Watch the Finacial Crisis
One of the largest merchants of high end wrist watches in the known world Ricmont has released a statement which discussed the fact that their profits are significantly down this year in comparison to last year.
The head of the Board appeared at an interview earlier this week to a huge group of journalists where he was quoted as saying that the firm in its current state would earn less than last year but had taken steps including a freeze on hiring as well as cutting the number of positions, so that the company would see out this exceptional financial crisis.
Many onlookers in Europe are hoping for a change in the financial mood before the end of the year, however retailers especially thos eof high end products like the Tonino Lamborghini chronographs are bracing themselves for a tough third and fourth quarter, although they will be pleased if they are wrong.
He never had any way to estimate any reversal in the US luxury watch market just yet and was unwilling to anticipate whether the financial crisis in Europe had really reach the bottom of the trough yet; he in fact suggested that the financial crisis was still in full swing, and could have a little bit more to give.
It has been suggested that the demand for the majority of costly watches has been hit very hard, although the Richemont brand isn’t showing the same signs of having been as dramatically effected as gravely as some of the brands in the Swiss watch market.
However the slack has been taken up by various other markets including the Chinese market which Richemont disclosed would be its one biggest market within three years; quite likely overtaking that of Japan.
Some have leveled the acusation that the company did not plan to take over or adopt any additional companies at the present moment as it is not a top priority, however Richemont could well afford some acquisitions thanks to its generous levels of liquidity of over 820 million at the end of March this year. These CEO also repeated that should more funds be required these could be easily accessed via the normal capital markets, and only this specific strategy is not a priority at present.