Cartier store in Hangzhou, China. Image credit: August_0802/Shutterstock.com
The French brand continues to sell more in China than its American counterpart
In the past three months, sales of European jewellery products in China such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati, and Cartier have risen by over 25%. The Swiss luxury goods business Richemont owns all the above brands as well as several others and all indications are that recent success in China is set to continue.
Of all the high-end brands under Richemont’s umbrella, Cartier is the biggest and most lucrative of them all. Even though Richemont chooses not to disclose financial information about its individual brands, experts have estimated Cartier’s annual sales at roughly 10 billion euros (10.9 billion USD).
This increase in sales in jewellery recently has contributed greatly to the total group revenue of Richemont’s being up by more than 20% by the end of 2022. This rise in revenue exceeded even Richemont expectations and has continued into 2023, where it has risen by another 33% compared to the same quarter last year.
Ever since the end of the pandemic and global financial crisis, demand for top-quality jewellery products has been at an all-time high. Sales of low-end jewellery have also been increasing in recent years, but not nearly at the same rate as luxury brand jewellery.
This increase in sales has also created increased competition among brands. To counteract and capitalize on Cartier’s success in China, in 2021 LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) purchased American jewellers Tiffany & Co. for an incredible 16 billion dollars, making it the most expensive deal in the history of the luxury industry.
Alexandre Arnault, son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, has been put in charge of the Tiffany brand. As a result, both Tiffany’s jewellery designs and marketing campaigns are undergoing a complete overhaul, which includes a unique collaboration with Nike, the iconic sports brand.
This overhaul already appears to be having a positive effect, as in the last full financial year, before the pandemic sales have increased from around €4 billion to over €5 billion in 2022.
Even with this impressive figure though, this is still less than half of Cartier’s size. Much of this discrepancy between the companies has been attributed to the fact that Cartier has a large holding in the Chinese market, while Tiffany is predominantly based in the US. This means that reducing the sales gap between the two will not be easy for Tiffany.
Overall luxury sales in China have been forecast to continue to increase by as much as 40% this year, as the country returns to normal after excessive lockdown protocols. At the same time, the jewellery trade in America is slowing down after enjoying several years of extraordinary growth.
According to recent credit card data, spending on high-end jewellery products by American customers dropped more than 10% this past month compared to that of April last year.
Even with LVMH’s billions backing it, it may still take some time before Tiffany can turn things around and catch up to Cartier, and even though LVMH has almost tripled its sales and doubled the brand’s margins in such a short time, it still has a long way to go before Tiffany can be as lucrative and popular as Cartier.
Cartier store in Hangzhou, China. Image credit: August_0802/Shutterstock.com
The French brand continues to sell more in China than its American counterpart
In the past three months, sales of European jewellery products in China such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati, and Cartier have risen by over 25%. The Swiss luxury goods business Richemont owns all the above brands as well as several others and all indications are that recent success in China is set to continue.
Of all the high-end brands under Richemont’s umbrella, Cartier is the biggest and most lucrative of them all. Even though Richemont chooses not to disclose financial information about its individual brands, experts have estimated Cartier’s annual sales at roughly 10 billion euros (10.9 billion USD).
This increase in sales in jewellery recently has contributed greatly to the total group revenue of Richemont’s being up by more than 20% by the end of 2022. This rise in revenue exceeded even Richemont expectations and has continued into 2023, where it has risen by another 33% compared to the same quarter last year.
Ever since the end of the pandemic and global financial crisis, demand for top-quality jewellery products has been at an all-time high. Sales of low-end jewellery have also been increasing in recent years, but not nearly at the same rate as luxury brand jewellery.
This increase in sales has also created increased competition among brands. To counteract and capitalize on Cartier’s success in China, in 2021 LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) purchased American jewellers Tiffany & Co. for an incredible 16 billion dollars, making it the most expensive deal in the history of the luxury industry.
Alexandre Arnault, son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, has been put in charge of the Tiffany brand. As a result, both Tiffany’s jewellery designs and marketing campaigns are undergoing a complete overhaul, which includes a unique collaboration with Nike, the iconic sports brand.
This overhaul already appears to be having a positive effect, as in the last full financial year, before the pandemic sales have increased from around €4 billion to over €5 billion in 2022.
Even with this impressive figure though, this is still less than half of Cartier’s size. Much of this discrepancy between the companies has been attributed to the fact that Cartier has a large holding in the Chinese market, while Tiffany is predominantly based in the US. This means that reducing the sales gap between the two will not be easy for Tiffany.
Overall luxury sales in China have been forecast to continue to increase by as much as 40% this year, as the country returns to normal after excessive lockdown protocols. At the same time, the jewellery trade in America is slowing down after enjoying several years of extraordinary growth.
According to recent credit card data, spending on high-end jewellery products by American customers dropped more than 10% this past month compared to that of April last year.
Even with LVMH’s billions backing it, it may still take some time before Tiffany can turn things around and catch up to Cartier, and even though LVMH has almost tripled its sales and doubled the brand’s margins in such a short time, it still has a long way to go before Tiffany can be as lucrative and popular as Cartier.
