Soaring gold prices have prompted Titan Co. Ltd’s jewellery arm Tanishq to reinstate its advanced booking option, allowing buyers to lock in the price of the yellow metal ahead of auspicious occasions such as the Akshaya Tritiya. It is also amplifying its gold-exchange programme and introducing an affordable range of jewellery to woo consumers.

The move is part of a greater push by large retailers to keep the demand momentum intact amid soaring gold prices.

The jewellery chain, which is owned by Tata Group, initiates such strategies whenever the price of gold turns volatile. The advanced booking option typically runs for a short duration, effectively protecting the consumers against any rise in gold prices. “We don’t do it too often, as it’s expensive because we tend to hedge all our gold—we don’t take open positions. We typically bring it out from our armoury whenever there is a lot of gold price volatility, which spooks people, prompting them to become fence-sitters till the price softens," Ajoy Chawla, chief executive, Titan Co’s jewellery division, said in an interview. Price of the yellow metal has soared in the last six months, and remained volatile for over one week. The price of 1 gm of 24k gold rose from ?5,035 on 2 November 2022 to ?6,001 on Wednesday.

Gold prices have been rising at a steady clip, Chawla said. “Usually, we look at such offers during the festive period, and only if volatility on gold rate is very high, not otherwise. Even exchange offers are dialled up a lot more when prices go up and consumers feel the pinch."

In a quarterly update to the exchanges on 6 April, Titan Co reported 23% revenue growth for its jewellery division in the March quarter over a partially disrupted year-ago quarter.

Its performance was primarily led by higher sales by both new and repeat customers, and higher ticket size, it added.

While in January-February, strong consumer demand was visible, a sudden spike in gold prices led to a relative softening of demand in March, the company said. However, the market has picked up “quite a bit" for Tanishq in the last four or five days across its 411 stores, said Chawla. Titan also operates jewellery units Zoya, Mia, and Caratlane.