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Aug 7, 2012
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Pandora's profit falls less than feared

By
Reuters
Published
Aug 7, 2012

Danish jewellery maker Pandora reported a smaller-than-forecast drop in operating profits and revenues for the second quarter as it implements a costly plan to replace poor selling stock with newer products.


Photo: Pandora


The campaign, aimed at kick-starting sales, was launched in February and the company has said it could cost up to 800 million Danish crowns ($133 million).

"Our operations continued to develop as expected during the quarter, even with a slightly better gross margin helped by a changed product mix," Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden said on Tuesday.

In the first half of 2012, Pandora received returns of discontinued products worth 523 million crowns and replaced 472 million crowns worth of stock, the company said.

"There is still hard work ahead of us, but there are also some bright spots," Gulden said in an email statement. "The exchange programme is proceeding with high participation and good satisfaction among our retailers."

"At the same time, our new collections are being positively received by our customers," said Gulden who was appointed CEO in December last year to lead a turnaround of the business.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell to 173 million crowns in April-June from 440 million in the second quarter last year, beating analysts' average estimate of 133 million in a Reuters survey.

Pandora stood by its earlier forecast for full-year 2012 revenues to be above 6 billion crowns and for its EBITDA margin to be in the "low 20s" in percentage terms assuming the stock return programme has the full impact.

But it bumped up guidance for its 2012 gross margin to the "mid 60s" in percentage terms from the "low 60s," assuming the campaign has its full effect.

The company made a glittering debut on the Copenhagen bourse in October 2010 after an IPO, but the maker of charms and charm bracelets, whose main manufacturing base is in Thailand and which has over 10,000 outlets, ran into difficulty last year when it said it had priced itself away from its core clientele.

Pandora said its 2012 revenue assumption was based on plans for about 200 new stores this year, with a particular focus in new markets.

"Pandora expects to open at least 135 new concept stores and shop-in-shops in our key new markets (Italy, France, Russia and Asia) during the course of 2012," it said.

Shares in Pandora ended up at 62.80 crowns on Monday, valuing the company at about $1.36 billion. Trade on the Copenhagen bourse resumes at 0700 GMT.

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