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Jewellery remains a bright spot for Richemont, driving growth at the Swiss group despite a slowdown in demand from Japan, declines in its watches division, and the wider luxury slump.
The owner of brands including Cartier and Van Cleef Arpels said group sales grew 6 per cent at constant exchange rates to €5.4 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending 30 June. This is an acceleration from the 4 per cent growth recorded last quarter. Its share price remained broadly flat following today’s announcement.
The company is looking at how to mitigate the impact of US tariffs, including potential price rises. Group chair Johann Rupert stressed it would keep these to a minimum.
Sales from Richemont’s jewellery maisons were up 11 per cent, beating expectations of 9 per cent organic growth. “The ongoing brand and category heat for jewellery will likely keep it as the standout luxury performance for this quarter,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote.
Sales from Richemont’s specialist watchmakers division declined by 7 per cent, and the group’s ‘Other’ business area, including fashion and accessories houses, dipped 1 per cent. The company called out “solid momentum” at Alaïa and “an encouraging performance” at Chloé.
Sales in the Americas and Europe grew by 17 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. Japan was down 15 per cent, against a tough comparison basis (Japan sales were up 59 per cent in fiscal Q125). Richemont attributed this to the strengthening yen “strongly reducing tourist spend, most notably from Chinese clientele, whilst local demand remained positive”. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region were flat as a 7 per cent decline in China, Hong Kong and Macau combined was “fully compensated by robust growth in almost all other Asian markets”.
LVMH, Kering, Hermès and Prada will report their quarterly earnings on 24, 29 and 30 July, respectively (both Hermès and Prada will report on 30 July). Analysts expect the results to show that conditions remain challenging for luxury, due to the sluggish Chinese market, diminished strength of the dollar, and looming tariffs — though they predict that there will continue to be a steep polarisation between those performing well, and those that are not.
This quarter’s results are expected to show a continuation of luxury’s slump. Analysts weigh in with predictions.
Against this backdrop, Richemont’s results are a positive start to the earnings season. “Given the circumstances of the calendar second quarter 2025, we take this as a strong set of results, which should be supporting the stock price,” Bernstein analyst Luca Solca wrote.
Looking ahead, analysts point out that jewellery brands still have pricing power as they have been reasonable when it comes to increases, compared with some of the soft luxury brands. “Richemont management indicated it raised prices on Cartier jewellery and watches by 3 and 4-5 per cent, respectively, in calendar Q225, and Van Cleef by 4-5 per cent in April; we believe further pricing decisions will be taken after the summer based on currency and gold prices evolution,” wrote Citi managing director Thomas Chauvet.
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