Editor’s Note
This article highlights a significant turnaround for luxury group Richemont, which posted strong 11% growth to close the year. While profitability remains under scrutiny, the performance signals a potential end to its recent period of underperformance relative to peers.
The luxury group significantly exceeded expectations with overall growth of 11% for the period from October to December. However, profitability remains a point of market focus.
The era when Richemont lagged behind other luxury groups seems well and truly over. The Swiss group, owner of the Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels brands, had regularly delivered disappointing publications in recent years.
The 2025 vintage clearly marked a turning point for the Swiss company. Its business performed much better than those of luxury groups oriented towards “soft luxury” (leather goods, clothing, as opposed to “hard luxury” which encompasses watchmaking and jewelry).
Jewelry, Richemont’s flagship niche, suffered much less than other luxury segments from the exclusion of aspirational customers (younger and less wealthy than traditional consumers).
For this year, many research firms (Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS, Oddo BHF) recommend favoring two stocks in luxury, including Richemont (the second stock is LVMH).
The Swiss group gave analysts reason to confirm their optimism this Thursday, January 15. The company reported its business from October to December 2025, a period corresponding to the third quarter of its 2025-2026 fiscal year.
In the last three months of 2025, Richemont generated 6.4 billion euros in revenue, translating to growth of 4% in published data and 11% in comparable data. The analyst consensus (average forecast) anticipated an increase of 8% in comparable data.
The jewelry division once again “shone brightly like a diamond,” notes Citi, citing Rihanna’s song. The division, which represents 75% of the group’s sales, posted growth of 14% in comparable data, while the consensus was at +10%.
Yet, despite this publication deemed sparkling, Richemont’s stock is falling on the Zurich Stock Exchange.
The stock is down 2.6% this Thursday around 11:40 AM, after opening up more than 2%.
Citi writes in its note that while forecasts should be adjusted upwards for revenue for the group’s current fiscal year, there is “potentially a need to review gross margin assumptions for the second half of the 2025-2026 fiscal year,” due to US tariffs and the rise in gold prices.
Deutsche Bank notes for its part that the current strength of gold prices “could have an impact on forecasts for the 2026-2027 fiscal year without price increases.”
Perhaps investors are also not that surprised by the Swiss group’s growth performance.
Indeed, Richemont beat the consensus of 10% with its 14% increase in jewelry, in comparable data. But, according to UBS, the “buy-sides” (to simplify, investors) expected a figure of at least 13% in this division.
It should be noted that the stock market punishment of Richemont seems to be spreading to the French luxury group. In Paris, Kering loses 3.5% and LVMH drops 2.1%. Hermès resists the trend (-0.22%).
