Decreased financial year 2016-2017 for Richemont

The group has experienced a difficult year. However, it has adjusted both to the trend of demand which has weighed against watch industry activities and to the new consumption styles. It has risen to these challenges by taking a number of ambitious measures which, although they adversely affected short-term financial performance, did enable a better position to be adopted for the coming years.

In the course of the last financial year, sales growth at the boutiques enabled the decline in turnover attributable to lower sales through the watch distribution network to be held in check. The second half turned out better overall. The United States, Richemont’s leading market, returned to growth, while continental China, now the group’s second largest market, the United Kingdom and Macao all reported strong growth. Apart from exceptional measures taken to improve the stock position of multi-brand retailers and optimise the point of sale network, the sales downturn would have amounted to no more than 2% at constant exchange rates.

Growth of business in the jewellery, leather goods and writing instruments sectors partly offset the impact of weak sales in third party distribution, attributable primarily to the measures indicated above. Exceptional stock purchases and adjustments to production capacities affected the performance of the watchmaking houses, including Cartier watches among the jewellery names. Montblanc, Chloé and Peter Millar saw their performance improve.

The result for the financial year is significantly lower than last year’s figure. However, excluding the capital gain made on the occasion of the merger of the Net-A-Porter and Yoox groups in the previous financial year, the decline is 24%.

Based on the cash flows from operational activities and the higher net cash position, the Board of Directors has proposed the distribution of a dividend of 1.80 francs per share, compared to 1.70 francs per share last year.

June 08, 2017