Hermès shows off good results

Especially
strong retail sales

Hermès especially had strong sales in its shops. At constant exchange rates sales rose
by 16.7%. In wholesale sales for the company went up by 12.9%.

The growth
was also visible on a wide geographic scale. At constant rates sales in its home
country went up 13%, in the rest of Europe 14%. In Asia (excluding Japan) the
rise was even bigger at 17%, the same result as both Americas.

Only Japan
lagged behind a bit, with a progress of about 8%. All in all 812 million euro
of sales came from Asia, on a total of 1.8 billion euro for Hermès.

Bigger
demand than offer

The good
results were also present in almost all product groups. Only for wristwatches there
was a small decline of 1%, in accordance with the rest of that market. This was
all because of disappointing results in the first trimester. Between early
April and end of June sales grew by 3%.

The branch
of leather goods grew by 10%, but that could have been more, because production
capacity had to be limited. The company is therefore opening two extra
factories for artisanal products in Franche-Comté. The perfume department grew
by 20%, jewellery by no less than 40%.

Year
forecast: +10%

On 30
August Hermès will announce the financial results for the first six months of
the year. They will probably rise slightly more than sales.

For the
complete year 2013 the company is expecting sales to grow slightly more than
the target of 10% the company has set on a medium term. The operational
margin will probably come close to the historical heights of 2012.