SALES AT Tiffany’s flagship New York store declined 4 per cent in the past quarter as its Americas business performed worse than expected, leaving its earnings short of forecasts.
The luxury jewellery retailer reported net income of $81.5 million, or $0.64 per share, for the three months to April 30th, below Wall Street expectations.
Sales this year will rise as much as 8 per cent, the company said, less than a previous forecast of a maximum of 10 per cent.
Beyond the sales drop at its Fifth Avenue store, which accounts for 8 per cent of worldwide revenue, like-for-like sales across the Americas region fell 1 per cent.
Michael Kowalski, chairman and chief executive, said: “The Americas region underperformed, continuing a soft trend that began in the last quarter of 2011 and compounded by the difficult comparison to substantial sales growth in last year’s first quarter.”
Worldwide like-for-like sales, however, rose 4 per cent and net sales increased 8 per cent to $819 million, with sales outside the Americas broadly in line with Tiffany’s expectations. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012/ Bloomberg)
