Swiss-based Richemont, owner of diamond jewelry brands Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, has issued its performance report for Q1 (ended March 31, 2017). According to Gem Konnect, sales dropped 4% year-on-year to $11.65 billion. Profit fell 46% to $1.32 billion.
Richemont’s sales of jewelry, leather goods and writing instruments increased, “partly mitigating the losses incurred by the other business groups”, as per the report. “Good growth” in the sales of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels managed to partly offset the 2% decline in overall sales for the jewelry “maisons” or brands. Montblanc, Chloé and Peter Millar also reported “good progress”.
Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert admitted that “the past year posed challenges for Richemont” and that these challenges “particularly affected our watch businesses”. Rupert added that the second half of 2016 saw “an improvement overall: The US, Richemont’s largest country, resumed growth while Mainland China, now the Group’s second largest country, enjoyed strong growth along with Korea, the United Kingdom and Macau”.
