Bulgari S.p.A. said its third-quarter sales were flat, year-over-year, at approximately $324 million. At comparable exchange rates sales increased by 2 percent. Meanwhile, the luxury jeweler’s net profit for the same period declined 44 percent to approximately $29.1 million, year-over-year. 

During the third quarter (from July to September), the Rome-based company said jewelry sales increased 4 percent, year-over-year. The company “This is an especially positive result considering that the comparison base includes two extraordinary sales of high jewelry pieces made in April and September 2007.”

Watch sales fell by 6 percent for the period, which was “partially influenced once again by shortages in sourcing some technical components, which resulted in losses of production volume, and by a slowing demand in the wholesale channel,” the company said.

Accessories registered a 16 percent decrease in the quarter (to be compared with the increase of 38% posted in the same quarter of last year. However, the company said sales performance in the directly owned stores for this category registered a strong double-digit increase both in the quarter and in the first nine months of the year.

Perfume sales grew by 15 percent in the third quarter.

The worldwide financial markets crisis of and its impact on the demand for goods and services resulted in a sales slowdown in all geographical areas, the company said.

The company’s U.S. sales declined 8 percent in the third quarter. Sales were 5 percent in Europe and 2 percent in Asia.

“The results reached by the Group in the third quarter inevitably reflect the current economic crisis—and the reduced people’s tendency to purchase as a consequence—which has hit all the sectors and is continuing to have repercussions also in October, said Francesco Trapani, chief Executive Officer of the Bulgari Group. “In a still unsettled macroeconomic environment, whose evolution is difficult to be predicted, I think that therefore we can realistically expect a turnover increase lower than previously estimated and, consequently, a decrease in the net and operating profit compared to the previous year. In any case such decrease will be lower than the one registered in the first nine months.” 

Caption: Bulgari’s flagship store in Rome.

JCK