Richemont’s Jewelry Sales Up 11% in Q3

Geneva--Richemont reported Thursday that jewelry division sales were up 11 percent at constant exchange rates and 5 percent at actual exchange rates in the third quarter ended Dec. 31.

Sales were not as strong for the luxury conglomerate’s specialist watchmakers. Richemont’s watch brands--which include A. Lange & Söhne, Panerai, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre, among others--only posted a 1 percent year-over-year increase in sales at constant exchange rates and 4 percent decline at actual exchange rates.

Jewelry’s strong performance helped the company post growth in overall total sales of 7 percent at constant exchange rates and 1 percent at actual exchange rates.

It also helped propel the Americas region to 8 percent sales growth (in constant exchange rates, as are all regions mentioned below.)

In Europe, the strength of the euro and challenging comparatives in the U.K. brought down sales, and the region reported a 1 percent decline in the third quarter.

Asia Pacific, meanwhile, saw double-digit growth driven by mainland China, Korea, Hong Kong and Macau. Japan also saw an increase, of 5 percent, due to strong growth of watches.

Sales in the Middle East and Africa were up 11 percent, benefitting from favorable currencies and the anticipation of the introduction of a value-added tax in the UAE, among other factors.

Richemont said global retail sales maintained their strong momentum in the third quarter, recording a double-digit growth of 13 percent.

Wholesale sales had a different story, though, posting a 3 percent sales decline due in large part to the upgrades the conglomerate made to its external distribution network and the monitoring of inventory at multi-brand retail partners.

In the nine-month period, Richemont said total sales were up 10 percent at constant exchange rates and 7 percent at actual exchange rates.

Jewelry saw a 15 percent increase at current exchange rates and 11 percent at actual exchange rates for that period. Watches grew, too, by 5 percent at current rates and 2 percent at actual rates.