Richemont’s sales increased by 16%

Richemont’s sales increased by 16 percent and margins have improved, resulting in operating profit increasing by 31 percent to € 436 million for the six month period.  Jewelry sales during the quarter have increase to €1.17 billion

The Jewellery Maisons – Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels – saw sales increase by 13 percent.  Cartier saw strong demand for its high jewelry lines, in particular, as well as the Love jewelry range and new watches such as La Dona and the Pasha Seatimer, the company reported.

Sales of the group’s Specialist Watchmakers grew by 14 percent during the period, with excellent performances reported by Panerai, A. Lange & S?hne, and Piaget.  Following the marked success of its 250th anniversary in 2005, Vacheron Constantin’s sales grew more modestly than its peers did during the period, as anticipated.

For the Swiss watch industry as a whole, Richemont says the growth in sales in recent years has led to a strong increase in demand for high quality mechanical movements.  As a result, Richemont is working on training programs for new watchmakers and is expanding manufacturing capacity.

Sales of luxury goods increased by 16 percent to € 2,303 million, with strong growth throughout the period and in all regions.

The gross margin percentage during the period was 63.5 percent.  The gross margin percentage in the prior period was 64.1 percent, which included the release of certain inventory provisions linked to the introduction of IFRS.  The release of these provisions contributed 0.7 percentage points to the comparable gross margin percentage, which also benefited from foreign exchange hedging gains.