French luxury group Richemont has seen its turnover increase by 12 % in the first quarter of the current financial year, as its online activities grew spectacularly.
Acquisitions
In the first quarter of the current financial year, turnover rose to 3.74 billion euros, an increase of 12 % compared to the same period last year. Except for the Middle-East and Africa, all regions saw strong turnover growth. In the Americas and Japan, the increase was as high as 16 % and 13 % respectively.
Despite these apparently spectacular growth figures, Richemont is quick to put its success in perspective: the luxury company stresses that they acquired Yoox Net-a-Porter Group and Watchfinder & Co in the first quarter last year. Those e-commerce companies contributed one month and two months to the results of the first quarter, respectively. As a result, this year’s growth numbers may seem more impressive than they really are.
The newcomers’ role in the turnover increase also becomes apparent from the fact that the luxury group mostly made progress online: turnover from e-commerce increased by 54 % to 648 million euros; physical sales only went up 9 %. The company also experienced favourable currency effects: discounting those, growth was ‘only’ 50 % for e-commerce and 6 % for physical retail.
