15% Sales Growth by Richemont Luxury Jewelry Brands

Richemont’s luxury jewelry ‘maisons,’ or brands, realized sales of €863 million ($1.26 billion) in the three-month period ended December 31. This was a 15 percent increase over the previous year period on a constant exchange rate basis and a 7 percent rise on actual exchange rates.

Quarterly sales by the group’s watchmakers were €426 million ($622.5 million), up 16 percent from 2006 (10 percent on actual exchange rates). Total sales, including those from Richemont’s jewelry, specialist watchmakers, writing instrument maisons, leather and accessories brands and other businesses, totaled €1.673 billion ($2.44 billion), a 14 percent jump over the €1.552 billion ($2.27 billion) from the prior year period (8 percent on actual exchange rates).

Richemont reported strong demand in the quarter for the group’s luxury products, and, although the strongest sales growth during the period was reported in the Asia-Pacific and Europe regions, sales for the quarter in the Americas region increased by 10 percent at constant exchange rates.

The group also noted that in December demand in the U.S. and Japan slowed somewhat. Japan noted only 2 percent growth, while the U.S. saw 10 percent. This is in contrast to the 12 and 32 percent growth rates realized in the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions respectively.

One of Richemont’s jewelry brands, Cartier saw good growth in the Asia-Pacific region, and Van Cleef & Arpels reported very strong growth in all regions, albeit from a lower base.