Who holds goods the longest? Jewellery and home goods.

What the chart shows

In the year to March 2026, jewellery and home goods companies held their goods the longest before selling: 106 days on average, about 3½ months. Construction companies held 23 days. All 2,384 companies on the shelves together: 53 days.

Jewellers alone (73 companies) held 162 days of goods, about 5½ months; 160 days without Titan, which is 43% of their sales. Because one company is that big a part, they are not a shelf of their own. Smaller industries, not drawn: Paper 67 days (45 companies). Not drawn: property developers, 1,017 days (125 companies). Their stock is land and homes being built, which take years to finish and sell, so it is a different kind of stock. Not drawn: businesses that mostly sell a service, where at least one in three companies hold no goods at all: Media (37 of 83), Trading & transport (149 of 360) and IT services (129 of 210). Left out: mixed businesses (13 companies), power (44 companies; NTPC alone is 43% of its sales) and telecom (21 companies): too few companies, or one company too big to add up fairly. Is it just one big company? No: leave out Titan and jewellery and home goods companies still held 93 days. Why construction is short: building contractors keep unfinished work they have not yet billed in a separate line of their accounts, not in goods held, so it is not on their shelf.

How it is worked out: the goods a company held at the year end (raw materials, half-made and finished goods), divided by its sales for the year, times 365 days. All the companies in an industry are added together, so big companies weigh more. Only companies that reported both figures above zero are counted. Banks and lenders are left out. What it is not: one company's figure, or a sign of slow sales. Some businesses must hold goods for months: a jeweller keeps gold on display, a machine maker builds for months before it delivers. And it is not a reason to buy a share.

How it is measured

Days of goods in stock, industry by industry, for the year to March 2026, from each company's own yearly accounts: the company alone, not its group (standalone), so a listed company owned by another listed company is not counted twice. For each industry: the goods its companies held at the year end (inventories on the balance sheet: raw materials, half-made goods, finished goods and goods bought to resell), all its companies added together, divided by all their sales for the year added together, times 365 days. So it is an average, set from one year-end snapshot against a whole year of sales; big companies weigh more than small ones.

It is measured against sales, the same yardstick for every industry. Holding goods longer is not slow sales or a problem by itself: a jeweller must keep gold on display, a machine maker builds for months before delivery. Building contractors keep unfinished work they have not yet billed in a separate line (contract assets), not in goods held, so it is not on their shelf.

Only companies with both figures above zero are counted (3,585): left out are 720 banks, lenders, insurers and other financial companies, 293 with no sales, 2 that did not report goods held and 731 that reported zero (a zero can mean "not reported", so it is not read as "no goods"). Industries that mostly sell a service are not drawn: where at least one in three companies hold no goods at all. That leaves out Media (37 of 83 companies hold no goods), Trading & transport (149 of 360 companies hold no goods) and IT services (129 of 210 companies hold no goods).

Property developers are not drawn either: their stock is land and homes being built, held for years by design, a different kind of stock (125 companies, 1,017 days). Industry is the industry group on file for each company, in plain words; Jewellery & home goods is jewellery, watches, paint, appliances, furniture and other things for the home; Power includes water and waste companies. 616 counted companies have no industry on file and are on no shelf. An industry is drawn only with at least 40 companies and no one company above 40% of its sales, else the shelf would be one company's result.

Left out on that rule: Mixed businesses (13 companies), Power (44 companies; NTPC is 43% of its sales), Telecom (21 companies). The chart shows the top industry and then the biggest industries by sales, 12 in all (85% of the counted sales); the smaller ones are in the post text. The dashed line is all 2,384 companies on the shelves added together.

The top industry is named in the headline only because it stays above every other industry even with each industry's biggest company left out (Jewellery & home goods without Titan: 93 days). 82 companies on the shelves held goods worth more than a whole year of sales; they are kept (all shelves: 53 days without them). One box is 10 days; the last box of a shelf is cut to its exact share; days are rounded to whole days. This is arithmetic on filed accounts, not a view on any company or industry.

Using this chart