly more back-ended? How do we see that?
Our plans are broadly similar. It's probably the timing issues of execution. Quarter one, I agree with you, lower than our own plans. How much of it we'll catch up in quarter two, I can't say. Our plans for the year are pretty strong. Usually, we try to squeeze in many more stores before festive season, which happens to be earlier this year in October. I'm hopeful that quarter two, we should be able to catch up on some of the.
Also, I'm not sure whether this web feed thing is part of our own store.
For example, just to illustrate, I was personally there in the small town Brahmapur in Odisha where the existing stores were totally reimagined to a much, much bigger size. The strategic importance of that may be missed in the number.
Yeah.
For example, in quarter one, while we opened three new stores, all of them bigger size than earlier, we also relocated or expanded significantly about eight other stores, which is part of the retail transformation program that's going on. All of that is really helping on increasing the total retail capacity in terms of square feet.
We can highlight this in a better way, maybe. Just think about it. That was just an additional point.
Great. Thanks in English for all of us. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Sachdeva from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thank you so much for taking my questions. My question is on the studded growth, which is 11%, and I think it's been going on in the same vein for the last two to three quarters. Surprisingly, CaratLane continues to grow strongly in studded. You also make a point that premium solid here are up 60%. You've also sort of given a mix of revenue in the slide, which is studded versus gold, and that includes CaratLane. The numbers seem to be unchanged. Does it signal that in the studded segment, the ticket sizes now are coming down? Is there something consumer trends are telling us at the finished core or level, or at the premium format level, while the market is going towards more affordable diamond jewelry? How should we see that trend?
Could you also update what the diamond overall market would be at the India level, studded market, and how the market growth is happening?
Okay. Many questions rolled in one. At a broad level, Amit, studded market, our best estimate, and this could vary based on whom you ask the question to, is around INR 75,000 crore, give or take here and there. Last year, I think we did around in Tanishq, Mia, Zoya, and if I were to add CaratLane, put together maybe around INR 17,000, INR 1 8,000 crore, and maybe something like that. You can pick the figures there. Now, is the market growing? The studded market is certainly growing overall. In fact, even if you listen to what the dealers and commentary, India is probably one of those few markets which is growing in studded. We are now the second largest market for diamonds in the world. The question that you're asking is, is there a studded? We've been seeing a slightly dichotomous behavior in the last two levels.
One is between solitaires and non-solitaires. We saw the correction happen in solitaires, particularly in the higher caratage because of the price uncertainties that the media narrative also played out. That has now stabilized because now that is in the base. Therefore, last year, if I were to look at it, the studded jewelry grew better than solitaires. That's because it got equalized, if you ask me. The second piece is on price. The other dichotomous behavior that we saw was on price. In fact, I was mentioning this even earlier that in this quarter as well as last year, we actually saw better buyer growth in studded than in gold. Actually, the number of customers is there. The value piece, as you were rightly pointing out, is it that people are migrating to a lower price band? I'm not so sure about that.
I think a lot more newer customers are coming in who come in at the lower price band, given India's demography, given a lot of young working women, people wanting every day. I think it's certainly growing. The higher value segment, if I look at it, is doing pretty well. If I look at the INR 500,000 plus, for example, in Tanishq as well as in Zoya, we are seeing fairly good growth. In the sub INR 200,000, if I look at Tanishq, Mia, CaratLane put together, the portfolio is growing fairly well. Some gives or takes may be happening between the three, let's say, formats on three retail chains or the three brands. I don't see that as a big issue. Value growth will come.
I believe if we are able to excite the customers even in the INR 200,000 to INR 800,000 space, where I think a large number of customers today would be ready to buy. I think a lot of it is to do with market development. That's an opportunity and an agenda for us.
Got it.
On that point. One other thing I think for all of us also to think about is the association of CaratLane with Tanishq. I've been there for so many years. Of course, somebody who is buying a CaratLane is well, buying also into the Tanishq sub-brand, whatever you call it. While from a standalone point of view, we look at the jewelry division of Titan Company. From a total point of view, we look at CaratLane as a subsidiary. The customer is looking at the choices from the same company in a way. Therefore, that 11 of Tanishq and maybe 25 of Mia and the 35 of CaratLane, all that is from a price point of view, we have to integrate and see. Not how can CaratLane be growing at 25 and Tanishq is going at only at 11.
In a way, many of what one would call a budget kind of customer of Titan Company is buying between Tanishq, CaratLane, and Mia. Maybe more and more of them are buying Mia and CaratLane because those are primarily stuff which are appealing. In a Tanishq case, premium higher value primarily. Of course, those are the so you have to think together also.
Got it. No, that's very, very helpful. Then the cash from us for that. Can I just ask a small follow-up on you went to gold price is very high and most jewelers have tried to make a light jewelry on several product innovations to excite the buyers, including lower quality, you know, sort of caratages as well. My question is that has that changed some competitive dynamics from making charges? Just to get a sense of that, are you seeing at the margin things are the same or has that been a little bit more intense on pricing fronts?
I'm not sure if the two are connected. We'll reflect on it. One thought which you said that lighter weight and perhaps lower carat also. Even in gold, we have experimented with 18-carat in certain markets. We have seen a good response to that.
Therefore, we see greater opportunity in studded. 18-carat going to 14-carat and then someone talked about 14 going to 9. Lower carats are being accepted in the market. That's one route. Lower weight is another route in gold also. The second part of the piece on making charges, I think as the gold prices have gone up, there is a sliding effect on the customer's willingness to pay for more complex products, higher making charges. Even at the higher price points, some customers are preferring to go to a slightly lower complexity product. Therefore, the making charges do come under pressure sometimes there. I think it's more to do with gold prices at the rate and at the high levels they are. Making charges, yeah, that will perennially remain, but it is more or less same like what it was before between stock and competition.
Just one point which I wanted to add on previous conversation which was happening and Venkat was saying, if you see Amit this time with the closure, the way we have made in quarterly update as well as in our presentation where we are bringing the whole jewelry, including CaratLane and international piece separately, just to bring that point also alive that there might be interplay between Mia, Tanishq, CaratLane on certain segments. We need to start looking at totality. You would have also noticed that international business has actually turned positive for the second quarter. The whole change in this closure also is intended to drive that point that we need to start looking at the revenue growth and overall margin, etc., in that manner.
Thank you for the closure. Thank you so much for the disclosure as well. It was very, very helpful. Thank you so much for the detailed answers. Thank you, Ajoy, and thank you, Ambuj. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Koushik Panditi from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sir. Just a question on lab-grown diamond. I know we have been discussing this on and off in the quarterly calls. I think it's been probably four or five quarters since we all first raised the question as to how Titan is looking at LGD and whether it wants to have a play in this or not. We are seeing now news items on several relatively small but PE-funded players who are going to set up LGD stores over the next couple of years. They will have significant supply coming into the Indian retail market. It's not as if LGD is not available now, but proper retail frontage, enough number of touchpoints, square feet, etc., that we have not seen till now, which I think over the next two years will come in. The question is, do we want to participate in that at all?
I mean, that's something that because we are a natural diamond player, we don't want to get into that. We believe that while they might run a certain amount of players, they will focus only on the other part of the market. Just some thoughts here.
I think the push has been coming from your cohort, from all the analysts, etc., more often. Because there's a lot of media narrative, I will make two or three comments after that. You know, you can draw your conclusion. One is that let's be honest. Today, despite 50 to 50-odd players and maybe more coming in on 100+ stores and several online players as well, the narrative is far larger than the reality. The reality is that the lab-grown market estimated by us is less than 2% of the total diamond studded market as we speak. It could go up, of course, in the future. Nobody is denying that. This is where it stands. It is a hard reality check. The second observation and comment I want to make is that prices of lab-grown diamonds have been coming down, retail prices as well, not just the wholesale price.
Wholesale prices come much faster. Retail prices in India are hovering between INR 30,000- INR 50,000 a carat. About a year ago, it was much, much higher. Every day, new players are launching, and they're coming in at lower price points as well. Entry barriers are rather low. Differentiation is also very limited, as we see in the markets. There is a very strong chance that unless you come up with a good IP, this could get a very commoditized play where price points led, you know, bigger stone or more stones or more diamonds for less price is where it may head. A few players may end up differentiating. We have to see. Consequently, unit economics at the store level can come under huge pressure. You're right. PE funds are backing. Therefore, you may see a plethora of stores more coming up.
Maybe another 100, 200 stores can easily come up in the next one year, etc. I believe that will further commoditize the play. For Titan to make a meaningful play, one, the consumer should be excited, and there is something that she wants. Two, what is the IP that we can create? Three, unit economics have to start making sense. We are not being dismissive of it. We are constantly watching, studying, analyzing, and really reading what's going on at the customer and the industry level. Therefore, you know, we'll see what to do. We'll reserve the right to play the way we want to play when we want to play.
Got it. Secondly, this 11% studded growth, is that number including CaratLane?
No. Exclude.
Including CaratLane, I mean, as a company, as a whole, what is your studded growth?
Just. We'll work out and send this news. I don't know. Venkatesh will kind of share that.
Okay. I don't know if that 11% materially changes or maybe just goes up to a 12%, 13%, or something like that. My question on this was that we have traditionally always held that we are not too focused on the studded percentage because of gold inflation. Gold jewelry is selling more, and that percentage has naturally come down. We have a good absolute growth in studded. That is not true for this quarter. Absolute growth itself is on the lower side. What is driving this absolute growth to be low? Is it just a quarterly one-off, or is there some pressures which can continue for a longer period of time?
Per se, you're very right on that first point that you mentioned. We were always focused on the studded growth, and whatever is the consequent share because of higher growth, gold thing, it's fine. So 11% is certainly low. The point that I was making, and that's what I was also adding to, is still valid, that whatever is the incremental extra growth that you add with CaratLane, we have to add. We'll just add that and share with you. That may still not be from, that may not top 15%, for example, which is lower than our normal growth rate, which is low. We'll just confirm on that in a while. The overall growth for Tanishq is lower than what we would like, without doubt. It is 16%, including CaratLane, by the way.
Okay. The target for Tanishq is certainly more than 11, and we are behind on that. I guess the overall consumption situation today is an issue. This is playing in that consumption constrained situation. Obviously, we have to innovate more, and the competitive intensity is also there. Everybody is saving diamonds, I'm sure, for profit reasons and all that. These are general statements without any, you know, connecting the dots, but they are real. Even if I cannot connect the dots, they are real because customers are exposed to constraints on the pocket, I mean, the money, and of course, choices from the competition side. Obviously, the company and the Tanishq brand need to innovate more. It should be better to go. That's the only comment I would make on that.
Understood. Understood. One last follow-up on the first question on the LGD part. Just your take on this because right now the situation is too recent, and we don't have any real data. I'm just asking your take on it for the future. Basically, in the U.S., etc., we have seen LGD penetrate into mainly the solitaire category and take a substantial share of the solitaire category. In India, the solitaire category is quite small. We are a small diamond market. Even in a small diamond market, there is a significant price arbitrage. Let's say a piece which costs INR 80,000 in a natural diamond, that similar kind of piece in LGD might cost, let's say, INR 30,000 or INR 35,000 in the LGD segment. The Indian consumer is a little more price sensitive, especially at the slightly lower end.
Of course, a INR 500,000 or INR 1,000,000 customer is not going to shift because he might be interested in natural diamonds only. Let's say a customer in that price point of INR 70,000- INR 100,000, is it likely that if he's getting it at 50% to 60% cheaper, he might shift to LGD? Even if the business economics of LGD as a business is not very attractive, what is your take on the market share loss that you might suffer because of this phenomenon?
What you ask is a logical assumption. What we find interestingly is the people who are initially considering and exploring lab-grown diamonds (LGD) are the ones who are already accomplished diamond buyers. They already have enough naturals. They may be people who otherwise easily afford INR 300,000, INR 500,000, INR 1,000,000 products. They are the ones who are saying, "Okay, why not a little bit?
I'll also take some of this because they can carry off." The second piece is even in India, the early adopters are the ones who are looking at solitaire and bigger stones because the arbitrage is much larger. In the INR 70,000, INR 80,000, or let's say sub INR 100,000 space, the kind of customer who's there is also, many of them are saying that if I'm buying something which is a studded jewelry, I might as well buy the natural thing and the real thing because it holds value. She's not yet comfortable migrating wholesale to LGD because it's a little confusing to her as to whether this will hold value and whether it's the real thing. It's really the nature of customers who are currently buying; they are additional purchases by people who are already in the diamond segment. New buyers, very few may be going to LGD.
The new studded buyers are still preferring the naturals.
One of the markers of affluence moving into a higher status in life is also diamond jewelry. A lot of households and a lot of women in India, in every society which has gone through this affluence, compact $1,000, $8,000, and so on, the capital have gone through this. Therefore, the Indian women are waiting to buy the diamond jewelry at INR 100,000 because most of the first-time buyers buy at INR 100,000 and not at INR 500,000. That first-time buyer at INR 100,000 is looking for the real thing. If that was the case and with a lot of these brands and stores operating, the sale of LGD should be something else than 2% that Ajoy is referring to.
Nice. Very helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jham from HSBC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, team. I had a follow-up question on LGD itself or more on the studded part. If I look at the last two quarters, even addressing this quarter's take for the numbers being including CaratLane, just looking at Tanishq, there has been a moderation in the studded growth. I just wanted to understand the reasons as to is it maybe a case of LGD, which you said is not the case, or is it more a case that as diamond prices have not seen any appreciation or they have been contracting over the last 24 months? That is in a way making people not being very keen in terms of buying those nice diamond pieces.
See, last year, because I think I shared this before, but I'll repeat here. Last year, the studded growth in value was impacted because of solitaire underperforming, in fact, doing a decline, especially the one carat plus and one and a half, two carat plus. If I go back a few years, that was a very small part or almost a negligible part of our business. We, in fact, grew the solitaire business 3x in a few years, in two or three years. On that base, there was a correction because there was an issue of what will the price of that solitaire be going forward thanks to the strong media narrative.
Therefore, amongst a certain cohort of people, including some of us here around this mobile and you, of course, on the call, there is this overriding feeling that, "Oh, now diamond does not hold value, so therefore, I should." That is a very, very small part of the total diamond buying segment in India. It was largely on the solitaire. If I exclude the solitaires, actually, diamond business grew pretty well in line with what you would expect last year. If I include solitaires, the higher value, yes, to that extent, it has played a certain role. This year, in the first quarter, I am relinking last year and this year. This year, now that base effect of the solitaire is no longer there. This year is a different reason.
As you know, we explained earlier, and Venkat also talked about the fact that there is a consumption-related challenge, and we have to figure out how to innovate and excite the customer, especially in the INR 100,000+ , INR 200,000+ segment. In a way, gain share of wallet.
Yeah. Like today's paper, you know, 25% growth in international travel in FY 2024, 25%. A lot of people, I remember over the decade, two decades, conversations with customers would say, "Should I buy that INR 300,000 necklace for myself or should we travel together at INR 585,000?" and kind of thing. In a way, this discretionary expenditure basket is a wide basket. It's a very complex thing. Therefore, as the jewelry becomes really at the top of the list, mocked by, "If I have money, then the woman will buy this instead of going to Thailand," you know, something like that.
I still feel, given the spread of our business across markets and different segments, clearly, LGD is not the cause for any issue because that is still so small, it will not account for any of this, even at a buyer level.
Understood. One point here, when you're saying the 2% share in value, would it be better to look at it from a caratage perspective? Because if at the end of it, 1/5 the price or 10% of the total caratage is maybe a decent start, just asking your opinion on that.
I don't have a figure to give you both. These estimates are very wild. Without data, I could be crazy to give you any response on this. Whether it's 2%, 5%, 10%, 8%, 6%, no idea.
Point taken. Just one last question on the margin bit: to assume that this quarter, this price started going lower, a very high share of gold coin sales, as you highlighted, our margins are flat in jewelry, excluding the one-off benefits. Maybe the operating leverage or some optimization of advertising given the festival of diamonds happens in Q2.
I think gold coin share has remained elevated for some time, so it's not that extraordinary in this quarter vis-à-vis earlier quarters. We claim that 50 basis points is, of course, one-off and which will work itself. The rest is all very, very small, small stock inventory changes, which has come. Nothing worse, you know, making them a definite reason for this quarter because that is where I would be. That is why when the question was that, "Should we start thinking about a higher level of band?" I still don't want to, you know, kind of guide you to that. It is still 11%- 1.5%. This side of the band, given the market reality, volatility on gold, I feel we will ultimately land up. We don't know.
At the same time, to one question which came that, and as I clarified, with growth in market share, it remains our top priority. Some tactical investment, if required, we will not constrain ourselves that we are going to breach 11%. Whatever is the right for the business will be done. Sometimes some timing, of course, can also affect us between quarters. You know, I wouldn't read too much into one quarter's exact figure. Last year, quarter might have had some other timing issues. This year, quarter may have some other timing issues. I think it's better to look at it over a slightly larger number of quarters.
Yes, that's a good point. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the next question is from the line of Abhijeet Kundu from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. It was just more of an accounting question. In both jewelry, there is a 50 basis point impact of hedging. In watches, there is a sort of a 400 basis point benefit of revaluation, which you said will reverse in the forthcoming quarters. From a modeling angle, when we have to take a recurring path or recurring EBIT, if this is reversing, then we don't have to, you know, we can consider it in the recurring pathway. I mean, recurring path and the recurring EBIT, right? They're both just non-one-time items. If we are going to reverse the.
Even in quarter two and quarter three, it will be an opposite impact. That is where someone asked about watch. You know, after adjusting, it is becoming 18%. This 4% also will further reverse, so 18% has to come down. That is where I guided mid-teen is much more reasonable expectation from watch division. It could be 16%. I don't know. It could be 14%. Mid-teen ballpark is fine. For the same thing, you know, jewelry, sometimes it may happen that, and you know, like there are so many things very difficult to predict, particularly on some of these aspects, that while this is reversing and something else is kind of offsetting that. We will discuss more if that happens. These things would reverse. Jewelry certainly in quarter two and quarter three would reverse. Watches will take the same time period.
The next two quarters will have these opposite direction movement on a bit margin pressure. You must account for your account keeping or bookkeeping, whatever you want to do that.
You would be assessing that whatever reversal happens in the second and third quarter, that would be sort of the gain you have given it.
It has to reverse. You know, there is no way. It happens during the quarter. A few things get created and get created and slightly complex. I don't want to end the call with, you know, a very complex explanation where we go out of the call not that delighted, which you should all be delighted. We are feeling delighted about the performance. The point is that, say, these all the outstanding forwards and future where NCM, coming with time, it has to reverse when these forwards and future gets acquired up. There would be a new set of forwards and future. Which direction they will operate, we don't know. Nowadays, these are not very meaningful differences once we move to fair value accounting of hedge accounting of inventory. It's still, there are some minor differences keep cropping up depending on volatility of prices, etc., etc.
The basis for evaluation of forward future and inventory are two different bases. They are not the same basis. That creates this kind of difference in these numbers. If, yeah, something is worth calling out, we will certainly call out. Okay?
Okay. Got it. Thank you, and congrats on a great set of numbers.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I'll hand the conference over to Mr. C K Venkataraman for closing comments.
Thank you very much, everyone. S ee you in the next quarter. Yeah.
Thank you. On behalf of Titan Company Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.