Richemont benefits from Christmas spending

A man looks at a Montblanc watch, part of Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company Richemont.

Picture: AFP

Christmas sales for luxury goods group Richemont grew 6% to €3.1bn, an improvement from the previous year’s 3% sales growth.

Measured in euros, Richemont’s fastest-growing region in the December quarter was Japan where sales grew 11% to €313m. Measured in yen, however, Japanese sales were down 1%, the group said in a trading update on Thursday morning.

Sales in its largest region, Asia-Pacific, were up 9% to €1.13bn; up 11% measured in local currencies.

Reopening the Cartier Mansion in New York helped grow sales in the Americas region by 9% to €559m.

The trading update listed French women’s fashion brand Chloé, German fountain pen and watchmaker Montblanc and US men’s clothing brand Peter Millar as particularly good performers.

The trading update covered the third quarter in Richemont’s financial year. For the nine months to end-December, the group reported a 7% decline in sales to €8.2bn.

Richemont said its results for the year to end-March would face a challenging comparative due to the previous year’s inclusion of the €639m noncash gain relating to the merger of The Net-A-Porter with Yoox.