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Feb 26, 2013
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Pandora hails strategy revamp for year-end sales lift

By
Reuters
Published
Feb 26, 2013

COPENHAGEN - Danish jewellery maker Pandora on Tuesday said a strategy revamp is paying dividends by driving up sales and forecast that revenue would grow this year compared with 2012.

The group said its refocus on lowered prices to back so-called "affordable luxury" had worked and that Christmas sales had also helped boost revenue.

"2012 was a year of re-setting the business," said Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden, adding that new products had been well received.

(photo: Pandora)

"Pandora performed very well in the fourth quarter, our most important quarter, led by particularly strong Christmas sales across most important markets," Gulden said.

The company last February allowed retailers to swap unsold stock for new and often lower-priced items in a bid to kickstart sales.

It has estimated the stock return would cost around 700-800 million crowns in 2012.

Fourth quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose around 2 percent to 534 million crowns ($94.57 million), slightly below forecasts in a Reuters poll of analysts, who expected 537 million.

"This is a strong quarter. It is better than expected," said Sydbank analyst Soren Lontoft.

"I expect that the guidance for 2013 will be significantly exceeded," Lontoft said.

Pandora forecast 2013 revenue to rise to 7.2 billion crowns from 6.7 billion in 2012, below an average 7.4 billion crowns forecast in the poll, and an EBITDA margin to be above 25 percent($1 = 5.6464 Danish crowns)

Revenue in the fourth quarter rose to 2.17 billion, slightly exceeding forecasts.

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