Earnings call transcript: Titanium Oyj sees growth despite gold price pressure in Q2 FY2026

Titanium Oyj, a leading player in the jewelry and luxury goods sector, reported its earnings for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. The company demonstrated robust growth across various business segments, despite facing challenges from fluctuating gold prices. The stock price showed a modest increase of 1.97% to close at $6.22, reflecting investor optimism about the company's performance and future prospects. With a current market capitalization of $9.24 million and trading at $6.61, InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock may be undervalued compared to its Fair Value, presenting a potential opportunity for investors interested in the luxury goods sector.

Key Takeaways

• Strong growth in Q2 FY2026, particularly in gold coins and bullion.
• Jewelry segment faced challenges with a decline in gold jewelry buyers.
• Margins under pressure due to high gold prices.
• Expansion into international markets and product innovation continue to be focal points.

Company Performance

Titanium Oyj reported strong growth in Q2 FY2026, with notable performance in its gold coins and bullion segment. However, the jewelry segment encountered difficulties, particularly in gold jewelry, which saw an 11% decrease in buyer growth. The company continues to expand its product line and market presence, focusing on premiumization and international markets, including North America and the Middle East.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue and EPS figures were not disclosed in the summary.
• Jewelry buyer growth: -2%
• Gold jewelry buyer growth: -11%
• Studded jewelry buyer growth: +3%
• Store renovations: 35 completed in the first half of the year

Outlook & Guidance

Titanium Oyj is optimistic about better growth in the second half of the fiscal year. The company aims to align EBIT growth closely with revenue growth, despite potential margin pressures from volatile gold prices. The focus remains on customer acquisition and product innovation, with plans to open 40 new stores and complete 70-80 store transformations by the end of the year.

Executive Commentary

• "We will aim to see that EBIT growth also is better than what we might have imagined," said Ajoy, an executive, highlighting the company's growth ambitions.
• Raghavan, another executive, noted, "The headroom to grow is tremendous," indicating confidence in the company's future expansion.
• Ajoy also emphasized the strategic importance of the gold exchange program in building customer trust.

Risks and Challenges

• Continued volatility in gold prices could impact margins and consumer behavior.
• Competitive intensity in the jewelry market, especially with fluctuating gold prices.
• Execution risks associated with international expansion and product innovation.

Titanium Oyj remains focused on navigating these challenges while capitalizing on growth opportunities in both domestic and international markets. The company's strategic initiatives and focus on innovation are expected to support its long-term growth trajectory. While InvestingPro data indicates net income is expected to drop this year, the company remains profitable with strong financial health metrics. Discover comprehensive analysis and additional ProTips in the Pro Research Report, part of the in-depth coverage available for over 1,400 US equities on the InvestingPro platform.

Full transcript - Titanium Oyj (TITAN) Q2 2026:

Conference Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Titan Company Limited Q2 FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines 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 touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director from Titan Company Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Venkataraman.

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: Thank you, and good morning to everyone all over. It's good to be talking to you at the end of a very satisfying Q2 FY2026. The growth in virtually all our businesses, markets, subsidiaries has been very satisfying, and the deck has been with you for a little while now, so we can move directly into your questions.

Conference Moderator: Shall we open the line for questions?

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: Yes, please.

Conference Moderator: All right. Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touch-tone 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 a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Manoj Menon with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, team. Every good morning. First of all, thanks for hosting the call earlier in the day. I have only one. Feedback of what you're seeing on the ground, what the customers are telling you in the context of the parabolic rise in gold prices on three aspects. One, what the customers are, a little bit of willingness you mentioned last time about buying an 18-karat or lesser than 22. Importantly, what the activities which you are undertaking directionally, let's say, what proportion of your inventory is non-22 in plain gold or anything like that, and how sustainable it is. Point number two, historically, we have noted that, at least I observed that, whenever gold prices increase beyond a point, it becomes relatively easier across the counter to upgrade the consumer to studded because consumer probably believes that studded is far better aspirational rather than gold.

For some, when I look at the studded mix, it largely remains flat, 1% here and there. Having said that, I can't see the flow through into the GP also. How do I read that? That's one. The third is, yesterday, Sangammail had put out an exchange release saying that they have actually seen a very good October in volume. How are we to interpret? Is it an industry trend? Let's say the typical volume price elasticity, is that holding out? How do we read that? Not Sangammail, I'm talking about industry and particularly you. Thank you.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Hi, good morning, Manoj. Ajoy here. I think the first one about how are we seeing consumer behavior on the ground. I mean, there's been a certain holdback which consumers had during the meteoric rise of gold. When they did not see it come down and it continued to remain high during festive, a lot of fence sitters jumped in. Having said that, that was mostly to do with people in the mid to higher price bands. In the lower price bands, there continues to be sluggishness in terms of number of buyers, and especially for gold jewelry. Your point on how is the response to 18-karat jewelry? It has been good, whatever we put out there in the first half. Having said that, it is not material enough yet as a percentage of our inventory to be able to come to a conclusion.

We certainly hope to increase that share substantially as we go forward based on the initial pilots that we have seen. Third point, you asked about that whenever gold prices are high, do people go and studded? The studded buyer growth is marginally higher than the gold jewelry if I exclude coins. Coins kind of skew the color on the overall product mix. Coins, of course, are growing very well. Exceptionally high, that shows strong investment demand. If I just compare studded growth of buyer level and gold jewelry buyer growth, we have now been seeing this trend consistently over the last several quarters that the studded buyer growths have been better, not very high, but certainly better than the gold jewelry buyer growth. Still early single digits, I would say.

In general, when gold prices are high and if customers are holding back, they hold back for gold as well as studded. It is not that the walk-ins themselves drop. When they came in during festive season, the interest in gold has been so high that we are not seeing a very big material movement towards studded at this point in time. There is a marginal difference in studded buyer growth. It is higher, and gold jewelry growth in terms of buyers, it is lower. It is negative, whereas in studded buyer growth, it is positive.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Thank you so much, Ajoy. Just one follow-up quickly, and I'll come back in the queue. One hypothesis or assertion which I made was based on historical observation that across the counter, it's relatively easier to convert a gold consumer or a customer into a studded, where for the like-to-like revenue, your GP pool is far better, right? I mean, is that assertion right? I mean, or is there something like, let's say, you need better incentivization or some activity from your side to ensure that these conversions are, let's say, appropriately captured?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: No, I don't have any such. I can't confirm your hypothesis. I'm not sure if we are seeing that kind of natural movement. For conversion, I don't know. Again, it's not about sweetening it. I think it's just the fact that there is a natural consumer for studded and there's a natural consumer for gold. Some of the studded people in the higher end have opted for gold because they feel that they are seeing some better investment value there. I can't say the same for any other segment, lower price, mid-price. It's not that the gold customer is suddenly buying studded. It's difficult to draw any correlation.

Conference Moderator: Sure. Sure. Loud and clear. Thank you so much. All the best to both Venkat and you in the future endeavors. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Thanks. Manoj, I think you asked about how October has been. It's been good for the industry overall. I don't know how much volume growth has happened for the industry. Very difficult to gauge because. Let's wait for World Gold Council to kind of release some data exactly on festive season to festive season. The timing difference is also there. Overall, I think October and generally festive to festive, given the timing difference, has been quite good. Very good, I would say, for the industry and certainly very good for us as well. This is not in correlation to Sangammail's figures, because their base may be very small and they are at an expansion. I'm talking at an overall level.

Conference Moderator: Ajay, just one last thing. Is it fair to then conclude that the consumer or the customer seems to have accepted, which you alluded to, higher gold prices, at least in the large-ticket consumer, and that the volume pullback or cutback or elasticity is not as per historical standards and they are willing to actually, let's say, redirect, let's say, spends from other categories or other aspects into jewelry?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: I can only say for ourselves that our buyer growths have improved. In festive to festive 32 days like-to-like period. Compared to, let's say, quarter two. How much of that is because they are naturally now comfortable? Yes, they are comfortable with gold price. I think we also ran a very powerful exchange offer, which might have swung it significantly, besides, of course, the Diwali collection launches and campaigns. I can only say this for ourselves. I do not have really a deeper industry level insight that, yes, now the volumes are back. I think many more buyers were in the market for festive, having seen gold prices now. Not coming down.

Conference Moderator: Excellent. Thank you. Good luck.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. Next question comes from the line of Mahir Shah with Nomura. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. My question again is on the buyer growth. It has been around flat to decline since a couple of quarters. Can you highlight steps taken by you which are materially different from your past steps to bring back buyer growth? Apart from the normal activation, marketing mix, or the 18-karat that you're trying to do, any other material steps you think that will bring back buyer growth? That is one. Any quantitative range for October festive or October sales that you can share will be very helpful. That is my first question.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On buyer growth, we've done a lot more work. In terms of populating price points in the sub-INR 100,000, if I look at Tanishq. Mia as well has done a lot of work. We've been doing a lot more introductions in lower caratages, certainly 14-karat. Offering in the stores has gone up. Third piece is that, to really stimulate buyer growth, we unleashed a very powerful gold exchange campaign, not just an offer. Offer was, of course, there, which was a never-before offer. We provided a very strong emotional hook to customers, saying how when you exchange gold or unlock your lockers, it's good for you and good for the country, using Sachin as the spokesperson. I think that has been a significant game changer because customers have really been moved by the messaging and the prominence of the messaging.

These are some of the things we've done, besides, of course, reaching out to customers and informing them about all these activities and campaigns and offers. The other piece that we did differently this time is during festive specifically. Mid-September onwards, instead of doing a making charges off kind of offer, we directed all of that towards a certain rupees per gram benefit on the gold price since gold price was very high on their minds. That's the other piece that we did. The rest of them, strategically, the lower caratage and lighter weight products continue to be a secular trend and effort that we are continuing to push aggressively on. A lot of studded product in the sub-INR 100,000 was introduced and will continue to be introduced to drive buyer growth, which is happening.

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: One other perspective here, which is that given the macros, both the price of gold as well as the middle-class economic pressures which have been around. The buyer growth challenge is not going to go away that easily, notwithstanding how the industry actually creates new innovations. In this particular industry and in this particular category, because of the huge stock of gold with households, we can get, as the division has got, we can get a huge growth in times where buyer growth is a challenge through ticket-sized growth, where you get people to bring in their gold and actually buy more and thereby grow by value rather than by volume. This is a pivoting that may happen from time to time. We need not be worried about the absence of buyer growth in such times because these are very complex macro challenges also.

Conference Moderator: Understood, Venkat. Thank you for that. Venkat, just on continuation with that and Ajoy also, so if I recall correctly, the exchange gold has a bearing on the margin and will put some pressure. If the saliency of the gold exchange scheme keeps rising or if that may pivot towards that, how should one think about the margins going forward? On the back of this insight? Again, on the 18-karat, does that have any bearing on margins if your saliency of 18-karat goes up, so both on margins?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On the second one, there is no saliency. 18-karat will not have any bearing on margin. If at all, it can slightly improve only. A lot of that depends on the quantum that comes in, like materiality of it. Let's see how that progresses. On the exchange, yes, there is a certain impact on margins, but we have been able to work it out in our business model in such a way that it is not impacting us much. Yes, some investments have gone in. We took a conscious call to say it's important to stimulate buyer demand, and it's also important to do what is right for the country. Here, the Prime Minister was pointing out a vision of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat, and we really thought, what can we do to really contribute? Because all the jewellery is made here, but gold is imported.

We went ahead and decided that it's good for the country, it's good for the customer, it's also good for the planet. In the long run, it's good for us. Margins may have some small implications, and that too in certain quarter-to-quarter situation. Secularly, we would actually like it if exchange keeps going up because it's a great way to unlock the locker, as Venkat just pointed out.

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: Also, this is a lever. There are multiple levers that the business has to grow. Each lever comes with a cost. You optimize the lever and stay with what we want to deliver.

Conference Moderator: Understood. No change in margin guidance, hence. We remain at the band that was shared earlier.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: The way gold prices are going up unabated. While our endeavor is to be consistent with our margin delivery, Ashok here. Really, it's becoming increasingly difficult to kind of project gold price trajectory and consequently its impact on margin. Yeah, we would still be pretty consistent if stable. Some pluses and minuses can happen because of this. Let's see how gold stabilizes and get back to its historical growth trajectory rather than what's happening these days. Yeah.

Conference Moderator: Understood. Lastly, on store openings, there has been store openings, especially for Tanishq, has been on the lower side since past, I think, a couple of quarters, a few quarters now. Can you share any indicative store opening targets that one should keep in mind? Or are you revisiting any of them? Any change in the store opening targets versus what was shared earlier? That's all from my side.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: No, there were some execution delays in the first half and in quarter two as well. Some spillovers happened in the period. In October, we saw more open. As we speak, we've added. In the first, while it shows six in the domestic in quarter two, but year to date.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: YTD is nine. Nine in. YTD is nine.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: YTD is nine in September, but in October, we've added some more. I think we are at about, yeah, we added eight more in October. I think overall for the year, our target remains 40, I mean, subject to some execution. We've also been focusing a lot more on actually revamping, transforming, and substantially expanding our existing stores. We've done quite a lot of that. In fact, some of those are much larger projects as well. We've actually expanded and renovated close to 35 stores in the first half of the year, and that is giving us very good results. We look at it in totality. Purely from new stores on Tanishq, I think 35-40 is a reasonable range to expect. Forty is the target. Overall, for the renovations, etc., 70-80 may be the order that may happen for the year.

Conference Moderator: Got it. Thank you very much. Wishing you all the best, Venkat. Same to you, Ajoy. That's all from my side. Thanks.

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: Thank you.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. Next question comes from the line of Avi Nakhwari. Please go ahead.

Hi. Am I audible?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Yes. Hi. Just wanted to look beyond the near term a little bit. While current gold prices are where they are, as this trajectory starts to become a little more benign, would love to hear your thoughts on how do you see growth and margin behaving and whether the historical levels that we have seen in jewelry, are they even achievable because maybe the competitive intensity has changed? Would love your thoughts on how do you see both growth at the same front and margin behaving once all this old elevated levels goes off? I think growth certainly will continue to be good. In fact, we continue to be a high-growth business. Even compared to historically, we have grown pretty well, and the CAGR continues to trend upwards.

Let's see where we end ultimately with quarter three, but I think growth certainly, and if gold prices stabilize, in fact, we think growth prospects improve because more buyers will come into the market. Margins will also hopefully become stable because then that whole impact of high gold prices on margins, particularly on the gross margins of studded, etc., will stabilize. And even the pressure of making charges, etc., which tends to become a little more skewed when gold prices are high. I think the margins will also stabilize. Now, whether we will hit the historical high EBIT margins that we might have seen, let's say, three, four years back, that I'm not so sure. I think we would like to maintain and focus on growth. If the margin remains in the range that Ashok has given a guidance on, that's what we will aim for.

Because the headroom for growth is high, headroom for market share gains is high, and we would certainly like to focus on absolute growth and profits as opposed to percentage profitability improvement.

C. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited: Very clear, Ajoy. Thanks for this. I just had two bookkeeping questions. One, if you could just give us a sense on how should we look at watch margins now that they've done two quarters of relatively healthy performance. Second is, if I remember, Q1 had some benefit of 50 basis points in the jewelry margin, which was one-off because of inventory reval, and that should have reversed. Has that happened, and hence, what is the right number that we should look in jewelry? Thank you. That's all from us.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: On watches, last time also we have talked that they will gradually revert towards 16-17% band. In the long term, I would say the kind of investments are required. Mid-teen is a good number to aim for, 15-16% for the business, at least in the one-year, two-year time frame. Beyond that, we can see how scale and operating leverage would work for that. As far as jewelry is concerned, yes, we did speak about 50 basis points last time, one time, which was expected to reverse over the next two quarters. I have also mentioned simultaneously new things kick in, and I think that is what has happened. In quarter two, we did not see any net impact of reversal and approval. That is where we are.

Conference Moderator: Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thanks a lot, Ashok, for this. Thanks, Venkatar. Thank you. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Devanshu Bansal with MK Global. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Congratulations on strong execution despite the high days. Sir, I wanted to check. There has been an increase of INR 9,500 crore in consolidated inventory, which is a significant number. How should we see this? Is this purely basically the rise in gold price on existing inventory, or is there a component of higher stocking in anticipation of a strong festive plus new store additions as well in this?

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: It is a combination of both because as business is growing, to that extent, inventory has to go up. It is largely driven by gold price. If you look at the overall number, the certain kg amount with the expansion of business, expansion of the store has to go up. There is nothing to talk about. It is not out of our normal turn or normal trajectory or number of days. It is the rate of gold which has impacted substantially this number and the scale of business.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: I think you're right. There is also an earlier season start this year, so there was some amount of seasonal upstocking, which has also played a role. That would be a secondary factor.

Understood. My intent of asking this question was to sort of estimate the interest paid on GML, right? Now that the festive is over, have we seen some reduction in our inventory levels, which should sort of reduce the interest component, or is the Q2 run rate a good run rate to sort of bake in?

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: We will certainly see in quarter three stocks coming down from the present. To that extent, minor correction in interest can happen in gold interest rates. Gold cycle does not follow exactly all the time in stocks, so there could be some mismatches. I do expect in quarter three to slightly come down.

Understood. Second question, sir. There is a big listing expected to happen in the IVR space. For them, vertical integration and their virtual solution with regards to optometrists are emerging as the key differentiators. What is our outlook for this space as we have been going slower, even less than the industry growth of about 13-14%? Just wanted to take your views here.

Rajwant, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Hi, good morning. This is Rajwant here. Thank you for the question. In terms of the industry growth, I mean, there is no audited number. Our estimate of the growth is anywhere between 7-8%. If you look at the 7-8% industry growth, we are maybe slightly higher than the industry growth. In terms of investments, I think when we approach FY2026, we had factors that can investments in terms of transitioning from a brick-and-mortar to a homey channel, building a digital funnel, and also leveraging on our marketing investments to create more aspiration for the brand. As far as our growth outlook is concerned, we believe that we should be closing this year at a slightly higher number than what you are seeing, anywhere between 13-14%. That is what our outlook would be. In terms of the competition listing, I think it was anticipated.

It is not a surprise, and it was already factored in our FY2026 plan. We will continue to do what we are doing, and we believe that will take us to the desired growth levels, whatever we have planned for.

Thanks. I have just a small follow-up here to better understand the model. From a back-end perspective, what all processes in terms of, say, manufacturing of frames, manufacturing of lenses, fitting of lenses, putting power into the lenses? Which all processes are we sort of doing internally as of now? Any thoughts if we want to backward integrate our supply chain?

I mean, we are a fully integrated organization, vertically integrated. We have our own lens making plant. We have two plants, in fact, one at Bandalur and one at Kolkata. From a volume standpoint, almost 90% of the volumes we sell at retail, very happy to state, is locally produced in our factory. We also have a frame manufacturing plant in Tuparapur. The frame manufacturing plant can do injection, acetate as well as metal. From a fitting lab standpoint, what we do is service is a very critical part of our industry. We have close to 11-12 in-house fitting labs pan-India to ensure that we are able to deliver a spectacle anywhere between two to three days' time across. We are very well covered from a back-end standpoint. This investment has been made over the years. It is not that everything has happened now.

In fact, Titan Group made this investment on the lab 12-13 years back and on the frame manufacturing almost 7-8 years back. We are well equipped in terms of the back-end.

Sure, sir. Just one small question. You have indicated from a presales perspective that there has been a strong start to the festive. In recent periods, we have seen that there is some moderation in discretionary categories after a big sort of pickup towards occasions. I wanted to check if you can throw some light on your growth expectations for the upcoming wedding season as well. That would be helpful. This is for jewelry space.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Yeah, yeah. I think post-festive 10 days also that we are seeing post the Diwali action, the sales growth has continued to be in the same vein as we saw in festive. We believe this could be largely due to a good wedding season and the continued exchange that we are running because we feel that during wedding season, again, exchange is a big driver. So far, so good. I think how quarter three will end as a number, I can't give you. Certainly, at a very broad level, I think by the time we end, we come to YTD December, our growth rates should have become better than the first half growth rates. That's as much as I can share with you right now.

Fair enough, Ajoy. Thanks for taking my questions.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. Also, ask both the questions in one go. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of C. K. Venkataraman with Fair Value Advisory Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good quarter. I have just one question, and that is on T, the engineering automation automotive business. Does this business have any synergies with the consumer businesses that we have? If you could elaborate them. If not, is there any reason why we are not demerging it or listing it out separately? Thank you.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Shankar, shall I take this?

Conference Moderator: Yeah, sure.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Yeah. No, there is no real synergy between TEAL and the consumer businesses of Titan. TEAL is a global tech manufacturing B2B business. Whereas the rest of Titan is becoming global, but B2C. There is no synergy. It was born 20 years back, and we have scaled it substantially, realizing that even within the sort of neighborhood of a very large B2C successful company, there is place for it. By adequately staffing that company, adequately creating the right capability for the board which manages, which governs TEAL, we have created a kind of planetary system, if you will, which maximizes the opportunity for TEAL. That is how it is going, and that is how it will go. There is no plan to demerge, as you said, at the moment.

Okay. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Aditya Soman with CLSA. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, good morning. Firstly, Venkat, thanks for your insights. We will miss them and look forward for many more. Best wishes for the rest of the team. Some of my questions, first on jewelry, I mean, just given the unprecedented gold prices, can you throw a little more light on how trends differ regionally within India? Obviously, given your increasing global scale also, in other markets, are we seeing sort of clear differentiation in trends? That would be sort of interesting insight. Second, on the watch business, you've made a sort of concerted effort on the analog watches side. We've seen new launches over the past six months as well. From here, should we continue expecting sort of a significant growth in the analog space? Any sort of insights from the festive season on growth in that category? Thank you.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On trends regionally, if you're asking geographically, we have gained share in East and South, or rather, we continue to gain share in East and South, driven by our regionalization strategy, which is becoming sharper and better by every quarter, even as we invest more. We think this playbook can be extended to other states as well, and we are planning so in the near future as we go forward. In terms of North and West, we were a little concerned about how Bombay-Delhi consumer sentiment is, and it was a little sluggish. I think a lot of the work that we put in, as well as maybe some improvement in overall sentiment, we've seen a good revival in those markets. Even the started growth in those markets is beginning to now, once again, start to improve. Of course, some internal factors as well.

We had some stores under renovation, etc., in certain markets. Internationally, I don't think there are any trends that are different, but the North American market continues to power ahead much faster. There, I think we are the early movers as well, whereas in the Middle East, we are, in a way, challengers because we've come in late, but we're nevertheless seeing healthy results. The started play in North America is particularly heartening. Dini, you want to add anything on international?

Rajwant, Executive, Titan Company Limited: North America, despite the gold prices and in a way, some of the price increases that we've taken in that market, continues to grow very, very well. Like Ajay said, the started performance there has been very heartening. Customers are clearly more involved and, let's say, purchasing into higher price points as well. That story has been really good. Even in the Gulf markets, we've seen a very, very strong comeback for the business in terms of people actively buying higher price points. Their started ratios are relatively lower. Overall, I think very, very good and very strong trends. The recognition of the brand in both the Middle East, Singapore, and the U.S. markets is increasingly becoming very strong, given the number of stores that are also increasing.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On watches?

Rajwant, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On watches. The question on festive growth has been high compared to a quarter where we grew about 10%. The festive period sort of saw a 16% growth over last year, the same similar period. That has been good for us. To your point about new launches and the direction that we have been taking, there has been a lot of work that the division has put in terms of premiumization. What you are seeing is, in a way, the output of all of that work with first the Jalta launch, then the Stella launch, and the Edge Ultra Slim launch. Certainly, you should expect more of that. We are seeing across all the brands, even in Fastrack and Sonata, a need to premiumize and customers responding to that.

As we have launched more interesting and more exciting products in even our lower-priced brands, there has been a great response to that. We will continue to do that for Titan. We will continue to push to increase the presence of Helios stores and Helios Lux stores, which we have started adding. Thanks.

All right. Very clear. Thank you so much.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Kunal Vora with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. On the competition in jewelry, are you seeing any difference in behavior from jewelers who might be owning an inventory versus those who are using gold only because some of them might be sitting on large inventory gains and might be willing to operate at lower margins and can be more aggressive? That is my question number one. Second one is, can you update us on the consumer response to LGDs with income pressures? Is that something which consumers are looking at more closely? How large is the solitaire and high-value studded jewelry business for you? Are the trends there at par with what you are seeing in overall studded?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: First question, yes. When jewelers see inventory gains on gold, unprecedented inventory gains on gold, they tend to use it effectively by reducing making charges or passing on significant offers. Certainly, therefore, it becomes a competitive intensity going up. Therefore, we have to deal with it as it comes. On the studded side, we talked about the LGD. I think the market in LGDs has, of course, been developing slowly and steadily with many players coming in. We understand that, and they are expanding as well. We understand that some of their unit economics may be under stress, but nevertheless, they are hoping for a swing and therefore a lot more stores opening up, a lot more capital going into all of that. Of course, from the diamond grower's perspective, the US market has been rather, rather sluggish. They have to look elsewhere.

India is possibly the most convenient market because other markets are not really going anywhere. China is also not going anywhere with LGD. We can expect increased investments in LGD. Now, how is that showing up on consumers? So far, we've not really seen demands in our brands, whether it's CaratLane or Mia at our stores, etc. It's not that people are coming and asking us, "Give us LGDs." We think there is a growing interest, though it has yet to show up in the numbers per se. We believe it is still early days in the sense that perhaps the more accomplished diamond buyer is playing with LGDs as an early adopter, not necessarily the new entrants as we were thinking. Now, the last piece that you talked about is the performance on high-value and solitaire. It's been good. In fact, the contributions have gone up in this quarter.

We are seeing a steady gain in that area. The solitaire correction that, in a way, happened last year is now behind us. We are seeing continued growth at buyer level in solitaire as well as high-value studded. High-value studded has, in fact, gained in contribution by 1 percentage point over last year's quarter too.

Okay. That's very clear. Just one follow-up, sir. Lekshather, there seem to be multiple headwinds on margins right now. Are you comfortable with the 11% floor, or is there some risk there?

I think gold prices, if they continue to shoot up further, then there will be a certain further headwind. So far, I think we've been able to manage, and we are hoping to keep it within that range-bound kind of margin. Let's see. Unless something new and big turns up, we can't say right now.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Aditya Soman with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi. I had a couple of questions. First was actually on CaratLane, where your margins have expanded 250 basis points to 10%. We wanted to understand, do you see—I know there's some seasonality in CaratLane margins, but on a year-on-year basis, do you think this territory of margin expansion is sustainable, and what has driven it? That was my first question. Second is, generally, consolidated jewelry EBIT growth has been running much higher than the Tanishq EBIT growth, CaratLane as well as international. Should one expect that broad trend to continue? Anything on international, which was lumpy in terms of the growth, which may not sustain? I just had one question on CaratLane and one on international jewelry.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Shankar, you could answer the first.

On the margin front, I think there are multiple things that we have done. In terms of dealing with variation. The share of gold in the overall product. Therefore, we saw the improvement between quarter one and quarter two even compared to last year. At the rate gold prices have gone up, frankly, it is difficult to forecast what will happen to the margin going forward.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On the international front, there are two factors. One is the size of the international business, and its share to total Titan jewelry is climbing substantially, even though it's small, but climbing substantially, or rather climbed substantially. The second is we've also moved from a loss in the previous year to a profit in the current quarter. Therefore, that transformational change in the margin also has a bearing on the consolidated figure. As we go forward, we will see a more secular thing happening here rather than what happened Q1Q.

Sure. Just one follow-up on CaratLane. Just from what I understood, Saumen, you're saying that gold price could be a headwind, but that's generally a headwind for the entire industry. Otherwise, whatever initiatives would have led to this margin expansion, those you think are sustainable, or there was some higher-than-normal margin this quarter because of some other factors? That's one thing I wanted to understand.

No. Some of the things that we have done will certainly have sustainable impact. Assuming the gold rate remains, let's say, stable, we would see that line continue. If gold rate dramatically changes, it is very difficult to sort of address some of these things given the inventory can't be altered immediately overnight, right? In the quarter two, there was some marginal gain, but that I would not think is really material in the overall margin.

Understood. Thanks. That's it from my side. All the best, Venkat, for your future endeavors, and best wishes to Ajoy.

Thank you, Aditya.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Thanks. Thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, please keep your questions crisp just because we have 15 minutes. The next question comes from the line of Gaurav Jugani with GM Financial. Please go ahead.

Thank you, sir. I have just one question with regards to the return of the hedging gain. If I get it clearly, the 50 basis points gain that you have done in Q1, that's kind of reversed in Q2. Is that the right understanding?

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: No. I think last time also we spoke that it will gradually reverse over Q2, Q3. Also, simultaneously, we said new hedges can again have a compensating effect. In quarter two, actually, there is no net impact on account of reversal and further approval.

Oh, okay, sir. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nihal Mohijam with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you so much, and good morning to the team. Two questions. First is, Ajoy, when you mentioned high-value studded, if you could just define, is it about, say, INR 5 lakh? What is the definition of that? And if you could just give the contribution of that and the solitaire portion in your studded. The second one is that we are looking at a large share of store rehashing, around 70, I'm guessing. All of it is Tanishq. Can you quantify if that leads to quite a substantial increase in the store productivity? What are the reasons for it? Maybe it's an increase in the area. If that could also be an incremental trigger over the next six months for growth to be better than what it's already had.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: On high-value studded, historically, we defined it as about INR 200,000. For consistency, we've kept it at that level across the years. In quarter two, it was contributing around 14% of the overall business. That was 1 percentage point higher than last year, quarter two. Quarter two also has the festival of diamonds, so to that extent, the contribution in this period goes up relative to other quarters. I think we will see a YOY benefit for the year as well. Solitaire currently contributes to about—I'm trying to just do a math here—so it's about 4% of the total, 3.5%-4% of the overall business. It has been growing. I don't have an immediate response on last year's figure. Certainly, the contribution has gone up in the current year as a percentage, maybe by half a percent, 1%. That has also gone up. The second question I didn't—I forgot.

Can you just repeat that quickly?

Yes. On the store rehashes, 70, all of them for Tanishq, what leads to the increase in productivity, and can that be an incremental driver of better growth than what it's already at for the jewelry?

On the store?

Renovation.

Store productivity.

Yes.

Store productivity, I don't have a figure right now to give you a response. We have been expanding many of our stores, so I don't have a revenue per sq ft kind of comparison from before and after. Maybe we'll get back to you on that. I mean, that's the best way for my mind to measure productivity.

Sure. Thank you, sir.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Sheila Rati with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. My first question was, Ajoy, you gave a good flavor on how the demand trends have been, like-to-like festive, and also the ongoing wedding calendar. I just want to get some clarification because last year in Q3 and Q4, we saw a surge in gold coin and bar demand. Just want to hear from you how that trend has been this time around.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: It continues, unabated. It looks like the appetite for gold coins and bullion is very high. Naturally, sir, given the gold price is going up. It is leading. It is continuing to lead. As we see now, the contributions of gold coins have certainly gone up significantly over the last several years.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: Just a follow-up here. Is it in line versus your expectations, or is it just trending in a similar pattern? Similar to what we have been seeing in the last 12 months?

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: It's continuing to climb in contribution. It's trending up. Both buyer, KG, value, everything going much faster than what we might have imagined. It's not difficult to understand why.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: Right. The second question is to one of the participants' questions. You said that the competitive intensity remains, given how the gold prices are there. Particularly from the independent jewelers. Just want to hear from you. Is that the exchange program has become more of an all-round year reality? Maybe the intensity varies through the year, but that's our way to offset the kind of competition we see from the independent jewelers. Just one side question to that is also, how are the trends for the L3 stores for us? Because they would be competing much harder with the independent jewelers also. How are they kind of playing this game, and do they hedge their inventory? Yes, three questions to that.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Firstly, it's not only the independents who don't hedge. Many organized players also don't hedge, at least not fully. Competitive intensity is not linked only to small players, but also from many organized players, sometimes even more so from the bigger chains. Therefore, the last question, in a way, does not— L3, L2, everywhere we see the same competitive intensity. Some L3s hedge. Many L3s don't. We recommend them to hedge as much as they can. So far, they take their own calls. Overall, exchange is not— I think we see it as a strategic method to acquire customers and to, in a way— because anybody who goes through a Tanishq exchange, they become evangelists and customers for life because the transparency, purity, and everything clear and clean with absolutely no strings attached and no fine print thrown in makes a huge difference.

Customers go back feeling visibly happy having seen the gold melted in front of them, a trained carriager out there, first a carat meter check, then an actual melting check. I think the whole process leaves them feeling extremely comfortable. They know we are here for the long run so that anything they buy from us can always come back. We believe exchange is a strategic customer acquisition and trust-building tool. Therefore, I would request we don't see it as an offer. Exchange is there right through the year. The offers may vary tactically quarter to quarter.

Ashok, Finance Executive, Titan Company Limited: Understood. Thank you. Thank you, Venkat.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Thank you, Sheila.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Amit Sachdeva with UBS, please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. One small question, Ajay. You mentioned that buyer growth has been weak. Buyer growth has been weak for a while because gold price has been rallying really hard. I'm just linking it to think from a studded angle as well because studded may be a considered purchase, but many times it's a converted purchase. Is it that as the buyer growth builds up, you would see much more tailwind for studded growth, which has been also lackluster for a while, although it has gone up this quarter a bit from the last one? Is there a buyer growth detriment for that growth, number one?

Given your INR 100,000 and below, a lot of product introduction, do you expect studded growth to increase in the coming quarters from what we've seen in the last, if assuming gold price stabilizes and what you're seeing on the ground? That's question number one. Because margin is an issue that I think you'll be grappling with as coin sales increase, etc. The question is linked to that.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Sure. I think just to put things in perspective, since we're talking all over buyer, buyer growth overall has been -2% for the quarter. Gold was -11%, largely driven by the sub INR 100,000. Studded was +3%. I think this gives a perspective that studded is actually doing much better than gold. I'm keeping coins aside. Coins was a much higher number. Studded buyer growth has been trending in the positive territory and leading the gold jewellery buyer growth consistently over the last five, six quarters now. It is not a one-off in the quarter. The sub INR 100,000 introductions, and particularly even in studded, which we have thrown in, we are certainly hoping to continue pushing the studded buyer growth.

Certainly through the portfolio play, Tanishq, Mia, CaratLane, we think we will want to continue to aggressively push for studded buyer growth, certainly in the INR 100,000 space, sub INR 100,000 space as well, because that's where we see a lot of new customers get recruited. What we will end up with, we don't know. So far, we've been able to keep pushing that envelope, and we hope to take it upwards. We have seen an improvement in festives. Hopefully, by the time we end December, what year-to-date we should be seeing a further positivity on that front.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Sachdeva, please rejoin the queue for more questions. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to one question. The next question comes from the line of Chignanchu with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Venkat and Ajay, two quick questions on jewelry. One on jewelry, one on IRA. On jewelry, while the gold price till end of September had only one direction, in the last three weeks, it has changed direction a little bit, right? The correction has been as sort of fast as the ramp-up was. In this light, how has this impacted your inventory planning, sales planning, both from supply of gold, physical supply of gold, as well as the kind of SKUs that you are planning to supply? Do you think it is at a place where it changes, or it is more of the same? The second was on IRA. I think that one of the other questions was also on what your strategy is. I do not think that was really answered.

I would love to understand what your approach is to grow this business.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Gold prices have moderated by about 6% or thereabouts in the last 10 days post the Diwali festive season. We are happy because I think customers are also happy about it. Those who are still waiting to buy in for wedding jewelry, they'll come in. Our planning doesn't change dramatically. We try to ensure a good, optimal product mix and with a good across-category price bands. We try to ensure. We are not seeing any significant changes in inventory planning. Bullion buying, yes, it was a little bit under pressure in the October first couple of weeks. There were some bullion shortages. Otherwise, I think our bullion team is well on top of all projections. We've been able to ensure that we don't cut inventory despite the rising gold prices.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Hi, Chignanchu. This is Raghavan here. I think you asked a question about IRA. If we look at this particular industry we are in, the headroom to grow is tremendous. We estimate the market to be around INR 30,000 crore and growing at almost 7-8%. The current share is less than 5%. The headroom to grow is tremendous. In terms of our go-to-market strategy, we believe we are well covered in terms of the retail footprints we have. We have close to 900 stores. As I mentioned in the earlier call, we are transitioning into omnichannel because for a consumer, the first touchpoint is always your website and then on whether he wants to transact or go to the store locator. In terms of our overall strategy, we believe this is a business where both vision and fashion are equally important. We need to do a good job in both.

It is an aided business, right? When somebody comes in for an eye checkup, we need to ensure that we do a fantastic job in terms of giving the right prescription. At the same time, ensure that we give them the right pair of eyewear because dispensing is also equally important. From that standpoint, we will continue to invest in having the right kind of people at these stores so that we do a great job in terms of consumer satisfaction. As far as investing for growth, yes, we will continue to invest in terms of creating more awareness for the brand and thereby driving the consumer footfall, which is what is happening in FY 2026 also. We believe we are well placed to grab more share in the coming quarters.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Jay Doshi with Kotak. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is on jewelry EBIT growth. Now, you started the year with a certain expectation of jewelry sales growth. And given rising gold prices, you're likely to be much ahead of that expectation. How should we think about EBIT growth from the same context? At the beginning of the year, you were expecting EBIT growth to be at least in line with revenue growth in jewelry, if not better. So do you still think that that thesis plays out? On percentage margin basis, things could be a little different. But should you be delivering better EBIT growth than what you were expecting at the beginning of the year? And second is, this year be a year where consolidated jewelry EBIT growth will be ahead of standalone jewelry EBIT growth? That's it from my side.

Raghavan, Executive, Titan Company Limited: Jay, I don't think that. The pressure on margin or headwind on margin continues while we are trying to compensate, offset through various levers, etc. Over the last six months, also gold prices were where they are now, where are they? While there is a minor correction, we don't know going forward which direction they would go. I would expect EBIT growth, absolute amount growth might be slightly slower than the revenue growth for the full year.

That is understandable. It will still be better than what you were expecting before this, maybe three, four months back, right? Look. Just to put some numbers. If you're expecting 15%-17% jewelry growth or 15%-20% of your guidance for the year, now with the rising gold prices, if you end up at 20%-25% jewelry top-line growth, will your EBIT growth also be at least slightly better than what you were expecting at the beginning of the year? Percentage margins could be lower. That is understandable. That is the primary sort of thing that.

Indirectly, you are asking whether revenue growth guidance we are changing. I do not think we are. We expect.

We already called out, right? EBIT will be better. Nine months will be better than first half. So that kind of directionally sort of you.

Yeah. Directionally, yeah. EBIT will keep in line with revenue, but the margin pressure, which we have talked about, it's the outcome of various things which will play out, Jay. As we said in the beginning, we are trying to deliver consistent, stable rain, but it could be slightly pluses and minuses, not significant variations we are expecting.

Ajoy, Executive, Titan Company Limited: As a business head, I would simply say we will aim for that. We will aim to see that EBIT growth also is better than what we might have imagined. What Ashok is saying is, depending on what kind of further headwinds you come across and how gold prices further behave, it's difficult to give you a guidance and an accurate sense. Yes, we will aim for it. Principally, what you are saying is something that we also as management would be interested in.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. C. K. Venkataraman for closing comments.

Thank you very much. We are signing off from this call, and I'm signing off from these calls. It's been a fabulous—I have lost count—maybe 50th or 60th call over the last 12, 15 years. Each one of you has been a pillar of support for the company, always constructive in your approach, and very probing. Offline, keeping us on our feet and helping us to perform better and better over the years, over the decades. Thank you so much. God bless.

Thank you. We are.

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