Titan Company Limited — Call Transcript 2025

Nov 8, 2025

SEC 103 / 2025-26 8

Dalal Street Bandra Kurla Complex Maharashtra, India Maharashtra Scrip Code: 500114 Symbol: TITAN

th November 2025

BSE Limited National Stock Exchange of India Limited Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers Exchange Plaza, C-1, Block G Mumbai 400 001 Bandra (E), Mumbai 400 051

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Sub: Earnings Call Transcripts

Pursuant to Regulation 46(2)(oa) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we hereby inform the exchanges that the transcript of audio call recording of the Company's Analyst Call to discuss the unaudited Financial Results (Standalone and Consolidated) for the second quarter and half year ended 30th September 2025 is attached herewith.

The transcript is also available on the website of the Company: www.titancompany.in

Kindly take the same on record and acknowledge receipt.

Yours truly, For TITAN COMPANY LIMITED

DINESH SHIVANN A SHETTY Digitally signed by DINESH SHIVANNA SHETTY Date: 2025.11.08 16:31:51 +05'30'

Dinesh Shetty General Counsel & Company Secretary

Encl. As stated

Titan Company Limited

INTEGRITY #193 Veerasandra Electronics City P.O. Off Hosur Main Road, Bangalore 560100 India. Tel: 9180 6704 7000 Fax: 9180 6704 6262 Registered Office 3, Sipcot Industrial Complex Hosur 635 126 TN India. Tel-91 4344 664 199 Fax 91 4344 276037, CIN: L74999TZ1984PLC001456

"Titan Company Limited

Q2 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call"

November 04, 2025

TITAN MANAGEMENT:

MR.C.K.VENKATARAMAN	–MANAGING DIRECTOR,TITAN COMPANY LIMITED
MR.ASHOK SONTHALIA	–CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
MR.AJOY CHAWLA	–CEO,JEWELLERY DIVISION
MR.KURUVILLA MARKOSE	–CEO,WATCHES &WEARABLES DIVISION
MR.RAGHAVAN N S	– CEO,EYECARE DIVISION
MR.MANISH GUPTA	–CEO,FRAGRANCES &FASHION ACCESSORIES DIVISION
MR.SAUMEN BHAUMIK	– MANAGING DIRECTOR,CARATLANE
MR.N P SRIDHAR	– MANAGING DIRECTOR,TITAN ENGINEERING &AUTOMATION LIMITED ('TEAL')

Moderator:	Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Titan Company Limited Q2 FY '26 EarningsConference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and therewill be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you needassistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero onyour touchtone 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:	Thank you, and good morning to everyone all over. It's good to be talking to you at the end avery satisfying Q2 FY '26. The growth in virtually all our businesses, markets, subsidiaries havebeen very satisfying, and the deck has been with you for a little while now, so we can movedirectly into your questions.
Moderator:	Shall we open the line for questions?
C.K. Venkataraman:	Yes, please.
Moderator:	Thank you. The first question comes from the line of Manoj Menon with ICICI Securities. Pleasego ahead.
Manoj Menon:	And first of all, thanks for hosting the call early in the day. So just I have only one feedbackwhat you're seeing on the ground, what the customers are telling you in the context of theparabolic rise in gold prices on three aspects.
	One, what the customers, let's say, the willingness. You mentioned last time about customerbuying an 18-carat or less than 22. And importantly, what the activities which you areundertaking directionally, let's say, what proportion of your inventory is non-22 in plain gold oranything like that. And then how sustainable it is.
	Point number two, historically, we have noted that, at least, I've observed that whenever goldprices increases beyond a point, it becomes relatively easier across the counter to upgrade theconsumer to stud it because consumer probably believes that studded is far better aspirationalrather than gold.
	So are you -- so when I look at the studded mix, it largely remains flat, 1% here and there. And-- but having said that, I can't see the flow-through into the GP also. So how do I read that? Soyes, so that's one.
	And the third is yesterday Thangamayil had put out an exchange release saying that they haveactually seen a very good October in volumes. So how do -- I mean how are we to interpret? Isit an industry trend? Let's say, the typical volume price elasticity, is that holding out? How dowe read that? Not Thangamayil, I'm talking about industry and particularly you.

Ajoy Chawla: 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. But then when they didn't see it come down and continue 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 jewellery.

Your point on how is the response to 18-carat jewellery. 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 in for studded, well, the studded buyer growth is marginally higher than the gold jewellery, if I exclude coins. Coins kind of skews the color on the overall product mix. Coins, of course, is growing very well, exceptionally high. That shows strong investment demand.

But if I just compare studded growth of buyer level and gold jewellery buyer growth, we have now been seeing this trend consistently over the last several quarters that the studded buyer growth have been better, not very high, but certainly better than the gold jewellery buyer growth. Still early single digits, I would say.

But in general, when gold prices are high and if customers are holding back, they don't -- they hold back for gold as well as studded. It's not that -- the walk-ins itself drop. And 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. But yes, there is a marginal difference in studded buyer growth. It's higher. And gold jewellery growth in terms of buyers, it's lower. It's negative, whereas in studded buyer growth, it's positive.

• Manoj Menon: Just one follow-up quickly, and I'll come back in the queue. So 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 so 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 your conversions are, let's say, appropriately captured?
• Ajoy Chawla: I -- no, I don't have any such -- I can't confirm your hypothesis because I'm not sure if we are seeing that kind of natural movement. And 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. But 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. So it's difficult to draw any correlation.

Manoj Menon: All the best to both Venkat and you in the future endeavors.

Ajoy Chawla: 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.

But 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. And this is not in correlation to Thangamayil's figures. Their base may be very small and they are at an expansion. I'm talking at an overall level.

• Manoj Menon: So, Ajoy, just one last thing. Is it fair to then conclude that the consumer or the customer seems to have a accepted, which is what you alluded to, higher gold prices, at least in the large-ticket consumer and that the volume pull back or cut back 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 jewellery?
• Ajoy Chawla: I can only say for ourselves that our buyer growth have improved in festive to festive of 32 days like-to-like period, compared to, let's say, quarter 2. But how much of that is because they are naturally now comfortable, yes, they are comfortable with gold prices, but 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.

But I can only say this for ourselves. I don't have really a deeper industry level insight that, yes, now the volumes are back. I think buyers -- many more buyers were in the market for festive having seen gold prices now, you know, not coming down.

Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Mihir Shah with Nomura.

Mihir Shah: So my question, again, is on the buyer growth. It has been about 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 carat that you're trying to do?

Any other material steps you think that will bring back buyer growth? So that's one. And any quantitative range for October festive or October sales that you can share will be very helpful. So that's my first question.

Ajoy Chawla: So on buyer growth, we've done a lot more work in terms of populating price points in the sub INR1 lakh if I look at Tanishq and Mia as well has done a lot of work. We've been doing a lot more introductions in lower caratages, certainly 14 carat 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. But 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. So 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, is instead of doing making charges of kind of offer, we directed all of that towards certain rupees per gram benefit on the gold price since gold price was very high on their minds. And 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: 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.

But in this particular industry, in this particular category, because of this 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 size growth, where you get people to bring in their gold and actually buy more, and thereby grow by value rather than by wallet.

So this is a pivoting that may happen from time to time. And we'll not be worried about the absence of buyer growth in such times because these are very complex macro challenges also.

• Mihir Shah: Understood. 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 gold exchange scheme keeps rising or that may pivot towards that, how should one think about the margins going forward on the back of this insight? And again, on the 18 carat, does that have any bearing on margins if you -- saliency of 18 carat goes up, so both on margins?
• Ajoy Chawla: On the second one, there is no saliency. 18 carat will not have any bearing on margin. If at all, it can slightly improve only, but 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've 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 painting out a vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, and we reallythought what can we do to really contribute because all the jewellery is made here, but gold isimported. So 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. So in the long run, it's good for us.
	So margins may have some small implications, and that too, in certain quarter-to-quartersituation. But secularly, we would actually like it if exchange keeps going up because it's a greatway to unlock the locker as Venkat just pointed out.
C.K. Venkataraman:	Also, this is a lever. There are multiple levers that the business has to grow. And each levercomes with a cost. So you optimize the levers and stay with what we want to deliver.
Mihir Shah:	Understood. No changes in margin guidance? So hence, we remain at those band that was sharedearlier by --
Ashok Sonthalia:	The way gold prices are going up unabated while our endeavor is to be consistent with ourmargin delivery, Ashok here, really it's becoming increasingly difficult to kind of project goldprice trajectory and consequently, its impact on margin.
	But yes, we would still be pretty consistent, if stable, some pluses and minuses can happenbecause of this. So let's see how gold stabilizes and get back to its historical growth trajectoryrather than what's happening these days.
Mihir Shah:	Understood. Lastly, on store openings, there has been store openings especially for Tanishq hasbeen on the lower side since the past, I think, a couple of quarters -- a few quarters now. Canyou share any indicative store opening targets that one should keep in mind? Or are you visitingany of them? Any change in the store opening targets versus what was shared earlier? That's allfrom my side.
Ajoy Chawla:	No, there were some execution delays in the first half and in quarter 2 as well. So some spillovershappened in the period. In October, we saw more open. So as we speak, we've added I think inthe first -- while it shows 6 in the domestic in quarter 2, but YTD is 9. September, but in October,we've added some more. So I think we are at about -- yes, we added 8 more in October. But Ithink overall, for the year, our target remains 40 barring -- I mean, subject to some execution.
	We've also been focusing a lot more on actually revamping, transforming and substantiallyexpanding our existing stores. So we've done quite a lot of that. And in fact, some of those aremuch larger projects as well. So we've actually expanded and renovated close to 35 stores in thefirst half of the year. And that is giving us very good results.
	So we look at it in totality, but purely from new stores on Tanishq, I think 35 to 40 is a reasonablerange to expect. 40 is the target. And overall, for the renovations, etcetera, 70 to 80 may be theorders that may happen for the year.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Avi with Macquarie.

Avi Mehta:	Just wanted to look beyond the near term a little bit. While current gold prices are where theyare, as this trajectory starts to become a little more benign, would love to hear your thoughts onhow do you see growth and margin behaving and whether the historical levels that we have seenin jewellery, are they even achievable because maybe the competitive intensity has changed? Sowould love your thoughts on how do you see both growth at the sales front and margin behavingonce all this whole elevated level goes off.
Ajoy Chawla:	I think growth certainly will continue to be good. In fact, we continue to be a high-growthbusiness, even compared to historically, we have grown pretty well, and the CAGR continues totrend upwards. Let's see where we end ultimately with quarter 3, but I think growth certainly.And if gold prices stabilize, in fact, we think growth prospects improve because more buyerswill come into the market.
	Margins will also hopefully become stable because then that whole impact of high gold priceson margins, particularly on the gross margins of studded, et cetera, will stabilize. So -- and eventhe pressure of making charges, et cetera, which tends to become a little more skewed when goldprices are high.
	So I think the margins will also stabilize. Now whether we will hit the historical high EBITmargins that we might have seen, let's say, 3, 4 years back, that I'm not so sure. I think we wouldlike to maintain and focus on growth. And if the margin remains in the range that Ashok hasgiven a guidance on, that's what we will aim for.
	So because the headroom for growth is high, headroom for market share gains is high, and wewould certainly like to focus on absolute growth in profits as opposed to percentage profitabilityimprovement.
Avi Mehta:	Very clear, Ajoy. And I just had two bookkeeping questions. One, if you could just give us asense on how should we look at watch margins now that they've done 2 quarters of relativelyhealthy performance?
	And second is, if I remember, 1Q had some benefit of 50 basis points in the jewellery margin,which was one-off because of inventory rebalance that should have reversed. So has thathappened? And hence, what is the like-to-like number that we should look in jewellery?
Ashok Sonthalia:	So on watches, last time also, we have talked and that they will gradually revert towards 16%,17% band. And on a long term, I would say the kind of investments are required, mid-teen is agood number to aim for, 15% to 16% for the business, at least in the 1-year, 2-year time frame.Beyond that, we can see how scale and operating leverage would work for that business.
	As far as jewellery is concerned, yes, we did speak about 50 basis points last time onetime,which was expected to reverse over the next 2 quarters. But I have also mentionedsimultaneously new things kick in. And I think that's what has happened. So in quarter 2, wedidn't see any net impact of reversal and accrual. So yes, that is where we are.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Devanshu Bansal with Emkay Global.

Devanshu Bansal:	Congratulations on strong execution despite a high base. Sir, I wanted to check, there has beenan increase of INR 9,500 crores in consolidated inventory, which is a significant number. Sohow should we see this? Is this purely basis the rising gold price on existing inventory? Or thereis a component of higher stocking in anticipation of a strong festive plus new store additions aswell in this.
Ashok Sonthalia:	So it is a combination of both because as business is growing, to that extent, inventory has to goup. But on -- it is largely driven by gold price, if you look at the overall number. Certain kgamount with the expansion of business, expansion of the store has to go up. There is nothing totalk about. It is not out of our normal turn or normal trajectory or number of days. It is the rateof gold which has impacted substantially this number and the scale of business.
Ajoy Chawla:	And also I think, you're right, there is also a earlier season start this year. So there were someamount of seasonal upstocking, which would -- which has also played a role. So that would bea secondary factor.
Devanshu Bansal:	Understood. So my intent of asking this question was to sort of estimate the interest paid onGML, right? So now that festive is over, so have we seen some deduction in our inventory levels,which should sort of reduce the interest component? Or the Q2 run rate is a good run rate to sortof bake in?
Ashok Sonthalia:	We will certainly see in quarter 3 stock coming down from the present. And to that extent, minorcorrection in interest can happen in the interest rates. But GOL cycle is -- doesn't follow exactlyall the time stocks. So there could be some mismatches, but I do expect in quarter 3 to slightlycome down.
Devanshu Bansal:	Understood. Second question, sir, there is a big listing expected to happen in the eyewear space.For them vertical integration and their virtual solution with regards to optometrists are emergingas the key differentiator. So what is our outlook for this space as we have been growing slower,even less than the industry growth of about 13%, 14%. So I just wanted to take your views here.
N. S. Raghavan:	This is Raghavan here. Thank you for the question. So in terms of the industry growth, I mean,there is no audited number. So our estimate of the growth is anywhere between 7% to 8%. So ifyou look at the 7% to 8% industry growth, we are maybe slightly higher than the industry growth.In terms of investments, I think when we approached FY '26, we have factored certaininvestments in terms of transitioning from a brick-and-mortar to an omni channel building thedigital funnel and also leveraging our marketing investments to create more aspiration for thebrand.
	So as far as our growth outlook is concerned, we believe that we should be closing this year at aslightly higher number than what you are seeing, anywhere between 13% to 14%. So that is whatour outlook would be.
	And in terms of the competition this thing, I think it was anticipated. So it is not a surprise, andit was already factored in our FY '26 plan. So we will continue to do what we are doing, and webelieve that will take us to the desired growth levels, what we had earlier planned for.

Devanshu Bansal:	One just small follow-up here to better understand the model. So from a back-end perspective,what all processes in terms of, say, manufacturing of frames, manufacturing of lenses, fitting oflenses, putting power into the lenses, so what all -- which all processes are we sort of doing itinternally as of now? And maybe any thoughts if we want to backward integrate our supplychain?
N. S. Raghavan:	I mean we are a fully integrated organization, vertically integrated. So we have our own lensmaking plant. We have two plants in fact, one at Bengaluru and one at Kolkata. And from avolume standpoint, almost 90% of the volumes what we sell at retail, very happy to state, islocally produced in our factory.
	We also have a frame manufacturing plant in Chikkaballapur and the frame manufacturing plantcan do injection, acetate as well as metals. And from a fitting lab standpoint, what we do is --service is a very critical part of our industry. So we have close to 11 to 12 in-house fitting labspan India to ensure that we are able to deliver a spectacle anywhere between 2 to 3 days' timeacross.
	So we are very well covered from a back-end standpoint. And this investment has been thereover the years. It is not that everything has happened now. In fact, Titan Group made thisinvestment on the lab 12 to 13 years back, and on the frame manufacturing almost 7 to 8 yearsback. So we are well equipped in terms of the back end.
Devanshu Bansal:	Sure, sir. Just one small question. So you've indicated from a press release perspective that therehas been a strong start to the festive. So in recent periods, we have seen that there is somemoderation in discretionary categories after a big sort of pickup towards occasions. So I wantedto check if you can throw some light on your growth expectations for the upcoming weddingseason as well, that would be helpful. This is for jewellery space.
Ajoy Chawla:	Yes, yes. So I think post festive 10 days also that we have seen post the Diwali action, the salesgrowth has continued to be in the same vein as we saw in festive. And we believe this could belargely due to a good wedding season and the continued exchange that we are running becausewe feel that during wedding season, again, exchange is a big driver.
	So, so far, so good. I think how quarter 3 will end as a number, I can't give you. But certainly,at a very broad level, I think by the time we end -- we come to YTD December, our growth ratesshould have become better than the first half growth rates. That's as much as I can share withyou right now.
Moderator:	Next question come from the line of Nitin Jain with Fairvalue Advisory Private Limited.
Nitin Jain:	Congratulations on a good quarter. So I have just one question, and that is on TEAL, the TitanEngineering Automation -- Automotive business. So does this business have any synergies withthe consumer businesses that we have? If yes, if you could elaborate them? And if not, is thereany reason why we are not demerging it and/or listing it out separately?
C.K. Venkataraman:	Sridhar, shall I take this?

N P Sridhar:	Yes, sure.
C.K. Venkataraman:	Yes. So no, there is no real synergy between TEAL and the consumer businesses. Titan TEALis global tech manufacturing B2B business, whereas the rest of Titan is becoming global butB2C. 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 a place for it.
	And by adequately staffing that company, adequately creating the right capability for the Boardwhich manages -- which governs TEAL, we have created a kind of planetary system, if you will,which maximizes the opportunity for TEAL. And that's how it is going and that's how it will go.And there is no plan to demerge, as you said, at the moment.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Aditya Soman with CLSA.
Aditya Soman:	And firstly, Venkat, thanks for your insights, we will miss them, and I look forward for manymore. Best wishes for the rest of the team. So my questions, first on jewellery. I mean, just giventhe unprecedented gold prices, can you throw a little more light on how trends differ regionallywithin India? And obviously, given your increasing global scale also in other markets, are weseeing sort of clear differentiation in trends? That would be sort of an interesting insight.
	And second, on the watch business, you've made a sort of concerted effort on the analog watchesside. We've seen new launches over the past 6 months as well. From here, should we continueexpecting a sort of a significant growth in the analog space? And any sort of insights from thefestive season on growth in that category?
Ajoy Chawla:	So on trends regionally, if you are asking geographically, we have gained share in East andSouth -- or rather we continue to gain share in East and South driven by our regionalizationstrategy, which is becoming sharper and better by every quarter, even as we invest more. Wethink this playbook can be extended to other states as well, and we are planning so in the nearfuture as we go forward.
	In terms of North and West, we were a little concerned about how Bombay, Delhi consumersentiment is, and it was a little sluggish. But I think a lot of the work that we put in as well asmaybe some improvement in overall sentiment, we've seen a good revival in those markets. Andeven the studded growth in those markets is beginning to now, once again, start improve. Ofcourse, some internal factors as well. We had some stores under renovation, et cetera, in certainmarkets.
	Internationally, I don't think there are any trends that are different, but the North Americanmarket continues to power ahead much faster. And there, I think we are the early movers as well.And whereas in the Middle East, we are, in a way, challenger because we've come in late, butwe've nevertheless seen healthy results. And the studded play in North America is particularlyheartening. Diny, you want to add anything on international?

Kuruvilla Markose:	So North America, despite the gold prices and, in a way, some of the price increases that wehave taken in that market, continues to grow very, very well. And like Ajoy said, the studdedperformance there has been very heartening. Customers are clearly more involved and, let's say,purchasing into higher price points as well. So that story has been really good.
	But even in the Gulf markets, we've seen a very, very strong comeback for the business in termsof people actively buying higher price points. Their studded ratios are relatively lower. Sooverall, I think, very, very good and very strong trends. The recognition of the brand in both theMiddle East, Singapore and the U.S. markets increasingly are becoming very strong given thenumber of stores are also increasing.
Ashok Sonthalia:	And on watches?
Kuruvilla Markose:	On watches, the question on festive growth has been high compared to a quarter where we grewabout 12%, the festive period sort of saw a 16% growth over last year, same similar period. Sothat's been good for us.
	And to your point about new launches and the direction that we've been taking, there's been alot of work that the division has put in, in terms of premiumization. And what you're seeing is,in a way, the output of all of that work with the Jalsa launch and the Stellar launch and the EdgeUltraslim launch. And certainly, you should expect more of that.
	We're seeing across all the brands, even in Fastrack and Sonata, a need to premiumize, andcustomers responding to that. So as we have launched more interesting and more excitingproducts in even our lower-priced brands, there's been a great response to that. So we'll continueto do that for Titan. We'll continue to push to increase the presence of Helios stores and HeliosLuxe stores, which we have started adding.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Kunal Vora with BNP Paribas.
Kunal Vora:	On the competition in jewellery, are you seeing any difference in behavior from jewelers whomight be owning own inventory versus those who are like using gold on lease because some ofthem might be sitting on large inventory gains and might be willing to operate at lower marginsand can be more aggressive? That's my question number one.
	And second one is, can you update us on the consumer response to LGDs? With incomepressures, is that something which consumer is looking at more closely? And how large is thesolitaire and high-value studded jewellery business for you? And are the trends there like at parwith what you're seeing in overall studded?
Ajoy Chawla:	So first question, yes, when jewelers see inventory gains on gold, unprecedented inventory gainson gold, they tend to use it effectively by reducing making charges or passing on significantoffers. And certainly, therefore, it becomes a competitive intensity going up. And therefore, wehave to deal with it as it comes.

On the studded side, you 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.

So there is -- and of course, from the diamond grower's perspective, U.S. market has been rather, rather sluggish. So they have to look elsewhere. And India is possibly the most convenient market because other markets are not really going anywhere. China is also not going anywhere with LGD. So we can expect increased investments in LGD.

Now how is that showing up on consumers? So far, we've not really seen demand in our brands, whether it's CaratLane or Mia at our stores, et cetera. It's not that people are coming and asking us give us LGDs. But we think there is a growing interest though it is yet to show up in the numbers per se. And we believe it is still early days in the sense that the -- 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 solitaires, it's been good. In fact, the contributions have gone up in this quarter. And we are seeing a steady gain in that area. The solitaire correction that, in a way, happened last year is now behind us, and we are seeing continued growth at buyer level in solitaires as well as high-value studded. High-value studded has, in fact, gained in contribution by 1 percentage point over last year quarter 2.

Kunal Vora: Okay. That's very clear. Just one follow-up, sir. Like there seems to be multiple headwinds on margins right now. Are you comfortable with the 11% floor? Or is there some risk there?

Ajoy Chawla: I think gold prices, if they continue to shoot up further, then there will be a certain -- further headwind. But 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.

Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Arnab Mitra with Goldman Sachs.

Arnab Mitra: I had a couple of questions. First was actually on CaratLane where your margins have expanded 250 bps to 10%. I 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 trajectory of margin expansion is sustainable and what has driven it? That was my first question.

Second is generally consolidated jewellery EBIT growth has been running much higher than the Tanishq EBIT growth, CaratLane as well as International. So should one expect that broad trend to continue? Anything on international, which was lumpy in terms of the growth which may not sustain? So just had one question on CaratLane and one on international jewellery.

Ajoy Chawla: Saumen, you could answer the first.

Saumen Bhaumik:	On the margin front, I think there are multiple things that we have done in terms of dealing withvariation, the share of gold in the overall product. So therefore, we saw the improvementbetween quarter 1 and quarter 2 compared to last year. But at the rate gold prices have gone up,frankly, it is difficult to forecast what would happen to the margin going forward.
C.K. Venkataraman:	On the international front, there are two factors. One is the size of the international business andits share to total Titan jewellery is climbing substantially, even though it's small, but climbingsubstantially, or rather climbed substantially.
	The second is we are also -- we've also moved from a loss in the previous year to a profit in thecurrent quarter. And therefore, that transformational change in the margin also has a bearing onthis consol figure. But as we go forward, we will see more secular thing happening here ratherthan what happened Q-on-Q.
Arnab Mitra:	Sure. Just one follow-up on CaratLane. So just from what I understood, Saumen, you're sayingthat 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 aresustainable? Or there were some higher-than-normal margin this quarter because of some otherfactors. That's one thing I wanted to understand.
Saumen Bhaumik:	No. Some of the things that we have done will certainly have sustainable impact. Assuming thegold rate remains, let's say, stable, we would see that line continuing. But if gold ratedramatically changes, it is very difficult to sort of address some of these things given theinventory can't be altered immediately overnight, right? In the quarter 2, there were somemarginal gains, but that I would not think is really material in the overall margin.
Moderator:	Our next question comes from the line of Gaurav Jogani with JM Financial.
Gaurav Jogani:	I have just one question with regards to the reversion of the hedging gain. So if I get it clearly,the 50 bps gain that you have done in the Q1, that's kind of reversed in Q2. Is that the rightunderstanding?
Ashok Sonthalia:	No, I think last time also, we spoke that it will gradually reverse over Q2, Q3. And alsosimultaneously, we said new hedges can again have a compensating effect. So in quarter 2,actually, there is no net impact on account of reversal and further accrual.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jham with HSBC.
Nihal Mahesh Jham:	Two questions. First is, Ajoy, when you mentioned high-value studded, if you could just defineis it above, say, INR 5 lakh? What is the definition of that? And if you could just give thecontribution 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 guessingall of it is Tanishq. So can you quantify if that leads to quite a substantial increase in the storeproductivity? What are the reasons for it? Maybe it's an increase in the area? And if that couldalso be an incremental trigger over the next 6 months for growth to be better than what it'salready at?

Ajoy Chawla:	So on high-value studded, historically, we've defined it as above INR 2 lakhs, and forconsistency, we've kept it at that level across the years. So in Quarter 2, it was contributingaround 14% of the overall business, and that was 1 percentage point higher than last year Quarter2. Of course, Quarter 2 also has The Festival of Diamonds. So to that extent, the contribution inthis period goes up relative to other quarters. But I think we will see a Y-o-Y benefit for the yearas well.
	Solitaire currently contributes to about -- I'm trying to just do a math here. So it's about 4% ofthe total -- 3.5% to 4% of the overall business. And it has been growing. I don't have animmediate response on last year's figure. Certainly, the contribution has gone up in the currentyear as a percentage maybe by 0.5%, 1%. So that has also gone up. The last question -- thesecond question, I didn't -- I forgot. Can you just repeat that quickly?
Nihal Mahesh Jham:	Yes. On the store rehashes, 70, all of them for Tanishq. What leads to the increase in productivityand can that be an incremental driver of better growth than what it's already at?
Ajoy Chawla:	On the store
Nihal Mahesh Jham:	Renovation.
Ajoy Chawla:	Store productivity.
Nihal Mahesh Jham:	Yes.
Ajoy Chawla:	Store productivity, I don't have a figure right now to give you a response. We have beenexpanding many of our stores. So I don't have a revenue per square foot kind of comparisonfrom before and after. But maybe we'll get back to you on that. I mean that's the best way formy mind to measure productivity.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Sheela Rathi with Morgan Stanley.
Sheela Rathi:	My first question was, Ajoy, you gave a good flavor on how the demand trends have been likefor-like festive and also the ongoing wedding calendar. I just want to get some clarificationbecause last year in Q3 and Q4, we saw a surge in gold coin and bar demand. Just want to hearfrom you how that trend has been this time around.
Ajoy Chawla:	It continues unabated. And it looks like the appetite for gold coins and bullion is very high.Naturally so, given the gold price is going up. So it's leading, it's continuing to lead. And as wesee now, the contribution of gold coin has certainly gone up significantly over the last severalyears.
Sheela Rathi:	Just a follow-up here. Is it aligned versus your expectation? Or is it just trending in a similarpattern, similar to what we have been seeing in the last 12 months?
Ajoy Chawla:	It's continuing to climb in contribution. It's trending up and both buyer, KG, value, everythinggrowing much faster than what we might have imagined, but it's not difficult to understand why.

Sheela Rathi:	Right. The second question is, to one of the participant's question, you said that the competitiveintensity 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 a -- all around yourreality, maybe the intensity varies through the year, but that's our way to offset the kind ofcompetition we see from the independent jewelers.
	So just one side question to that is also how are the trends for the L3 stores for us because theywould be competing much harder with the independent jewelers also. So how are they kind ofplaying this game? And do they hedge their inventory? Yes, three questions to that.
Ajoy Chawla:	So firstly, it's not only the independents who don't hedge. Many organized players also don'thedge, at least not fully. And competitive intensity is not linked only to small players, but alsofrom many organized players, sometimes even more so from the bigger chains. Therefore, thelast question, in a way, there's not -- L3, L2 everywhere, we see the same competitive intensity.Some L3s hedge, many L3s don't. But we recommend them to hedge as much as they can. Sofar, they take their own calls.
	But overall, exchange is not -- I think we see it as a strategic method to acquire customers andto, in a way, because anybody who goes through a Tanishq exchange, they become evangelistsand customers for life because the transparency, purity and everything clear and clean withabsolutely no strings attached and no fine print thrown in, makes a huge difference.
	And customers go back feeling visibly happy, having seen the gold melted in front of them, atrained karigar out there, first a karatmeter check, then an actual melting check, I think the wholeprocess leaves them feeling extremely comfortable. And they know we are here for the long run,so that anything they buy from us can always come back.
	So we believe exchange is a strategic customer acquisition and trust-building tool. Andtherefore, I would request we don't see it as an offer, and it is -- exchange is there right throughthe year. The offers may vary tactically quarter-to-quarter.
Moderator:	Next question comes from the line of Amit Sachdeva with UBS.
Amit Sachdeva:	One small question. Ajoy, you mentioned that buyer growth has been weak and buyer growthhas been weak for a while because gold price has been rallying really hard. I'm just linking it tothink from a studded angle as well because studded maybe a considered purchase but it's manytimes a converted purchase. So is it that as the buyer growth builds up, you would see muchmore tailwind for studded growth, which has been also lackluster for a while, although it hasgone up this quarter a bit from the last one?
	So is there a buyer growth deterrent for that growth, number one? And given your INR 1 lakhand below lot of product introductions, do you expect studded growth to increase in the comingquarters from what we have seen in the last, if assuming gold price stabilizes and what you'reseeing on the ground? That's question number one. And because margin is an issue that I thinkyou'll be grappling with as coin sales increase, et cetera. So it is -- question is linked to that.

Ajoy Chawla:	Sure. So I think, just to put things in perspective, since we're talking all over on buyer. Buyergrowth overall has been minus 2% for the quarter. Gold was minus 11%, largely driven by thesub INR 1 lakh. Studded was plus 3%.
	So I think this gives a perspective that studded is actually doing much better than gold. I'mkeeping coins aside. Coins was a much higher number. So -- and studded buyer growth has beentrending in the positive territory and leading the gold jewellery buyer group consistently overthe last 5, 6 quarters now. It is not a one-off in this quarter.
	The sub INR 1 lakh introduction and particularly even in studded, we are certainly hoping tocontinue pushing the studded buyer growth. And certainly, through the portfolio play, Tanishq,Mia, CaratLane, we think we will want to continue to aggressively push for studded buyergrowth, certainly in the INR 1 lakh space, sub INR 1 lakh space as well because that's where wesee a lot of new customers get recruited.
	So what we will end up with, we don't know. But so far, we've been able to keep pushing thatenvelope, and we hope to take it upwards. We have seen an improvement in festive. Sohopefully, by the time we end December, YTD we should be seeing a further positivity on thatfront.
Moderator:	The next question comes from the line of Jignanshu with Bernstein.
Jignanshu:	Two quick questions on jewellery -- one on jewellery, one on eyewear. So on jewellery, whilethe gold price till end of September has -- had only one direction, in the last 3 weeks, it haschanged direction a little bit, right? And the correction has been as sort of fast as the ramp-upwas.
	In this slide, how has this impacted your inventory planning, sales planning, both from supplyof gold, physical supply of gold, as well as the kind of SKUs that you are planning to supply?Do you think it's at a place where it changes or it's more of the same?
	And second was on eyewear. I think that one of the other questions was also on what yourstrategy is. I don't think that was really answered. I would love to understand what your approachis to grow this business.
Ajoy Chawla:	So gold prices have moderated by about 6% or thereabouts in the last 10 days post the Diwalifestive season. And we are happy because I think customers are also happy about it. And thosewho are still waiting to buy in for wedding jewellery, they'll come in.
	Our planning doesn't change dramatically. We try to ensure a good optimal product mix andwith a good -- across category price bands, we try to ensure. So we are not seeing any significantchanges in inventory planning.
	Bullion buying, yes, it was a little bit under pressure in the October first couple of weeks, therewere some bullion shortage. But otherwise, I think our bullion team is well on top of allprojections. And we've been able to ensure that we don't cut inventory despite the rising goldprices.

N. S. Raghavan: Jignanshu, this is Raghavan here. I think you asked a question about eyewear. So if you look at this particular industry, the headroom to grow is tremendous. So we estimate the market to be around INR 30,000 crores, and growing at almost 7% to 8%, and the Titan's share is less than 12%. So the headroom to grow is tremendous.

So in terms of our go-to-market strategy, we believe we are well covered. In terms of the retail footprint, what we have, we have close to 900 stores. And we are also, as I mentioned in the earlier call, we are transitioning into omni-channel because for a consumer, the first touch point is always your website and then on whether he wants to transact or go to the store.

In terms of overall strategy, we believe this is a business where both vision and fashion is equally important. And we need to do a good job in both. And it's an aided business, right? So when somebody comes in for an eye check up, we need to ensure that we do a fantastic job in terms of bringing out the right prescription.

And at the same time, ensure that we give him a right pair of eyewear because dispensing is also equally important. So from that standpoint, we will continue to invest in having the right kind of people at the 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 the case that is happening in FY '26 also. So we believe we are well placed to grab more share in the coming quarters.

Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Jay Doshi with Kotak.

Jay Doshi: My question is on jewellery EBIT growth. Now you started the year with a certain expectation of jewellery 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 jewellery, if not better.

So do you still think that, that thesis plays out? On a percentage margin basis, things could be a little different. But should you be delivering better EBIT growth than what you are expecting at the beginning of the year? And second is, will this year be a year where consolidated jewellery EBIT growth will be ahead of standalone jewellery EBIT growth? That's it from my side.

• Ashok Sonthalia: Jay, like I don't think that -- so the pressure on margin or headwind on margin continues. While we are trying to compensate, offset through various levers, et cetera, but over the last 6 months, also gold prices were where they and now where are they, while there is a minor correction, but we don't know going forward which direction they would go. So I would expect EBIT growth, absolute amount growth might be slightly slower than the revenue growth for the full year.
• Jay Doshi: That is understandable, but it will still be better than what you were expecting before this maybe 3, 4 months back, right? So look, just to put some numbers, if you're expecting 15%, 17% jewellery growth or 15% to 20% of your guidance for the year, now with the rising gold prices, if you end up at 20% to 25% jewellery 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, but that is -- that's the primary sort of...

Ashok Sonthalia: Indirectly, you are asking whether revenue growth guidance we are changing. So I don't think we are -- we...

Jay Doshi: You've already called out, right, 9 months will be better than first half. So that's kind of directionally for you.

• Ashok Sonthalia: Yes. So directionally, yes, so the EBIT will keep in line with revenue, but the margin pressure, which we have talked about. So it's the outcome of various things which will play out, Jay. And as we said in the beginning, we are trying to deliver consistent, stable range, but it could be slightly pluses and minuses, not significant variations we are expecting.
• Ajoy Chawla: So Jay, I will -- 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. But 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 in an accurate sense. But yes, we will aim for it. And principally, what you are saying is something that we also, as management, would be interested in.
• Moderator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we have reached the end of questionand-answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Venkataraman for closing comments.
• C.K. Venkataraman: 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've lost count, maybe 50th or 60th call over the last 12, 15 years. And each one of you has been a pillar of support for the company, always constructive in your approach and very probing often, 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.
• Moderator: Thank you. On behalf of Titan Company Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.