Brands
Titan keeps ticking as festive shine lifts December quarter numbers
Jewellery-led demand pushes Q3 revenue past Rs 22,000 crore as margins hold steady.
MUMBAI: Time, it seems, is very much on Titan’s side. Titan Company Limited closed the December 2025 quarter with a confident flourish, clocking standalone revenue of Rs 22,689 crore, as festive buying and steady consumer demand helped the Tata Group-backed major stay firmly in the black.
For the three months ended December 31, revenue from operations rose to Rs 22,522 crore, driven largely by strong product and service sales of Rs 22,113 crore, alongside other operating income of Rs 409 crore. Including other income of Rs 167 crore, total income for the quarter stood at Rs 22,689 crore, comfortably ahead of Rs 16,228 crore reported in the same period last year.
While costs rose in tandem with scale, Titan managed to keep its balance. Total expenses for the quarter came in at Rs 20,580 crore, up from Rs 14,908 crore a year earlier, reflecting higher material consumption of Rs 14,588 crore and stock-in-trade purchases of Rs 2,539 crore. Advertising spend also nudged up to Rs 327 crore, underlining the company’s continued focus on brand visibility during peak demand periods.
Profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs 1,971 crore, compared with Rs 1,320 crore in the year-ago period. After accounting for a tax outgo of Rs 501 crore, profit after tax rose to Rs 1,470 crore, marking a clear improvement over Rs 990 crore last year. Earnings per share for the quarter came in at Rs 16.57, up from Rs 11.16.
For the nine months ended December 2025, Titan reported total income of Rs 54,003 crore, against Rs 41,741 crore in the corresponding period last year. Profit after tax for the nine-month period stood at Rs 3,506 crore, up from Rs 2,465 crore, reinforcing the company’s steady trajectory through the financial year.
Operational metrics held firm despite cost pressures. Operating margin for the quarter improved to 9.7 per cent from 8.8 per cent a year ago, while net profit margin stood at 6.5 per cent, slightly ahead of last year’s 6.1 per cent. The company’s net worth rose to Rs 19,356 crore as of December 31, 2025, reflecting sustained balance sheet strength.
Titan’s performance underlines the resilience of discretionary spending in key categories such as jewellery and watches, even as consumers remain value-conscious. With festive demand lending a timely sparkle and margins staying intact, the company appears well-placed to carry its momentum into the final quarter of the financial year.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
