The Indian government’s currency reform, the implementation of a 3 percent goods and services tax and the requirement for all jewellery purchases over ₹200,000 to include the buyer’s income tax permanent account number (PAN), have all resulted in what appears to be a permanent move towards larger, more organised retailers in the country, say analysts.
Reflecting this, the stock prices of listed firms such as Titan Company (which owns the Tanishq jewellery brand), PC Jeweller and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) reached all-time highs on Monday. Half-yearly revenues for Titan and PC Jeweller have jumped 36 per cent and 23 percent respectively in a year-on-year comparison.
Profits, which had grown between 3 and 6 percent in the previous year, have soared between 34 and 80 percent over the first half of this fiscal year. TBZ’s financials too have been extremely strong.
Though dominant in terms of sales, these firms are a very small minority in the total jewellery retailer headcount in India, with some analysts pegging the unorganised segment in Indian jewellery retail at 70 percent of the whole — with a rough estimate of ₹1,400,000,000,000.
So strong is the move towards the organised retail sector in jewellery that the top listed companies are expected to report the highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the entire Indian retail segment. This shift to organised retail is expected to continue for the next five years.
Segment leader Titan, with its focus on raising same store sales growth through new product offerings, is the main driver for increased profitability in the sector, according to one analyst.