Johann Rupert's Richemont has delivered the kind of quarter that turns heads on the JSE. The luxury group behind Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati and Vhernier reported sales of €6.3 billion for the three months to June, up 20% at constant exchange rates and 17% at actual rates — nearly double what analysts had pencilled in. On Wednesday morning its Johannesburg-listed shares jumped 7.5% to about R3,969, the top performer on the bourse and roughly a fifth higher than a year ago.
Jewellery does the heavy lifting
The engine room was Richemont's four jewellery houses, where sales rose 24% at constant rates — a seventh straight quarter of double-digit growth. The gains were unusually broad, spread across every region, channel and brand. Wealthy American shoppers led the way, with sales in the Americas accelerating to +27% (€1.67 billion), while Japan surged 36% (€632 million) on a mix of local spending and tourism. Asia Pacific climbed 27% to €2.07 billion, helped by demand in China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan. Even the Middle East and Africa edged back into growth at +3% despite a conflict-driven drop in tourist spending, and Europe added 11% to €1.43 billion on strong demand from local shoppers and North American and Middle Eastern tourists. The steadier specialist-watch division grew 8%.
Why it matters for SA investors
Richemont is one of the JSE's heavyweight dual-listed names, so a 7.5% pop ripples straight through local portfolios, retirement funds and index trackers. The group is also sitting on a robust €9.1 billion cash pile — including a €0.4 billion inflow from selling its stake in travel retailer Avolta — which gives it room to keep investing in its brands even as raw-material costs stay stubbornly high against what the company itself calls a volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop. Its own-boutique retail channel grew 24% as the group leaned further into selling directly to shoppers rather than through wholesalers.
For now the message from the world's wealthy is unmistakable: they are still buying diamonds, gold and fine watches, and demand is broadening rather than narrowing. That is very good news for the house that Rupert chairs — and for the South African savers who, often without realising it, own a slice of it through their pension and index funds.
