Even so, the company had “great year,” with revenue climbing more than 30 percent
In its fourth quarter, Danish charm manufacturer Pandora closed 183 unbranded retail accounts, mostly in the United States, its highest number yet.
For the last year, Pandora has been slashing a large number of mostly U.S.-based unbranded stores. In the third quarter, it slashed 116. In the quarter before that, it dropped 125; before that, 105.
On a conference call following the release of its financial results, CEO Anders Colding Friis hailed 2015 as a “great year” for the brand.
U.S. revenue for the fourth quarter was DKK 1.456 billion (approx. $222 million), a 33 percent increase, or 16.5 percent jump in dollar terms. Ring sales equaled more than 10 percent of U.S. revenue in the quarter. U.S. concept-store comps grew 4.2 percent, with sales growing in the Northeast, a problem area in the past.
Total U.S. revenue for 2015 came in DKK 4.893 billion (approx. $783 million), a 34 percent increase for the year, and a 12 percent jump in dollars.
Overall group revenue for the year totaled DKK 16.7 billion (approx. $2.53 billion), a 40.2 percent increase or 28.9 percent leap in local currency. Revenue for the quarter was DKK 5.68 billion (approx. $861 million), representing 43.4 percent growth or a 35.8 percent increase in local currency.
In spite of all this, as part of its new “Project Agility,” 100 positions have been or are being eliminated.
“The aim of Agility is to build a more efficient global organization,” Friis said. “One of the things that we have done was to take out layers in the organization so the distance between management and the stores, and eventually the consumers, is smaller.”
He stressed the reorganization “is not a cost-cutting exercise…[but] a streamlining of the current organizational setup. Basically, what got us here will not get us to where we want to be in the future.”
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