Titan Company has said its jewellery division revenue in May and June were at slightly below 20 per cent and around 70 per cent compared to the corresponding months of the previous year in a quarterly update for FY21.

The recovery in the division has been "better than originally envisaged" on the back of higher share of wedding jewellery sales (despite the deferment of many weddings), good sales coming from GHS scheme, and investment led demand leading to higher gold coin sales. The contribution from Gold exchange scheme was not unusually high and remained in line with last year," the company said. 

Titan added that average prices had gone up led by higher wedding jewellery and higher gold prices. As the gold prices have been rising continuously for last year, the division has also launched a ‘Gold rate protection scheme’, whereby customers can purchase gold coins and exchange the same at any store for jewellery at the prevailing rate until 30th November 2020, for a full refund of the making charges paid on the coins.

The division has re-opened around 95% of its Tanishq stores till date. However, operations of stores tend to get disrupted as and when local governments enforce lockdowns. 

The Titan stock traded flat at Rs 1016.5 apiece on the NSE at the time of writing. The jewellery division of the company that includes brands such as Tanishq also sold gold in the bullion market worth Rs 610 crore at market rates to "optimise" inventory levels.
 
Store re-opening and sales recovery is better in non-metros, on the back of lower impact of the pandemic there. Studded share has been lower, primarily due to better recovery in plain gold jewellery sales, investment led demand and lower sales contribution from the key metro markets which normally have better studded ratio. There has been a steady enrollment and recurring deposits in the GHS scheme and the refunds has been minimal.