RAPAPORT... Graff Diamonds International’s revenue and profit dropped last year, according to the luxury jeweler’s latest financials.
Sales fell 10% to $569.6 million in 2016, while profit slumped 66% to $15.8 million, the recent filing showed. The London-based retailer saw UK sales decline 5% to $34.3 million, with revenue from the rest of the global network down 10% to $535.3 million.
Results for Graff Diamonds International do not include all of the group’s activities, such as its controlling stake in diamond manufacturer Safdico, a De Beers sightholder. Total revenue and profit for the entire operation — Graff Diamonds Holdings — increased in 2016, the company’s chief financial officer, Andrew Nicholson, told Rapaport News on Tuesday.
Company chairman Laurence Graff called the group-wide results “robust” in a statement, adding that its new store on Place Vendôme in Paris, which opened last year, had performed well. The renovation of its Sloane Street store in London and its outlet on Rue du Rhône in Geneva “revitalized” those locations, he continued, and the company also added a “store-in-store” at Saks in Houston, Texas.
The group plans to open a limited number of new stores in targeted, high-prestige locations during 2017, including in Singapore. It will also expand its store-in-store network in the US and Japan.
“Whilst there are a number of uncertainties in the global economy at present, we remain broadly optimistic and continue to invest strategically in our retail network and in the Graff brand in order to bring our exceptional range of jewelry and watches to clients across the world, and in doing so, secure the long-term future of Graff,” the chairman said.
The group will continue to buy diamonds in line with stock requirements during the year and will retain the ability to purchase “exceptional” diamonds, mainly as rough, he added.
Graff recently bought a 373.72-carat rough that was once attached to the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, which Lucara Diamond Corporation unearthed in 2015. The retailer paid $17.5 million, or $46,935 per carat, for the stone.
Image: Graff Diamonds
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