Tanishq sales rise in Q1 on wedding season demand: Titan

Titan Co, which sells jewellery under Tanishq brand, has said it witnessed improvement in sales on account of auspicious dates, like Akshaya Tritiya, and wedding season buying in the first quarter of the fiscal.
At the same time, the company saw its sales taking a hit from jeweller's strike against imposition of excise duty during the period.
"The strike of jewellery associations in opposition of the excise duty imposition in Budget, continued till the middle of April 2016 in a large part of the country which had some impact on the sales of Tanishq brand in that month," Titan said in its quarterly update to exchange BSE.

May started off well with Akshaya Tritiya weekend bringing in some sales growth for Tanishq, it added.
"Our channel information suggests that some of the other large players in the industry may have declined by as much as 30 per cent over Akshaya Tritiya period suggesting a market share growth for Tanishq," it added.
It added that some impact of the government's new rule mandating permanent account number (PAN) for all transactions above Rs 2 lakh "was visible in some product and price bands".

"The company believes that overall impact of this on sales of the division will be less than 10 per cent of the revenue of the division on a steady state basis," Titan said.

During the quarter, Titan opened five Tanishq stores and closed two Gold Plus stores.
The watch division, which has taken a two-year target for revitalise and rejuvenate, is at a confluence of technological advancements, flux in sales channel importance and changing customer preferences
"The division plans to introduce exciting products with technology infusion, over the current fiscal under its various brands. This quarter witnessed the beginning of the Titan activation which is seeing decent sales," said Titan.
The division has also added Kenneth Cole, Anne Klein and Esprit to its licensed brand and will also begin selling Apple watch, Garmin and Swarowski watches through its Helios stores.

Meanwhile, in the eye wear segment, it added 12 Titan Eye Plus and closed seven Spexx stores in this quarter bringing the total count to 409.