Jewellery retailer Signet today saw its festive sales sparkle as it shook off the effects of the weak US dollar to forecast profits in line with hopes.
The owner of Ernest Jones and H Samuel expressed delight at its Christmas trading performance, which saw it resist the urge to follow other retailers and cut the prices of its jewellery.
Like-for-like sales at its 605 outlets in the UK increased by 6.7% in the eight weeks to 24 December – helped by an emphasis on diamonds and a new store format, which replaced traditional window displays of jewellery with an open plan design.
Ernest Jones starred with sales growth of 10.3%, while H Samuel saw like-for-like sales rising 4.3%, benefiting from stronger trade in December.
Sales in the US, where it has 1,103 stores trading as Kays Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, were 6.4% ahead over the Christmas period.
Chief executive Terry Burman said: “We are very pleased with our strong performance over the Christmas period in both the US and the UK.”
Burman said the US sales increase had been achieved despite challenging comparative figures in 2002.
Analysts said the performance of Signet was better than rival jeweller Goldsmiths, which reported a like-for-like sales increase of 6.9% in the four weeks to Christmas Eve.
They expect the jeweller to post pretax profits of £205m for the year to 31 March, compared with £199.7m the previous year.
But concerns about the weakness of the US dollar and rising gold prices sent shares in Signet down 5% or 5p to 99.25p.
Rachel Waring, of stockbroker Numis Securities, said: “The fall in the share price is a surprise because these are really decent figures.
“The only negative thing in their statement is that US margins have weakened due to rising gold prices and the ongoing weakness of the dollar, but this wasn’t wholly unexpected.”
References: EGi News 08/01/04
