OREANDA-NEWS. Titan Industries reported better sales performance in Q3 compared to Q2 and announced a growth of 23.2 percent in income over the same quarter last year. The overall income in the third quarter, October to December 2012, was Rs2,982.89 crore, as compared to last year's income of Rs2,421.68 crore during the same period. The income for April to December 2012, the nine-month period, stands at Rs7,415.92 crore, a growth of 14.3 percent over last year.

The news on profits is very encouraging. The net profit for Q3 is Rs203.73 crore, up from last year’s Rs163.91 crore — a growth of 24.3 percent. The net profit for the nine months ended December 31, 2012 is Rs539.96 crore, up 18.4 percent over last year. The profit before tax is Rs278.88 crore for Q3 and Rs739.16 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2012.

The overall trend in sales over the last three quarters has been positive at the end of third quarter across all consumer facing businesses of the company. The income for watches was Rs423.53 crore in Q3 as compared to Rs383.11 crore last year, a growth of 10.5 percent.

On the other hand, the jewellery business recorded an impressive Q3 income growth of 26.7 percent over last year. It had an income of Rs2,515.24 crore in Q3 this year as compared to Rs1,985.87 crore last year. Other businesses of the company, comprising Precision Engineering, a B2B business, the eyewear business and the accessories business grew by 4.3 percent in Q3. The combined income of these businesses in Q3 was Rs98.26 crore as compared to Rs94.22 crore last year. The Titan Industries retail chain is 918 stores strong, as on December 31, 2012 with the retail area crossing 12 lakh sq ft nationally for all its brands.

Bhaskar Bhat, the managing director of the company, said: "The third quarter has been a good quarter for the company and the overall sales trend is encouraging. Consumer sentiment is turning positive with the stock markets picking up. Retail stores are experiencing an increase in footfall and the festive season in this quarter was a good one for all our brands, though demand had to be stimulated through investments in mass communication. We hope to carry forward this momentum into the last quarter."