News In the first quarter of 2006, the Italian Bulgari Group reported 13.6% sales growth compared to the same period in the previous year; total sales were worth 203.9 million euros. The operating result and net profit rose respectively by 15.2% to 21.8 million and 18.6% to 18.2 million.
Apart from the fragrances sector in which sales fell by 1.2% in the first quarter of 2006 to 33.7 million euros, all the group's business activities got off to a good start at the beginning of the year: +15.9% to 58.3 million for watches, +10.0% to 79.4 million for jewellery and +44.8% to 25.4 million for accessories. The picture is broadly identical for all the markets with a downturn in just one region, the Far East (excluding Japan), to 25.6 million (-20.3%). On the other hand, two-figure growth was reported for Italy (+13.9% to 24.7 million), Europe (+27.1% to 48.1 million), the Americas (+15.3% to 35.0 million), Japan (+22.8% to 58.0 million) and the rest of the world (+22.5% to 12.5 million).
Commenting on these results, CEO Francesco Trapani said that he was optimistic for the rest of the year. Barring unforeseen circumstances, he expected to see annual growth of between 8 to 9% both in sales and in the net profit.
July 05, 2006