Business News: Richemont and Swatch Results; Massive Inventories at Swatch
Swiss watchmaking groups Richemont and Swatch Group just announced their first quarter and six-month results for 2019 respectively, with each going in opposite directions. Owner of brands like Cartier, IWC and Panerai, Richemont saw growth across most segments and regions. Overall sales were up 12% at constant exchange rates, with every region growing in the low teens save for the Middle East and Africa. Sales in Asia grew 10%, led by China, where demand is up due to lower taxes locally on luxury goods and more stringent checks on travellers importing items bought overseas. Most notable was the performance of its online channels, namely luxury fashion mall Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP), pre-owned watch merchant Watchfinder, and to a lesser extent. That growth is from a low base of comparison: last year’s first quarter for each platform was only two and one month respectively. That being said, online sales are still substantial, rising to 50% to €648m, almost equal to the €698m of sales in the Americas as a whole. The group’s watchmaking brands, which include A. Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin, saw overall sales dip 2%. This was attributed to a reduction in the number of sales channels as well as reduced orders of new product by retailers. Up in Biel, where the Swatch Group has its headquarters, half-year sales were down 3.7% at constant exchange rates, to 4.07 billion Swiss francs. Net profit followed suit, shrinking 11.3% to 415m francs. For the full year, howe...
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