Recently, the American jewelry brand Tiffany has released its sales figures for the past few months, specifically countering LVMH's allegations: "Compared to the same period in 2019, full-year sales in August and September saw a slight decline, but operating profit increased by 25% compared to the same period in 2019, and sales in October continued to show an upward trend."
Globally, e-commerce sales continued to show strong growth, nearly doubling in these two months compared to the same period in 2019, accounting for 13% of total net sales for the full year as of September 30. In the company's history, e-commerce sales have typically accounted for about 6% of total net sales."
Sales in mainland China remain very strong, and the company's latest gold and diamond jewelry collection, the Tiffany T1, continued to perform strongly during these two months.
"Although U.S. tourism declined sharply in 2020, sales in the U.S. during these two months only fell by a low double-digit percentage compared to the same period last year. While U.S. sales have declined month over month compared to the same period last year since May 2020, current data shows that sales are steadily improving. The company expects U.S. sales trends to further improve in the fourth quarter."
Tiffany's CEO, Alessandro Bogliolo, said: "Although we still expect the full-year results to be severely impacted by the pandemic, we are very pleased with the recovery of the business after the first quarter and the continued rebound trend in the third quarter, particularly in mainland China, as well as the recovery in the U.S. market."
Further Reading
LVMH's Allegations: At the end of September, LVMH Group formally filed a lawsuit with the Delaware Court of Chancery in the U.S., stating that Tiffany's performance during the pandemic was "dismal," triggering the "material adverse effect" clause listed in the agreement between the two parties, thus allowing LVMH Group to choose to abandon the previously agreed acquisition.