Chennai floods affect Titan's Q3 sales in south

India's largest jewellery and watchmaker Titan said that the festive season was a wash out in Tamil Nadu and was generally below expectation across south India due to the weather conditions, while business improved in other parts of the country.

"The festive season had a mixed response from consumer for our different categories. While jewellery sales were buoyant for the season, watches and eye wear category did not see the expected traction," Titan said in a notification to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. The firm gave a business update for the quarter to December in the notification.

Titan's plain gold heritage collection (Divyam) launched in the quarter saw good demand, along with Zuhur, the studded collection. Titan's jewellery division added seven Tanishq stores taking the total number of outlets to 187.

"While the festive season was buoyant in the rest of the country, it was below par in Chennai, Bangalore and upcountry Tamil Nadu due to rains," it said.

The watches division saw volumes decline over the festive season while sales value remained flat and expects the revival of Titan watches with the launch of technology enabled watches in the coming quarter.

The Titan stock closed 0.10% or Re 0.35 down at Rs 350.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. The BSE Index was up 0.76% or 195.42 points to close at 26,034.