International News
US jewellery, watches sales up by 4.4 per cent year-on-year
Sales of watches and jewelry in the US showed further signs of growth in December 2024, up 4.4 per cent year-on-year, according the latest figures from the US Department of Commerce. But there’s been a marked slowdown since the 10 per cent increases of last September and October.
November saw sales up by just 3.0 per cent, revised down from 5.8 per cent based on actual through-the-till transactions rather than estimates. October has been revised up from 9.7 per cent to 10.0 per cent.
The average monthly year-on-year growth for the full year is 5.4 per cent, so December was little below par. Having said that, it was the 15th consecutive month of growth after a long period (the end of 2022 and much of 2023) of falling sales.
International News
Chow Tai Fook Cashes In On Hong Kong’s Tourism Comeback
As Travelers Return and Gold Prices Wobble, The Jewelry Giant Proves A 52% Profit Jump Is Anyone’s Best Accessory
Hong Kong jewelry giant Chow Tai Fook just wrapped up its fiscal year with fantastic numbers -group revenue climbed 5% to HKD 94.4 billion (about $12.05 billion), while profit didn’t just grow, it basically exploded — up 52% to a record HKD 9.08 billion ($1.15 billion).
So what’s behind the glow-up? Two words: tourists and trust. As travelers flooded back into Hong Kong and Macau, same-store sales there jumped a staggering 17%. Mainland China wasn’t far behind, posting 7% growth even as the company admitted things got a little shaky in the final quarter thanks to gold prices doing their usual rollercoaster routine.
Chow Tai Fook didn’t just get lucky — they’ve been quietly reinventing themselves. Think less “grandma’s jewelry counter,” more curated boutique energy: trading out older locations for spots in upscale malls and leaning hard into branded collections instead of generic gold-by-the-gram sales.
Fixed-price jewelry (the stuff with a set price tag, not market-rate gold) shot up 16%, with the diamond-studded Hua Collection emerging as one of the year’s breakout hits. Gold jewelry sales overall: up a modest 3%.Store count: 5,540 in mainland China, 96 across Hong Kong and Macau
In its own words, the company chalked up the rebound to brand transformation efforts paying off even amid a softer mainland market. At the same time, the tourism recovery did some heavy lifting for Hong Kong and Macau sales. Chow Tai Fook believes fiscal 2027 will be much stronger, with “significantly fewer” store closures, as demand stabilizes.
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