US jewellery retailer Tiffany & Co has reported a 1 per cent drop in worldwide net sales and 2 per cent drop in comparable sales for the two months to December 31.
While Tiffany sales grew strongly in China over the holiday period, softening in other markets that are more dependent on foreign tourist spending led total net sales across Asia Pacific to fall 3 per cent from the prior corresponding period to US$226 million. Comparable sales in the region fell 4 per cent.
“With continued strong sales growth in mainland China (by a double-digit percentage), solid results in Japan and healthy growth in e-commerce sales, overall holiday sales results came in short of our expectations which had called for modest year-over-year growth,” Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo said.
“We attribute the difference partly to lower sales to foreign (primarily Chinese) tourists globally, and to softening demand attributed to local customers in the Americas and Europe, which we believe may have been influenced more than expected by external events, uncertainties and market volatilities.”
Total sales across the Americas declined 1 per cent to US$514 million, while Europe dropped 4 per cent to US$132 million.
Japan, however, saw positive growth over the period of 4 per cent – increasing to US$150 million, attributed to higher spending by local customers.
