Wednesday, 11th January 2006 (3932 views)

US-based jewellers Tiffany & Co says it experienced strong holiday demand for high-end jewellery as sales for November and December hiked six per cent year-on-year to$712 million.

US retail sales led the way with an eight per cent increase on the previous year, which Tiffany put down to a rise in average item prices.

Contributions from four new US outlets gave the results a slight artificial boost but US sales still surged six per cent on a same-stores basis.

A strong showing in the Asia-Pacific region also boosted same-store sales drawn from its international markets by two per cent.

"We were extremely pleased that holiday sales growth was broad-based geographically and in various jewellery categories," said Tiffany's CEO Michael Kowalski.

"Diamond jewellery sales continued to be especially strong."

A poor performance in Europe came as the only significant blot on the balance sheet as same-store sales drawn from the region dropped ten per cent.

Its flagship store in New York also failed to dazzle as sales slipped back one per cent.

Some analysts had predicted that jewellers would lose out to the gadget market over Christmas. Onlookers await rival luxury retailer Blue Nile's results to see if the positive trend is confirmed.

 

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