By
Les echos
Published
Mar 25, 2009
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Tiffany rises on stock exchange despite drop in end of year sales

By
Les echos
Published
Mar 25, 2009

"Tiffany has clearly not been immune from global economic turmoil in recent months,” conceded the Chief Executive of the New York jeweler, commenting on a statement that confirmed the group had seen lower sales in the final quarter of 2008 across the board.



The second largest jeweler in the world registered a decline of 20% of sales at $841.2 million, scarcely better when considering the effect of exchange rates (-19%) and even worse sales were recorded at comparable stores (-23%) against a backdrop of -29% across the Americas.

For the year the group had a turnover of $2.86 billion, a decrease of 3% on 2007.
In this context, and whilst the profit margin has been eroded, Tiffany has recorded that net profit fell by 76% in the fourth quarter to $31.1 millions, or 25 cents a share.
Excluding costs linked to reorganisation and other exceptions, profit per share reached 85 cents (above the 79 cents estimated by analysts). This performance has reassured the financial community: in New York these gains have been dubbed the most important in the last three months.

Furthermore, the group has stated that 600 employees have accepted early retirement, part of a plan to reduce the number of staff by 10% and save an additional $60 million in 2009.

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