Richemont thrives in Q3 as Chloé, Cartier and off-price e-tailers prove strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 19, 2022

Cartier, Chloé and Alaïa owner Richemont had a good Q3 — the three months to the end of December — with demand for jewellery and watches in particular driving sales in the Americas and Europe.

The second-largest group globally —which also controls Yoox Net-A-Porter — reported sales up to €5.658 billion, a 32% constant currency rates (CCY) rise and up 35% at actual exchange rates. Importantly too, that was 38% higher than two years ago CCY.

The company said that its Fashion & Accessories Maisons saw sales growth of 37% year-on-year CCY, or 40% at actual exchange rates, “sustained by” Chloé, Alaïa, Montblanc and Peter Millar. Also up 17% at actual rates on a two-year basis, sales here reached €610 million.

But the Jewellery Maisons (Cartier, Buccellati and Van Cleef & Arpels) beat this with sales growth of 38% CCY and 41% reported year-on-year and 55% at actual rates against two years ago. Richemont benefited from high exposure to this category that’s growing very fast.

Specialist Watchmakers, including IWC and Vacheron Constantin, saw sales growth of 25% and 29% on the two metrics year-on-year and were up 20% on two years ago.

The online-only businesses the group owns saw sales up 18% at actual rates and 15% CCY to €785 million on a one-year comparison. They rose 17% compared to two years ago at actual rates. The rises reflected strong trading at its outlet websites Yoox and The Outnet, but it didn’t mention Net-A-Porter or Mr Porter, the full-price in-season webstores. 

Asia Pacific remained its biggest sales region on €2.128 billion with sales at actual exchange rates up 49% compared to two years ago and 23% against this time last year. It was supported by strong demand in Australia, China and South Korea.

Europe was next on €1.41 billion with sales rising 12% against two years ago and 44% on last year at actual rates. Despite low levels of tourism still being an issue across Europe, luxury companies seem to be attracting more domestic shoppers to their stores and this bodes well for future sales development in the region.

Meanwhile, the Americas rose 53% (two years) and 59% (one year) to €1.333 billion. Japan’s rises were more muted at 14% and 16% to €389 million and the Middle East and Africa surged 60% and 33% to €398 million.

Analysts were generally upbeat about the results, particularly given the fast growth at the jewellery business and the recovery that’s getting under way in Europe.