BENGALURU:  Titan Company (Titan), formerly known as Titan Industries, reported a (-25.98) per cent drop in advertisement expenses (Advt Exp) in Q4-2014 at Rs 87.37 crore (3.12 per cent of Income from Operations or Op Inc) as compared to the Rs 118.04 crore (4.18 per cent on Op Inc) in the immediate trailing quarter Q3-2014, but 31.13 per cent more than the Rs 66.663 crore (2.55 per cent of Op Inc) spent in the year ago quarter of Q4-2013.

Note: Rs 100 lakh = Rs100,00,000 = Rs 1 crore = Rs 10 million

Titan has three revenue segments – watches with 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 ‘Others’ that include eyewear under the Titan EYE+ brand, apparel and eyewear also under Fastrack brand and precision engineering among others.

Over nine quarters staring from Q4-2012 until Q4-2014, Titan’s Advt Exp shows an upward trend in terms of absolute rupee value, but a drop in terms of Advt Exp as percentage of Op Inc.

During FY-2014, Titan spent 7.25 per cent more towards Advt Exp at Rs 404.43 crore (3.7 per cent of Op Inc) as compared to the Rs 377.09 crore ((3.73 per cent of Op Inc). Though the Advt Exp in terms of absolute rupees in FY-2014 was higher, in terms of percentage of Op Inc, the drop in Advt Exp was 0.03 per cent.

Please refer to Fig 1 and Fig 1A below for Titan’s Advt Exp trends.

Titan’s Op Inc for Q4-2014 at Rs 2803.38 crore was 4.77 per cent more than the Rs 2675.77 crore in Q3-2014 and was 7.28 per cent more than the Rs 2613.24 crore in Q4-2013. In FY-2014, Titan’s Op Inc at Rs 10915.79 crore was 7.94 per cent more than the Rs 10112.67 crore in FY-2013.

PAT for Q4-2014 at Rs 206.44 crore  (7.36 per cent of Op Inc) was 24.68 per cent more than the Rs 165.57 crore  (6.19 per cent of Op Inc) in Q3-2014 and 11.61 per cent more y-o-y than the Rs 184.97 crore (7.08 per cent of Op Inc). PAT for FY-2014 at Rs 741.14 crore (6.79 per cent of Op Inc) was 2.2 per cent more than the Rs 725.18 crore (7.17 per cent of Op Inc) in FY-2013. Please refer to Fig 2 and Fig 2A for Op Inc and PAT details.

The company says that weak consumer demand continues and this is affecting growth in both watches and jewellery. It claims that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given approval to it for hedging of its gold inventory on international commodity exchanges – brings back efficiency to hedging.

Titan says further that issues with gold supply in the market persist – high premium on gold continues encouraging smuggling and though the sale of gold coins has resumed the uptake has been very lukewarm.

It avers that Titan’s focus on retail network expansion continues – 39 stores (44000 sq. ft.) were added during

Q4-2014 across divisions. Year-to-date there has been an addition of 125 stores (180,000 sq. ft), including 30 TitanOne conversions.

Titan informs that it has entered into a JV agreement with Montblanc for single brand retail trade in India