The online betting ban, which freed up about₹ 10,000 crore a month in the hands of consumers, couples with goods and services tax (GST) rationalisation, income tax slab relaxation and the government front-loading infrastructure investment are bolstering demand, said Titan Co. managing director Ajoy Chawla. India banned real-money games in India last August, also prohibiting all banking institutions from processing payments for such online platforms.
“All these factors mean there is more disposable income in the hands of middle class consumers,” said Chawla in an interview.
“It may not all directly come to us, but there is a positive impact. Traders, shopkeepers, distributors, dealers, those are our consumers.” Chawla, who took over at the Tata Group unit on January 1, said jewellery “stands very large,” with Tanishq and Zoya, followed by CaratLane, Tanishq International and Mia. Gold buying habits have tracked the surge in prices over the past six years, he said. “Given the exponential increase in prices of gold, if you look at volume in terms of number of customers, we are flat,” he said. “If you look at grammage, we are about 9 per cent down; the industry is about 20 per cent down.”“That’s because of the prices. When people are buying jewellery, their budgets are flexible up to a point–10-20 per cent here or there,” said Chawla.
The jewellery business under the Tanishq, Zoya, CaratLane and Mia brands account for nearly 90 per cent of Titan’s total sales. Other key divisions include watches, which Titan began with in 1984, Skinn fragrances, IRTH handbags and Eye+ eyewear. The stock, which has risen 36 per cent over the past year, ended marginally up at ₹4,328 on the BSE Thursday.
Consumption behaviour has shifted in line with the price trend.
“Gold has got a lot more excitement and flavour, a lot of people are buying coins and bullion, so gold buying is a secular trend,” he said. “Second, people are choosing to buy lighter weight and lower caratage and we are also encouraging that. Third, (what) we have pushed a lot is exchange — don’t sit on old gold sitting in your locker, book profits.”
Alongside this, there’s been an evolution of taste.
“People are also being more flexible, looking at more modular jewellery. There’s also greater interest in different kinds of jewellery,” he said.
Damas playbook
Titan had, in the middle of last year, acquired a 67 per cent stake in UAE’s Damas Jewellery in an all-cash deal through wholly owned subsidiary Titan Holdings International FZCO for AED 1,038 million ($283 million).
The company will continue to look at more acquisitions in other markets, depending on how the Damas purchase scales up.
“So we have to first digest Damas,” he said. “If this playbook is successful, let’s say in the next 12 years, we see this playbook is working exactly the way we imagined, and the Arab segment scaling up, supporting Damas and synergies flowing in, then we know that this is an interesting playbook for other potential segments in other parts of the world.”
Watches is still at No. 1 by number of people served.
“By volume, give or take, we serve around 30-35 million customers a year,” he said. “Watches could be No. 1 at 16-16.5 million units, followed by Tanishq at 3-3.5 million. Perfumes may touch 3 million units this year too.”
Chawla led Titan’s jewellery division before he was appointed MD to succeed CK Venkataraman. He been associated with Titan since 1991 and took over the jewellery division in October 2019.
Benefits of the income tax slab reduction started showing up in the second half of 2025, Chawla said. The government had announced last year that individuals earning up to Rs 12 lakh annually no longer needed to pay income tax.
“All of these indicate volume pickup–rural growth is up, two-wheelers, FMCG volumes, they have started to pick up,” he said.
Titan reported 61 per cent growth in consolidated net profit to ₹1,684 crore for the December quarter, with total income up 40 per cent to ₹24,592 crore from the year before, aided by festive buying, with the jewellery business reporting 42 per cent growth.
In FY25, Titan reported total income of ₹57,818 crore, up 22 per cent .
EY said in its Economy Watch report released on Wednesday that India’s economy is projected to grow between 6.8 per cent and 7.2 per cent in FY27, attributing this to bilateral trade agreements with major economies and continued economic reforms.
ICICI Securities noted in a February 18 report that Titan reported a robust December quarter, driven by strong consumer traction during the festive and wedding seasons, but cautioned that the primary challenge remains navigating volatile gold prices, though management’s demand outlook is positive, citing resilience across both premium and accessible segments.
