Richemont Annual Sales Up 10%

-- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 4/24/2008 8:08:00 AM

Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA said annual sales, ended March 31, rose 10 percent to $8.40 billion, helped by jewelry, top-end watches, and Montblanc pens.

"The strong growth in sales of luxury products seen during the first nine months continued during the final quarter of the financial year," Richemont said.

The Zurich-based luxury goods holding company said sales growth in China and Hong Kong was "very strong."


Richemont headquarters

But growth for the year slowed from a 12 percent gain a year earlier, which Richemont attributed to a slowdown in Japan.

The company said fourth-quarter revenue rose 11 percent to $1.7 billion.

Sales from Europe and the Middle East climbed 17 percent to $703.7 million for the quarter. Sales in North and South America were flat at $284.3 million for the quarter.

The luxury goods maker said European sales had "good growth in established markets and double-digit sales growth in developing markets in the region, including the Middle East.''

Excluding currency swings, full-year sales rose 16 percent, the company said.

Richemont gets a fifth of revenue from the Americas region, where fourth-quarter sales "proved to be very resilient'' excluding currency fluctuations.

Japanese sales fell 4.6 percent to $227.7 million for the quarter. In yen terms, revenue was "slightly below'' the year-earlier period.

Richemont gets just over half of sales from jewelry and 25 percent from timepieces.

The dollar was on average 12 percent lower against the euro in Richemont's fourth quarter.

Ricehmont's brands include: Vacheron Constantin, Baume & Mercier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lange & Söhne, 
Cartier, IWC, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Montblanc.