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At Kay Jewelers, the Signet Jewelry group’s single largest brand, sales increased during the second quarter were up 107 percent from one year before to $673.7 million.

WORLD’S LARGEST JEWELRY CHAIN REPORTS SPECTACULAR QUARTER, AND CONTINUES TO EXPERIENCE AFTERSHOCKS OF COVID PANDEMIC

 

Indications that the U.S. market is headed for a spectacular year continue to collect with the country and the world’s largest jewelry chain reporting that sales during its second fiscal quarter, which ended on July 31, were better than expected.

According to the company, sales equaled $1.79 billion during the quarter, more than twice the $888 million reported for the same period in 2020. Same-store sales increased by 97 percent, while net profit totaled $224.6 million, up from a loss last year of $81.7 million during the corresponding quarter last year.

Signet operates 2,800 stores in the United State., Canada and the United Kingdom, under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples Jewellers, Banter by Piercing Pagoda, Rocksbox and JamesAllen.com.

“Our Signet team delivered strong second-quarter top- and bottom-line performance with continued execution of our Inspiring Brilliance strategy, enabling us to maximize jewelry category strength and capture share over the last year,” said Signet’s CEO Virginia Drosos , during the conference call in which the company announced the quarterly results.

SALES DURING FIRST HALF MORE THAN DOUBLE

With a successful half behind it, the company has raised its predicted sales estimate for the fiscal year, from $6.5 billion to $6.65 billion $6.8 billion to $6.95 billion.

Sales were strong across the board. At Kay Jewelers, the group’s single largest chain, sales increased to to $673.7 million, up 107 percent. Sales at Zales stood at $367.3 million, up 98 percent. Sales at Jared were up 85 percent to $311.9 million.

Sales during the fiscal half ending July 31 totaled $3.48 billion, more than twice the $1.74 billion reported during the same six-month period in 2020. Net profit for the period equaled $363 million, up from a $278.8 million loss during the COVID-impacted first half of last year.

Drosos emphasized that the Inspiring Brilliance program, the group’s consumer insights and data analytics system introduced three years ago is “really paying off because we’re getting out in front of consumer trends faster. It’s also the cornerstone of how we differentiated our banners, which allows us to cast our net wide or bring in more new customers and grow our market share,” she added.


COVID CONTINUES TO INFLUENCE JEWELRY SALES

The aftershock of the COVID pandemic continue to be felt. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Drosos said that Signet’s in-depth consumer research indicated that approximately 2.3 million couples are planning get plan to get engaged in the current calendar year, which is an increase of high single digits compared to a typical year before COVID. Many of them, evidently, had delayed the decision last year because of the pandemic.

Signet CEO Virginia Drosos credited the groups three-year old the Inspiring Brilliance program, a consumer insights and data analytics system. She said that it is “really paying off because we’re getting out in front of consumer trends faster.”

“People are really spending more on people they are closest to now. I think in part it’s because they’ve had to narrow their focus during COVID and they spent more time with their loved ones, and the good news is that that has deepened relationships,” Drosos told Yahoo Finance.

COVID also affected the couples’ sense of commitment to one another, Drosos stated, pointing out that the company’s found that over 90 percent of couples say their relationship is the same or better today than before the pandemic.

But that is not the only after-effect of COVID. Jewelry had definitely been a beneficiary of the lockdowns in the luxury markets, because alternative spending channels like travel and entertainment had been harder hit.

As a consequence, Signet expects a shift of consumer discretionary spending away from the jewelry category toward experience-oriented categories within the second half of the 2021 fiscal year. This will cover the critical fourth fiscal quarter, which includes the holiday season, when Signet projects that same-store sales will decline by a low- to mid-single-digit percentage points.

“Through this coordinated effort, as well as through broadening the scope of the KPCS, I believe we have the capacity to address the types of issues that Mr. Maguwu mentions. For the people any nation where our product is recovered, processed and sold, the diamond should be a resource for sustainable development and a symbol of hope for future generations,” the WDC President continued.

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