Tiffany & Co. reported an increase in revenues by 4.4% on a year-on-year basis to $ 925.9 million in the second fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2013, Rapaport reports. Sales in comparable stores around the world grew by 1%. The cost of sales showed an increase of 1.6% to $ 393.8 million, and gross profit as a percentage of sales increased to 57.5% compared to 56.3% in the same period last year, mainly due to a reduction in production costs goods. The profit of Tiffany for the reporting quarter jumped 16.3% to $ 106.8 million, or 83 cents per diluted share.
Dynamics of sales of Tiffany by region, taking into account constant exchange rates, is as follows: sales revenue in the Americas region grew by 2% to $ 444 million, sales in comparable stores remained stable. In the Asia-Pacific region, sales increased by 20% to $ 208 million, while sales in comparable stores increased by 13%, sales in Japan increased by 7% to $ 136 million. Meanwhile, sales revenue in Europe grew by 10% to $ 111 million with sales growth in comparable stores by 7%.
As of July 31, the volume of commodity stocks Tiffany & Co. was estimated at $ 2.3 billion, which is 4% higher than the corresponding figure a year earlier. The growth in finished goods stocks is explained by the need to provide goods with new stores and the expansion of the range, while the stocks of Tiffany's raw materials slightly decreased.
In the second quarter, Tiffany opened three new stores - in Hong Kong, Verona (Italy) and Villaermosa (Mexico), and closed the store in Tokyo (Japan). Currently, the retail chain Tiffany has 277 stores compared to 260 stores a year earlier.