BENGALURU: Titan Company Limited (Titan) increased its advertising spend (ASP) in Q1-2015 (current quarter) at Rs 99.25 crore (3.4 per cent of Total Income from Operations or TIO) by 13.6 per cent as compared to the Rs 87.37 crore (3.1 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter,but was 5.2 per cent lower than the Rs 104.67 crore (3.4 per cent of YIO) in Q1-2013.
Note : 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore
Titan has three revenue segments – watches having five major brands –Titan, Xylus, Nebula, Sonata and Fastrack; Jewellery (the largest segment in terms of revenue and consequently profits) with Tanishq, Zoya, Gold Plus from Tata, Mia and Fq teen diamonds; and ‘Other’ such as eyewear under the Titan EYE+ brand, apparel and eyewear also under Fastrack brand and precision engineering among others.
While the company’s ASP in terms of absolute rupee value shows an icreasing linear trend, in terms of percentage of TIO, the trend is downwards across 10 quarters starting with Q4-2012 until the current quarter. Refer to figure 1 below.
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The company has seen a drop in PAT on both y-o-y and q-o-q basis. PAT in Q1-2015 at Rs 177.27 crore (6.13 per cent of Total Income from operations or TIO), which was 14.1 per cent lower than the PAT of Rs 206.44 crore (4.8 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter and 2.9 per cent lower than the Rs 182.48 crore (5.9 per cent of TIO) reported for the corrseponding quarter of last year.
The company has seen a 3.1 per cent increase in its TIO in Q1-2015 at Rs 2891.44 crore versus Rs 2903.38 crore in Q4-2014 and 7 per cent lower than the Rs 3107.67 crore in Q1-2014.
Titan managing director Bhaskar Bhat explains thelower y-o-y TIO, “The consumer discretionary spend in the current quarter was far more stable than what we witnessed in the past few quarters. With stability in the policitcal environment, the market mood has been positive. However, due to extraordinary first quarter witnessed by jewellery business last year, the topline growth in this quarter was tough. Regulatory pressures faced by jewellery business have amplified the challenge.”
Titan, in its earnings press release, says that it has put together exciting plans to stimulate demand for all its product categories through innovative advertising campaigns and new product launches.
As per figure 2 below, Titan’s TIO shows an upward linear trend across the 10 quarters under consideration, as does PAT in absolute rupee terms. In terms of PAT as percantage iof TIO, the linear trend is almost flat, with a slight dip.
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The company says that its watches business witnessed a growth of 10.4 per cent from Rs 389.68 crore in the year ago quarter to Rs 439.95 crore in Q1-2015. Its jewellery business, which contributes majorly to TIO, declined 10.1 per cent to Rs 2325.27 crore in the current quarter versus Rs 2586.61 crore in Q1-2014. The company’s other businesses –Eyewear, Precision Engineering and accessories grew 3.8 per cent 123.18 crore to Rs 127.83 crore this year.
