Tiffany reports Third Quarter results

The famous jeweller Tiffany, immortalized by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, announced its results for the third quarter ending 31 October 2004 last week. Net earnings were down by 26%, lower than management had expected. Higher precious metal and diamond costs contributed greatly to the drop in the consolidated gross margin.

In the nine month period ending 31 October 2004, net sales increased by 7% to $ 1.4 billion ( GBP 800 million), as opposed to $1.3 billion in the same period last year. Chairman and Chief Executive Michael J. Kowalski told reporters that he had received encouraging responses from customers to the new range of products and equally encouraging results from their new shops. He expects an increase in sales during the holiday sales, and further favourable results in international markets and improvement in directing marketing sales.