- Richemont group sales were up 13% in its fiscal Q2, driven by the Americas (+19%) and Japan (+23%).
- Sales at its jewelry maisons, including Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, were up 14%.
- Sales at its specialist watchmakers were up 12%, beating expectations, while sales of ‘other houses’, including fashion houses, were up 9%.
The breakdown
Jewelry sales at Cartier’s parent company decelerated in fiscal Q2, after surging 24% in Q1. Jewelry maisons’ sales were up 14% to €4.4 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, below consensus expectations of 16% growth, while Richemont posted group sales up 13% at constant exchange rates to €6 billion, above consensus expectations of 12%. The Richemont share price was down 6% in morning trading.
Sales at the specialty watchmakers division, including Piaget, IWC Schaffhausen and Jaeger-LeCoultre, rose 12%, smashing consensus expectations of 4% — a “major positive surprise”, as Bernstein analyst Luca Solca put it. Second-quarter sales in the conglomerate’s “other houses” division, which includes Chloé and Alaïa, were up 9%.
By geography, Richemont sales in the Americas were up 19% in Q2, Europe was up 15%, Asia-Pacific increased by 10%, and Japan rose by 23%. The Middle East and Africa were down 7%, significantly missing expectations of 4% growth.
China’s macro environment has been a major drag on luxury’s third-quarter earnings. Richemont was not immune to the challenges in the Mainland China market but is seeing growth in Greater China overall. “The confidence factor in mainland China is still not at its all-time high. We still see some rather soft business, although stable,” Richemont CEO Nicolas Bos said during a media call on Friday. “What’s interesting is that the trends in Greater China, particularly in Hong Kong and Macau, are extremely positive, so the Chinese clientele as a whole is really showing positive trends.”
Richemont chairman Johann Rupert, who was on the call, also noted the group’s difficulties in China. “ If anybody thinks we’re less affected by [market conditions in] China, on the contrary. I’ll give you, for instance, Jaeger-LeCoultre is down 46% in China, yet 17% up for the year. So the rest of the world did so well that they could absorb China. Very good management and excellent products.”
