Titan Company Ltd : a three decade old company

gurramlokesh October 19, 2018, 10:44am 1

I’m wondering there is no thread on Titan so far. Please let me know if there is an existing thread

The company has 3 main businesses - Jewellery, Watches, and Eyewear.

Revenue breakup	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
Watches	2060	2,058	1977	1936	1814
Jewellery	13126	10,509	8621	9309	8525
Eyewear	414	413	373
Other	556	402	339	668	588
Total(Cr)	16156	13382	11310	11913	10927

Watches (12.8% of Total Revenue)
Titan is the market leader in the Watches Segment. It started operations in 1986 and currently has around 60% market share. It sells mainly under 3 brands FastTrack, Helios, and World of Titan.
Revenue growth has been around 3.23% CAGR for the past 4 years. Much growth in this segment can’t be expected. It acquired Favre Leuba in 2011 to enter the luxury watch segment. But nothing much has been made out of it.

Jewellery (81.2% of Total Revenue)
This has been a consistent business driver for Titan. It sells under different brands - Tanishq, Zoya, Mia, Caratlane. It has grown from 30% of total revenue in 2002 to more than 80% in the last fiscal year. It has a CAGR of 20.5% in the last ten years. Operating profit margins are improving.
Thanks to Demonetization, GST and subsequent introduction of PAN which helped the organized players like Titan.

Eyewear (2% of Total Revenue)
Though it is a very small part of their overall revenue, Company is betting big on its eyewear business and planning to target 10 million customers in five years. But the growth has been not so great, with falling Operating margin.
Operating%20margin1500×1028 69.1 KB
The company has this to say regarding falling Operating Profit Margins:

“Company witnessed 16 % growth as compared to the previous year but profits are limited and that’s because advertising spends eats up margin. But that’s how you acquire new customers by making them aware that you exist.”

Investment Rationale

• Very few listed players to play on Consumer gold consumption
  (opinion: Indian Gold consumption is not growing to reduce for the foreseeable future)
• Push for organized Gold Consumption
• This is a TATA group company, so not have to worry about Corporate Governance or management succession.
• Company is trying to stay relevant with trends (Acquired Caratlane - online jewellery seller mainly focused on working women)

Risks

• Regulatory risks - RBI has changed its stance on Gold import mechanisms multiple times in the past
• Not so great eyewear business- I feel it is hard to compete with online players like Lenskart(Subjective opinion)

It would be helpful if other board members can share their insights on Titan
Disclosure: Not invested. Looking for investment oppurtunity.

17 Likes rajidse October 20, 2018, 2:00am 4

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1 Like amitbansal01 October 20, 2018, 3:50am 5

Thanks for starting this thread. While I do not have the experience to add technically/fundamentally, I can share my personal experience about eyewear (Titan eyeplus).

IMHO the eyewear business is underrated. When I went checking for spectacles, my first reaction was that variety (and freshness) of options in Titan eyeplus shop was much better than lenskart. The advertising by lenskart has surely helped, but the kind of professionalism in the Titan shop was very good. Pricing was not exhorbitant - infact the salesmen were not very pushy to peddle the higher priced products; they were happy to give a honest view as to which product is value for money.

Infact i had gone to check the options and ended up buying something for me. In the space of next 6-8 months even others in my family used it (in all got 4 pairs done). The number check up done was quite thorough as well (they did some tests which I had not undertaken in the past). At all times the staff assured me that in case of any issue I can come back. Got a couple of follow up calls too after a week to check whether it is fine. They did help on some minor issue in one spectacle after a couple of months too. The quality of the product is top notch and so is the feeling after we leave the shop.

Afterwards, just a discreet check in office also revealed that some of my colleagues were wearing Titan spectacles (can be identified by the unique Titan eyewear logo on the sides). In my mind it is definitely worthy of good potential. Needless to add there is a lot of competition risk so Titan needs to be sure of the demography it is targeting and up its advertising.

Views welcome.

6 Likes hitesh2710 October 20, 2018, 4:43am 6

A technical analysis check on Titan reveals a classical head and shoulders pattern breakdown. Comments put up on charts. If the pattern does play out then there could be a better price to pick up titan (if one is convinced about its fundamental merits) in next few weeks and months.

titan%20weekly1320×552 19.1 KB

5 Likes nav_1996 October 20, 2018, 5:15am 7

Agree about Titan eye plus. Lot of people are shifting to them from Lena kart. At lens kart you don’t get high quality lenses like Carl Zeiss. It is always some obscure brands.

1 Like gurramlokesh October 20, 2018, 7:54am 8

@hitesh2710 Thank you for the analysis. I have a very basic doubt. Seeing these patterns in an individual stock makes sense - in terms of support, resistance and their reversal when breached. But do these also makes sense during market selloff (or whatever we are witnessing off late).
Since the herd mentality would be to sell out everything and exit, do the support lines still make sense? How do one look at TA in context of what’s happening in the broader market?

3 Likes mg108 October 20, 2018, 11:43am 10

Going by my own experience, their SKINN perfumes are really good. I would say at par with premium imported ones.
The only other Indian Company which comes close to good perfumes that I found is Bombay Perfumery Company.

5 Likes nabilmoideen October 21, 2018, 10:43am 11

What is the charting software/platform used here Hitesh Ji… Sorry for the basic question as I am new to technical analysis…

HIMSHAH October 22, 2018, 6:22am 12

i was closely connected indirecly to jewellery business and the following points i have assesed from their business

1. volume in india is going down especially after deomone.
2. also as soon as price goes up jewellery demand goes down
3. as due to social reason like wedding then only people are buying now as gold has become costly
4. due to fraud and robbery people especially young generation are shifting towards immitation jewellery as it cost nothing and new age young people can change and wear new as mmuch as they want.
5. old thinker still buy jewellery as safe hedge but now other option are emerging as bonds and gold etf

3 Likes kashif_1461 October 25, 2018, 3:10am 13

Thanks Hiteshbhai for sharing this. I noticed this pattern as well. Looks like a very clear H&S pattern. I like Titan which appears to me to be a massive growth engine. While they have created immense wealth over the past decade, in my opinion there is a very long runway ahead. I have stayed away till now because of the valuations. But if this pattern plays out I may start start accumulating.

What is your view on Titan?

hitesh2710 October 25, 2018, 4:13am 14

@kashif_1461

Regarding these patterns, they may or may not play out. Looking at business momentum for titan I would be watching keenly it the pattern plays out. Titan remains one of the best ways to play the discretionary spending booms in India.

Plus the neckline of the pattern points upwards. For the weaker more sureshot patterns the neckline ideally should be horizontal or preferable tilting slightly downwards.

7 Likes pbd October 25, 2018, 3:42pm 15

Your comments can be read in positive light as well.

Demon will push buyers towards organised route and Tanishq has a strong brand presence.

Tanishq can do fashion jewellery. That makes it a consumption story and puts it in a favorable position. I would like to believe that today’s departure from looking at gold as a hedging asset to a fashion statement will only increase their business assuming Tanishq feels the same way.
With release of a perfume brand and Taneira, titan is enroute becoming a lifestyle behemoth. Best part is their business can’t be easily replaced by e-commerce and I’m not aware of any major lifestyle brands in India which can compete them.
Future retail also has FBB, but I’m not sure if they cater to premium segment unlike Taneira which will most likely be a premium segment offering.
Bengaluru people can share their Taneira experience.

Thanks.

3 Likes HIMSHAH October 25, 2018, 4:18pm 16

I am not arguing on Titan, I am just giving u picture of gold market. And by the way after demon and gst people have more moved towards unorganised sector as they still sell in cash.

duggu007 December 11, 2018, 1:02pm 17

/ – 11 Dec 18

Titan eyes Rs 45 cr sales in 2019 from saree brand Taneira

At present, the brand has four stores – two each in Bengaluru and Delhi, including the newly launched store

1 Like duggu007 January 22, 2019, 7:08am 18

– 21 Jan 19

Titan weighs internal, external candidates to replace MD Bhaskar Bhat

External candidates may include those from Tata group firms, says Bhat, who will retire by end-2019At least six other top executives in Titan are also close to hitting retirement age over the next few years

dipen01 January 26, 2019, 11:35pm 19

I have question - How does the price of gold impact the jewellery business ?

duggu007 February 1, 2019, 2:32pm 20

– 1 Feb 19

Titan board picks Venkataraman as successor to current MD Bhaskar Bhat

CK Venkataraman will take over on 1 OctoberJewellery is the company’s biggest revenue earner

duggu007 February 23, 2019, 6:47am 21

– 22 Feb 19

Titan’s Revathi Kant on her watch

Titan’s chief design officer on taking the latest brands to greater heights despite not being a trained designer .Titan has always followed the path of entering a market that is highly unorganized and consolidating it