Tiffany & Co. reported sales growth of 5% year-on-year to $ 1.298 billion and an increase in sales in comparable stores by 2% for the fourth fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2014, reports Rapaport.
The cost of sales of jewelry retailer increased by 1.6% to $ 513 million. Tiffany & Co. registered a cost of $ 480 million due to lost legal proceedings, which led to a loss for the fourth quarter of $ 104 million compared to a profit of $ 180 million received a year earlier.
As a result of the financial year, Tiffany's revenues grew by 6.2% to $ 4,031 billion, sales in comparable stores increased by 3%, cost of sales - by 3.7% to $ 1.691 billion, and profit fell by 56.4% to $ 181 million, or $ 1.41 per share.
In the past financial year, sales in comparable Tiffany stores based on constant exchange rates showed an increase of 11% in the Asia-Pacific region, increased by 10% in Japan, 4% in Europe and 3% in America.
The gross margin of Tiffany & Co. as a percentage of net sales increased by 1.4 points to 60.5% in the fourth quarter and by 1.1 points to 58.1% - following the results of the financial year.
CEO of Tiffany & Co. Michael J. Kowalski said that the company's management is proud of the results achieved over the past year, as sales and operating revenues jumped to record levels; the main increase in sales fell on jewelry, including the collections of Atlas, Ziegfeld and Harmony; retail network of retailer replenished with 14 additional stores.