Tata Group firm, Titan Company Limited on Wednesday reported a 4.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in standalone net profit at Rs 294.6 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.

S Subramaniam, CFO of the company, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the financial results and growth prospects.

“We are going with our target of 20 percent growth, at least it’s a target. We will try and see whether we can achieve that and looking at what we did last year, I think we met our targets and it was a tough year for us as well; the jewellery industry itself was almost declining. Therefore, we do try and set tough targets and see if we can achieve it,” Subramaniam said on Thursday.

On the overall demand slowdown, Subramaniam said, “It would be there but having said that what we did last year in both watches and eyewear segments of us, we grew very well in an industry which wasn’t growing much and that I would attribute to new products, new channels particularly in the watch business where e-commerce picked up very well last year.”

“Therefore, we are definitely seeing a gain in market share. We are seeing difficult times for many jewellers particularly those who are rooted in the city. The national jewellers, from our understanding, are strapped for cash. So it has been tough for everybody and we are gaining; fortunately, we have a good balance sheet, we do not have problems in investing and for FY19-20 we are looking at doubling our number of stores that we will open in jewellery business,” he added.

With regards to market share, Subramaniam said, “In terms of actual market share, it is very difficult to see what the market share is because the size of the industry is difficult to understand.”

On the industry front, he said, “Rural is definitely hit badly because of the credit squeeze and so are we seeing that in large metros as well where large players have been stack for cash. Banks have tightened significantly after the Nirav Modi and Gitanjali incident. The demand has not been buoyant as such.”

Talking about the company's expansion plan, Subramaniam said, “The number of stores that we are looking at, overall for the company, would between 100 and 125 and we are looking at opening 60-70 store for jewellery. Most of these are going to be franchise stores so the capex on them do not come from us, but having said that the overall capex for the year would be in the ballpark of around Rs 250 crore.”