Titan Q1 results: Revenue declines 62% due to Covid-19 led disruption

BENGALURU: Tata Group-owned Titan Company on Monday reported 62 per cent decline in revenue to Rs 1901 crore for the first quarter ended June, due to Covid-19 led disruption and shuttering of retail outlets in April and May.

The maker of watches, jewellery and eyewear reported a loss of Rs 270 crore, as costs remained fixed but revenues were impacted by imposition of nationwide lockdown and low discretionary spends. A year ago, Titan had posted a net profit of Rs 371 crore during the same quarter.

“The severity of the disruption in business due to the pandemic impacted the company's performance resulting in an unprecedented loss for the company,” said CK Venkataraman, managing director of Titan Company. “The recovery in business, particularly in the jewellery business is encouraging and we expect to get back to normalcy by the fourth quarter of this year. The company’s reassessment of its cost structure during this period and inherently strong balance sheet, will help it to create a stronger base for a sustainably higher profit margin business,” he added.

With most weddings in the quarter postponed due to the outbreak, demand for wedding jewellery was affected, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

However, plain gold jewellery sales recovered in June despite high gold prices. The impact of the lockdown resulted in the jewellery division recording an income of Rs 1783 crore for the quarter, a decline of 56 per cent. The watches business posted a 90 per cent decline with sales of Rs 75 crore against Rs 715 crore in the previous year.