Just one follow-up. One hypothesis I made was that across the counter, it's relatively easier to convert a gold customer into studded where for like-to-like revenue your GP pool is far better. Is that assertion right? Or do you need better incentivization or activity from your side to ensure conversions are appropriately captured?
I can't confirm your hypothesis because I'm not sure if we are seeing that kind of natural movement. For conversion, I don't know, again, it's not about sweetening it. I think it's just the fact that there is a natural consumer for studded and there's a natural consumer for gold. Some of the studded people in the higher end have opted for gold because they feel they are seeing better investment value there. But I can't say the same for any other segment, lower price, mid-price. It's not that the gold customer is suddenly buying studded. So it's difficult to draw any correlation.
So is it fair to conclude that the consumer or customer seems to have accepted higher gold prices, at least in the large-ticket consumer, and that the volume pull back or elasticity is not as per historical standards, and they are willing to redirect spends from other categories into jewellery?
I can only say for ourselves that our buyer growth have improved in festive to festive of 32 days like-to-like period, compared to quarter 2. But how much of that is because they are naturally now comfortable - yes, they are comfortable with gold prices, but I think we also ran a very powerful exchange offer, which might have swung it significantly, besides the Diwali collection launches and campaigns. I can only say this for ourselves. I don't have a deeper industry level insight that the volumes are back. I think many more buyers were in the market for festive having seen gold prices not coming down.
Understood. No changes in margin guidance? So we remain at those bands shared earlier?
The way gold prices are going up unabated while our endeavor is to be consistent with our margin delivery, Ashok here, really it's becoming increasingly difficult to kind of project gold price trajectory and consequently, its impact on margin. But yes, we would still be pretty consistent, if stable, some pluses and minuses can happen because of this. So let's see how gold stabilizes and get back to its historical growth trajectory rather than what's happening these days.
There seems to be multiple headwinds on margins right now. Are you comfortable with the 11% floor? Or is there some risk?
I think gold prices, if they continue to shoot up further, then there will be further headwind. But so far, we've been able to manage. We are hoping to keep it within that range-bound margin. Let's see, unless something new and big turns up, we can't say right now.
First on CaratLane where margins have expanded 250 bps to 10%. I want to understand, do you see - I know there's seasonality - but on a year-on-year basis, do you think this trajectory of margin expansion is sustainable and what has driven it? Second, generally consolidated jewellery EBIT growth has been running much higher than Tanishq EBIT growth, CaratLane as well as International. Should one expect that broad trend to continue? Anything on international which was lumpy in growth which may not sustain?
On the margin front, there are multiple things that we have done in terms of dealing with variation, the share of gold in the overall product. So we saw the improvement between quarter 1 and quarter 2 compared to last year. But at the rate gold prices have gone up, frankly, it is difficult to forecast what would happen to the margin going forward.
On the store rehashes, 70, all of them for Tanishq. What leads to the increase in productivity and can that be an incremental driver of better growth than what it's already at?
Store productivity, I don't have a figure right now to give you a response. We have been expanding many of our stores. So I don't have a revenue per square foot kind of comparison from before and after. But maybe we'll get back to you on that. That's the best way for my mind to measure productivity.
My question is on jewellery EBIT growth. You started the year with certain expectation of jewellery sales growth. Given rising gold prices, you're likely to be much ahead of that expectation. How should we think about EBIT growth from same context? At beginning of year, you were expecting EBIT growth at least in line with revenue growth in jewellery, if not better. Do you still think that thesis plays out? On percentage margin basis, things could be different. But should you be delivering better EBIT growth than expecting at beginning of year? Second, will this year be a year where consolidated jewellery EBIT growth will be ahead of standalone jewellery EBIT growth?
Jay, I don't think that - so the pressure on margin or headwind on margin continues. While we are trying to compensate, offset through various levers, but over the last 6 months gold prices were where they are and now where are they - while there is a minor correction, but we don't know going forward which direction they would go. So I would expect EBIT growth, absolute amount growth might be slightly slower than the revenue growth for the full year.
That is understandable, but it will still be better than what you were expecting before this maybe 3, 4 months back, right? Just to put numbers - if you're expecting 15%, 17% jewellery growth or 15% to 20% guidance for the year, now with rising gold prices, if you end up at 20% to 25% jewellery top line growth, will your EBIT growth also be at least slightly better than what you were expecting at beginning of year? Percentage margins could be lower, that is understandable.
Indirectly, you are asking whether revenue growth guidance we are changing. So I don't think we are. So directionally, yes, the EBIT will keep in line with revenue, but the margin pressure which we have talked about. So it's the outcome of various things which will play out, Jay. As we said in the beginning, we are trying to deliver consistent, stable range, but it could be slightly pluses and minuses, not significant variations we are expecting. As a business head, I would simply say, we will aim for that. We will aim to see EBIT growth also is better than what we might have imagined. But what Ashok is saying is depending on what kind of further headwinds you come across and how gold prices further behave, it's difficult to give you a guidance in an accurate sense. But yes, we will aim for it. And principally, what you are saying is something that we also, as management, would be interested in.
Just feedback on what you're seeing on the ground regarding the parabolic rise in gold prices on three aspects. One, customer willingness, and your last comment on customers buying 18-carat or less than 22 - what proportion of inventory is non-22 in plain gold? How sustainable is it? Two, historically, when gold prices increase beyond a point, it becomes relatively easier to upgrade the consumer to studded. But the studded mix largely remains flat, 1% here and there, and I can't see flow-through into the GP. Third, Thangamayil put out an exchange release saying they have actually seen a very good October in volumes. How are we to interpret? Is it an industry trend? Volume price elasticity, is that holding out?
Good morning Manoj, Ajoy here. On consumer behavior on the ground - there's been a certain holdback consumers had during the meteoric rise of gold. But when they didn't see it come down and continue to remain high during festive, a lot of fence-sitters jumped in. That was mostly people in the mid- to higher price bands. In the lower price bands, there continues to be sluggishness in number of buyers, especially for gold jewellery. Response to 18-carat jewellery has been good, but it is not material enough yet as a percentage of inventory to come to a conclusion. We hope to increase that share substantially based on initial pilots. On studded - the studded buyer growth is marginally higher than gold jewellery, if I exclude coins. Coins skews the color on overall product mix; coins is growing exceptionally high, showing strong investment demand. Studded buyer growth has been better than gold jewellery buyer growth consistently over last several quarters - still early single digits. When gold prices are high and customers hold back, walk-ins drop. During festive, interest in gold has been so high we are not seeing very big material movement towards studded. But there is marginal difference - studded buyer growth is positive, gold jewellery buyer growth is negative. On October - it's been good for the industry overall. Very difficult to gauge volume growth for industry; let's wait for World Gold Council to release data exactly on festive season. October and festive to festive given timing difference has been quite good - very good, I would say, for the industry and certainly very good for us as well. Not in correlation to Thangamayil's figures - their base may be very small.
My question is on buyer growth. It has been about flat to decline since a couple of quarters. Can you highlight steps taken by you which are materially different from past steps to bring back buyer growth, apart from normal activation, marketing mix or 18 carat? Any other material steps you think will bring back buyer growth? Any quantitative range for October festive or October sales you can share?
On buyer growth, we've done a lot more work in terms of populating price points in the sub INR 1 lakh - in Tanishq and Mia. We've been doing a lot more introductions in lower caratages, certainly 14 carat offering in stores has gone up. Third piece - to stimulate buyer growth, we unleashed a very powerful gold exchange campaign, not just an offer. The offer was a never before offer. We provided a very strong emotional hook to customers saying how when you exchange gold or unlock your lockers, it's good for you and good for the country, using Sachin as the spokesperson. That has been a significant game changer. The other piece we did differently this time during festive, specifically mid-September onwards, is instead of doing making charges offer, we directed all of that towards certain rupees per gram benefit on the gold price since gold price was very high on their minds. The lower caratage and lighter weight products continue to be a secular trend. A lot of studded product in the sub INR 100,000 was introduced and will continue to be introduced to drive buyer growth, which is happening.
Add-on perspective on buyer growth.
One other perspective - given the macros, both the price of gold as well as the middle class economic pressures, the buyer growth challenge is not going to go away that easily, notwithstanding how the industry creates new innovations. But in this category, because of the huge stock of gold with households, we can get - as the division has got - a huge growth in times where buyer growth is a challenge through ticket size growth, where you get people to bring in their gold and actually buy more, and thereby grow by value rather than by wallet. So this is a pivoting that may happen from time to time. And we'll not be worried about the absence of buyer growth in such times because these are very complex macro challenges also.
If I recall correctly, exchange gold has a bearing on the margin and will put some pressure. If the saliency of gold exchange scheme keeps rising, how should one think about the margins going forward? And on the 18 carat, does that have any bearing on margins if saliency of 18 carat goes up?
On the second one, there is no saliency. 18 carat will not have any bearing on margin. If at all, it can slightly improve only, but a lot of that depends on the quantum that comes in, like materiality of it. On the exchange, yes, there is a certain impact on margins, but we've been able to work it out in our business model in such a way that it is not impacting us much. Yes, some investments have gone in. We took a conscious call to say it's important to stimulate buyer demand, and it's also important to do what is right for the country. The Prime Minister was painting out a vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, and we really thought what can we do to contribute because all the jewellery is made here, but gold is imported. So we went ahead and decided that it's good for the country, the customer, the planet. So in the long run, it's good for us. So margins may have some small implications, in certain quarter-to-quarter situations. But secularly, we would actually like it if exchange keeps going up because it's a great way to unlock the locker.
On store openings, especially for Tanishq, has been on the lower side since past few quarters. Can you share any indicative store opening targets one should keep in mind? Any change in store opening targets versus what was shared earlier?
There were some execution delays in the first half and in quarter 2 as well. So some spillovers happened in the period. In October, we saw more open. While it shows 6 in the domestic in quarter 2, but YTD is 9 September. In October, we've added some more - we added 8 more in October. Overall for the year, our target remains 40 barring some execution. We've also been focusing on revamping, transforming and substantially expanding our existing stores. We've expanded and renovated close to 35 stores in the first half of the year, giving us very good results. Some are much larger projects. Purely from new stores on Tanishq, 35 to 40 is a reasonable range to expect. 40 is the target. And overall for renovations, etc., 70 to 80 may be the orders that may happen for the year.
Looking beyond the near term - while current gold prices are where they are, as this trajectory becomes more benign, would love to hear thoughts on growth and margin behaving and whether the historical levels we have seen in jewellery are even achievable because maybe competitive intensity has changed?
Growth certainly will continue to be good. We continue to be a high-growth business, even compared to historically. CAGR continues to trend upwards. Let's see where we end with quarter 3, but I think growth certainly. If gold prices stabilize, in fact we think growth prospects improve because more buyers will come into the market. Margins will also hopefully become stable because then the whole impact of high gold prices on margins, particularly on gross margins of studded, will stabilize. And the pressure of making charges, which tends to become more skewed when gold prices are high. So margins will also stabilize. Now whether we will hit historical high EBIT margins seen 3, 4 years back, that I'm not so sure. We would like to maintain and focus on growth. If margin remains in the range Ashok has given guidance on, that's what we will aim for. Because the headroom for growth is high, headroom for market share gains is high, and we would certainly like to focus on absolute growth in profits as opposed to percentage profitability improvement.
Two bookkeeping questions. One, how should we look at watch margins now that they've done 2 quarters of relatively healthy performance? Second, if I remember, 1Q had some benefit of 50 basis points in jewellery margin which was one-off because of inventory rebalance that should have reversed. Has that happened? What is the like-to-like number in jewellery?
On watches, last time also we have talked that they will gradually revert towards 16%, 17% band. On a long term, given the kind of investments required, mid-teen is a good number to aim for, 15% to 16% for the business, at least in the 1-year, 2-year time frame. Beyond that, we can see how scale and operating leverage would work for that business. On jewellery, yes, we did speak about 50 basis points last time onetime, which was expected to reverse over the next 2 quarters. But I have also mentioned simultaneously new things kick in. And that's what has happened. So in quarter 2, we didn't see any net impact of reversal and accrual. Yes, that is where we are.
Congratulations on strong execution despite a high base. There has been an increase of INR 9,500 crores in consolidated inventory, which is significant. So how should we see this? Is this purely basis the rising gold price on existing inventory? Or is there a component of higher stocking in anticipation of strong festive plus new store additions as well?
It is a combination of both because as business is growing, inventory has to go up. But it is largely driven by gold price, if you look at the overall number. Certain kg amount with the expansion of business, expansion of the store has to go up. There is nothing to talk about. It is not out of our normal turn or normal trajectory or number of days. It is the rate of gold which has impacted substantially this number and the scale of business.
My intent was to estimate interest paid on GML. Now that festive is over, have we seen some deduction in inventory levels which should reduce interest component? Or is Q2 run rate a good run rate to bake in?
We will certainly see in quarter 3 stock coming down from the present. To that extent, minor correction in interest can happen in the interest rates. But GOL cycle doesn't follow exactly all the time stocks. So there could be some mismatches, but I do expect in quarter 3 to slightly come down.
Second question, there is a big listing expected to happen in the eyewear space. For them vertical integration and virtual solution with regards to optometrists are emerging as key differentiators. What is our outlook for this space as we have been growing slower, even less than industry growth of about 13%, 14%?
This is Raghavan here. In terms of industry growth, there is no audited number. So our estimate of growth is anywhere between 7% to 8%. So if you look at 7% to 8% industry growth, we are maybe slightly higher than industry growth. In terms of investments, when we approached FY '26, we have factored certain investments in transitioning from brick-and-mortar to omni channel, building the digital funnel and leveraging marketing investments to create more aspiration for the brand. As far as our growth outlook is concerned, we believe we should be closing this year at slightly higher number than what you are seeing, anywhere between 13% to 14%. And in terms of competition, it was anticipated. So it is not a surprise, and was already factored in our FY '26 plan. So we will continue to do what we are doing, and we believe that will take us to the desired growth levels.
Small follow-up to better understand the model. From back-end perspective, what processes - manufacturing of frames, manufacturing of lenses, fitting of lenses, putting power into lenses - which all are we doing internally? Any thoughts to backward integrate supply chain?
We are a fully integrated organization, vertically integrated. We have our own lens-making plant. We have two plants, one at Bengaluru and one at Kolkata. From a volume standpoint, almost 90% of the volumes what we sell at retail is locally produced in our factory. We also have a frame manufacturing plant in Chikkaballapur which can do injection, acetate as well as metals. From a fitting lab standpoint, service is a very critical part of our industry. So we have close to 11 to 12 in-house fitting labs pan India to ensure that we are able to deliver a spectacle anywhere between 2 to 3 days' time. So we are very well covered from a back-end standpoint. This investment has been there over the years. Titan Group made this investment on the lab 12 to 13 years back, and on frame manufacturing almost 7 to 8 years back.
You've indicated in the press release that there has been a strong start to festive. In recent periods, we have seen some moderation in discretionary categories after big pickup towards occasions. Can you throw some light on growth expectations for the upcoming wedding season? This is for jewellery space.
Yes. Post festive 10 days also, post the Diwali action, the sales growth has continued in the same vein as we saw in festive. We believe this could be largely due to a good wedding season and the continued exchange that we are running because we feel that during wedding season, exchange is a big driver. So far, so good. How quarter 3 will end as a number, I can't give you. But certainly, at a very broad level, by the time we end YTD December, our growth rates should have become better than the first half growth rates. That's as much as I can share with you right now.
Congratulations on a good quarter. One question on TEAL, the Titan Engineering Automation business. Does this business have any synergies with consumer businesses? If yes, could you elaborate? If not, is there any reason why we are not demerging it and/or listing it out separately?
There is no real synergy between TEAL and the consumer businesses. Titan TEAL is global tech manufacturing B2B business, whereas the rest of Titan is becoming global but B2C. There is no synergy. It was born 20 years back, and we have scaled it substantially, realizing that even within the neighborhood of a very large B2C successful company, there is a place for it. By adequately staffing that company, adequately creating the right capability for the Board which governs TEAL, we have created a kind of planetary system, which maximizes the opportunity for TEAL. And that's how it is going and that's how it will go. And there is no plan to demerge at the moment.
Firstly, Venkat, thanks for your insights, we will miss them. My questions - first on jewellery, given unprecedented gold prices, can you throw more light on how trends differ regionally within India? Given your increasing global scale, are we seeing clear differentiation in trends? Second, on watches, you've made a concerted effort on analog watches. We've seen new launches over the past 6 months. Should we continue expecting significant growth in the analog space? Insights from festive on growth in that category?
On trends regionally - we have gained share in East and South, or rather we continue to gain share in East and South driven by our regionalization strategy, which is becoming sharper and better by every quarter, even as we invest more. We think this playbook can be extended to other states, and we are planning so in the near future. In terms of North and West, we were a little concerned about how Bombay, Delhi consumer sentiment is, and it was a little sluggish. But a lot of the work we put in as well as some improvement in overall sentiment, we've seen a good revival in those markets. Even the studded growth in those markets is beginning to start improve. Some internal factors as well - we had some stores under renovation. Internationally, there are no trends that are different, but the North American market continues to power ahead much faster. There, we are the early movers. In the Middle East, we are challenger because we've come in late, but we've nevertheless seen healthy results. The studded play in North America is particularly heartening.
Add-on on international and watches.
On international - North America, despite gold prices and price increases we have taken in that market, continues to grow very, very well. And like Ajoy said, the studded performance there has been very heartening. Customers are clearly more involved and purchasing into higher price points. That story has been really good. Even in the Gulf markets, we've seen a very, very strong comeback for the business with people actively buying higher price points. Their studded ratios are relatively lower. Recognition of the brand in Middle East, Singapore and U.S. markets are increasingly becoming very strong given number of stores are also increasing. On watches, festive growth has been high - compared to a quarter where we grew about 12%, the festive period saw a 16% growth over last year same similar period. To your point about new launches and direction, there's been a lot of work the division has put in on premiumization. What you're seeing is the output of all that work with the Jalsa launch and Stellar launch and Edge Ultraslim launch. You should expect more of that. We're seeing across all brands, even in Fastrack and Sonata, a need to premiumize, and customers responding to that. We'll continue to push to increase presence of Helios stores and Helios Luxe stores.
On competition in jewellery, are you seeing any difference in behavior from jewelers who might be owning own inventory versus those using gold on lease, since some of them might be sitting on large inventory gains and might be willing to operate at lower margins and be more aggressive? Second, can you update us on consumer response to LGDs? With income pressures, is that something consumer is looking at more closely? How large is the solitaire and high-value studded jewellery business for you? Are trends there at par with overall studded?
First, when jewelers see inventory gains on gold, unprecedented inventory gains, they tend to use it effectively by reducing making charges or passing on significant offers. That makes competitive intensity going up, and we have to deal with it as it comes. On LGD, the market has been developing slowly and steadily with many players coming in. We understand some of their unit economics may be under stress, but they are hoping for a swing and therefore a lot more stores opening up, lot more capital going in. From the diamond grower's perspective, U.S. market has been rather sluggish, so they have to look elsewhere. India is possibly the most convenient market because other markets are not really going anywhere. China is also not going anywhere with LGD. So we can expect increased investments in LGD. Now how is that showing up on consumers? So far we've not seen demand in our brands - whether CaratLane or Mia at our stores. It's not that people are coming and asking for LGDs. But we think there is a growing interest though it is yet to show up in numbers. It is still early days - perhaps the more accomplished diamond buyer is playing with LGDs as an early adopter. On high value and solitaires, performance has been good. Contributions have gone up in this quarter. We are seeing steady gain. The solitaire correction that happened last year is now behind us, and we are seeing continued growth at buyer level in solitaires as well as high-value studded. High-value studded has gained in contribution by 1 percentage point over last year quarter 2.
Add-on on international jewellery.
On the international front, there are two factors. One is the size of the international business and its share to total Titan jewellery is climbing substantially, even though it's small, but climbing substantially. The second is we have moved from a loss in the previous year to a profit in the current quarter. That transformational change in the margin has a bearing on this consol figure. As we go forward, we will see more secular thing happening here rather than what happened Q-on-Q.
Just one follow-up on CaratLane. From what I understood, Saumen, gold price could be a headwind, but that's generally a headwind for the entire industry. Otherwise, whatever initiatives would have led to this margin expansion, those you think are sustainable? Or there were some higher-than-normal margin this quarter because of some other factors?
Some of the things that we have done will certainly have sustainable impact. Assuming the gold rate remains stable, we would see that line continuing. But if gold rate dramatically changes, it is very difficult to address some of these things given the inventory can't be altered immediately overnight. In quarter 2, there were some marginal gains, but I would not think is really material in the overall margin.
One question on the reversion of the hedging gain. So if I get it clearly, the 50 bps gain that you have done in Q1, that's kind of reversed in Q2. Is that the right understanding?
No, I think last time also, we spoke that it will gradually reverse over Q2, Q3. And also simultaneously, we said new hedges can again have a compensating effect. So in quarter 2, actually, there is no net impact on account of reversal and further accrual.
Two questions. First, Ajoy, when you mentioned high-value studded, if you could just define - is it above INR 5 lakh? What is the definition? And could you give the contribution of that and the solitaire portion in your studded? Second, we are looking at a large share of store rehashing, around 70. I'm guessing all of it is Tanishq. Can you quantify if that leads to substantial increase in store productivity? What are reasons for it - increase in area? Could that be incremental trigger over next 6 months?
On high-value studded, historically we've defined it as above INR 2 lakhs, and for consistency we've kept it at that level across years. In Quarter 2, it was contributing around 14% of overall business, and that was 1 percentage point higher than last year Quarter 2. Of course, Quarter 2 also has The Festival of Diamonds. So contribution in this period goes up relative to other quarters. But we will see a Y-o-Y benefit for the year as well. Solitaire currently contributes about 3.5% to 4% of overall business. It has been growing. I don't have an immediate response on last year's figure. Certainly, the contribution has gone up in the current year as a percentage maybe by 0.5%, 1%.
First question - you gave a good flavor on demand trends being like-for-like festive and also the ongoing wedding calendar. I want clarification because last year in Q3 and Q4, we saw a surge in gold coin and bar demand. Just want to hear how that trend has been this time around.
It continues unabated. The appetite for gold coins and bullion is very high. Naturally so, given the gold price is going up. So it's leading, continuing to lead. The contribution of gold coin has certainly gone up significantly over the last several years.
Just a follow-up. Is it aligned versus your expectation? Or is it just trending in similar pattern, similar to what we have been seeing in last 12 months?
It's continuing to climb in contribution. It's trending up - both buyer, KG, value, everything growing much faster than what we might have imagined, but it's not difficult to understand why.
The second question - to one of the participant's questions, you said competitive intensity remains given how gold prices are, particularly from independent jewelers. Just want to hear is the exchange program more of all-around your reality, intensity varies through the year, but that's our way to offset competition we see from independent jewelers? Side question - how are trends for the L3 stores for us because they would compete much harder with independent jewelers? How are they playing this game? Do they hedge their inventory?
Firstly, it's not only the independents who don't hedge. Many organized players also don't hedge, at least not fully. Competitive intensity is not linked only to small players, but also from many organized players, sometimes even more so from the bigger chains. Therefore, the last question, in a way, there's not - L3, L2 everywhere, we see the same competitive intensity. Some L3s hedge, many L3s don't. We recommend them to hedge as much as they can. So far, they take their own calls. Overall, exchange is - we see it as a strategic method to acquire customers and to, in a way, because anybody who goes through a Tanishq exchange, they become evangelists and customers for life because the transparency, purity and everything clear and clean with absolutely no strings attached and no fine print thrown in, makes a huge difference. Customers go back feeling visibly happy, having seen the gold melted in front of them, a trained karigar out there, first a karatmeter check, then an actual melting check. The whole process leaves them feeling extremely comfortable. They know we are here for the long run, so anything they buy from us can always come back. So exchange is a strategic customer acquisition and trust-building tool. Therefore, I would request we don't see it as an offer, and exchange is there right through the year. The offers may vary tactically quarter-to-quarter.
One small question. Ajoy, you mentioned buyer growth has been weak for a while because gold price has been rallying really hard. I'm linking it to studded - as buyer growth builds up, would you see more tailwind for studded growth, which has also been lackluster but has gone up this quarter? Is there a buyer growth deterrent for that growth? Given your INR 1 lakh and below product introductions, do you expect studded growth to increase in coming quarters if gold price stabilizes?
Just to put things in perspective on buyer - buyer growth overall has been minus 2% for the quarter. Gold was minus 11%, largely driven by sub INR 1 lakh. Studded was plus 3%. This gives perspective that studded is actually doing much better than gold. I'm keeping coins aside. Coins was a much higher number. Studded buyer growth has been trending in positive territory and leading the gold jewellery buyer growth consistently over last 5, 6 quarters now. It is not a one-off in this quarter. The sub INR 1 lakh introduction and particularly even in studded, we are certainly hoping to continue pushing the studded buyer growth. Through the portfolio play - Tanishq, Mia, CaratLane - we will want to continue to aggressively push for studded buyer growth, certainly in the INR 1 lakh space, sub INR 1 lakh space as well because that's where we see a lot of new customers get recruited. So what we will end up with, we don't know. But so far, we've been able to keep pushing that envelope, and we hope to take it upwards. We have seen an improvement in festive. Hopefully, by the time we end December, YTD we should be seeing further positivity on that front.
Two quick questions on jewellery and eyewear. On jewellery, while gold price till end of September had only one direction, in last 3 weeks it has changed direction a little bit, and correction has been as fast as the ramp-up. How has this impacted your inventory planning, sales planning - both from supply of gold, physical supply of gold, as well as kind of SKUs you are planning? Do you think it changes or it's more of the same? On eyewear, one of the other questions was on what your strategy is - I would love to understand your approach to grow this business.
Gold prices have moderated by about 6% or thereabouts in last 10 days post the Diwali festive season. We are happy because customers are also happy. Those who are still waiting to buy in for wedding jewellery, they'll come in. Our planning doesn't change dramatically. We try to ensure a good optimal product mix and across category price bands we try to ensure. We are not seeing significant changes in inventory planning. Bullion buying - yes, it was a little under pressure in October first couple of weeks, there was some bullion shortage. But otherwise, our bullion team is well on top of all projections. And we've been able to ensure that we don't cut inventory despite the rising gold prices.
Add-on on eyewear strategy.
Jignanshu, this is Raghavan here. If you look at this particular industry, the headroom to grow is tremendous. We estimate the market to be around INR 30,000 crores, growing at almost 7% to 8%, and Titan's share is less than 12%. So headroom to grow is tremendous. In terms of go-to-market strategy, we believe we are well covered. In retail footprint, we have close to 900 stores. We are also transitioning into omni-channel because for a consumer, the first touch point is always your website. In terms of overall strategy, this is a business where both vision and fashion is equally important. When somebody comes in for an eye check up, we need to ensure we do a fantastic job in bringing out the right prescription. And ensure we give him a right pair of eyewear because dispensing is also equally important. We will continue to invest in having the right kind of people at stores so that we do a great job in consumer satisfaction. As far as investing for growth, yes, we will continue to invest in creating more awareness for the brand and thereby driving consumer footfall. We believe we are well placed to grab more share in coming quarters.