Reporter | Zhou Fangying
Edit | Lou Shuqin
1
Recently, Danish jewelry brand PANDORA Pandora disclosed unaudited preliminary financial results for fiscal 2021. Driven by strong U.S. markets, Pandora's fourth quarter and full year 2021 results hit record highs.
Pandora's full-year 2021 results increased by 23% year-on-year to DKK 23.4 billion (approximately RMB22.7 billion), and fourth-quarter revenue increased by 10% year-on-year to DKK 9 billion .7 billion.
Previously, in the third quarter earnings report, Pandora had raised the full-year growth forecast to 18% to 20%, and expected the overall revenue to be between DKK 22.4 billion and 22.8 billion. However, from the current preliminary financial report data, Pandora's overall performance recovery is better than expected.
According to Reuters, Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said in a statement: "We are very happy with the results for 2021. Pandora has returned to growth and achieved unprecedented high incomes. Even more encouraging is the widespread growth we are seeing. ”
By region, the United States is a key growth market for Pandora. U.S. revenue increased 18% year-on-year to DKK 2.5 billion in the fourth quarter and 58% year-on-year to DKK 7 billion. The European market, represented by Italy and Germany, also had double-digit growth for the full year.
The Chinese market, which was once pinned high hopes on by Pandora, suffered heavy losses. The fourth quarter and full year results of the Chinese market fell by 36% and 13%, respectively.
Pandora said in the earnings report that there are still a low single-digit percentage of physical stores in the state of temporary closure during the fourth quarter of 2021. In addition, physical stores in many markets are also negatively affected by other restrictions, especially in China.
Image source: Pandora WeChat public account
At the "Capital Markets Day" event held in September 2021, Pandora said that the long-term goal is to triple the revenue of the Chinese market and double the US market on the basis of the 2019 performance. Lacik also stated that "our goal is to become the largest and most popular brand in the light luxury jewelry market." ”
However, as early as the 2020 annual report, Pandora pointed out that there are still "structural challenges" in the Chinese market, and predicted that in 2021, the revenue of the Chinese market will still be difficult to recover to the level of 2019. In the third quarter performance report memorandum, Pandora once again stressed that the sales performance of the Chinese market in fiscal 2021 will remain sluggish.
There is no doubt that Pandora was the most successful brand in China's light luxury jewelry market. Since entering China in 2015, Pandora, which has expanded aggressively, has reached more than 240 stores in just four years. But so far, Pandora's stores in China have shrunk, leaving only 215 stores.
In addition, Pandora, after the beading trend, did not develop a new product with more memory points. Lacik mentioned in the fiscal second quarter conference call that Pandora is regarded as a "full range of jewelers" in the Chinese market that is not special. Even the "Moments series", which is popular in other markets, has not been successful in China, and its collection concept has not been accepted by consumers.
In the above-mentioned earnings report, Pandora mentioned attracting the favor of young consumers of "Generation Z" and "millennials". In fact, pandora's marketing methods that follow the trend of youth can indeed be seen in the urgency of self-help.
Image source: Pandora Weibo
Pandora officially announced young actor Song Zu'er as the new spokesperson at the beginning of 2022. In the past year, Pandora has successively used several stars such as actor Xu Guanghan and singer Liu Yuxin to cooperate with product marketing. In addition, at such an important holiday marketing point as the New Year, Pandora also invited several talk show actors under Xiaoguo Culture who had aroused heated discussion on the Internet to shoot the New Year series of advertisements.
However, Pandora, who lacks a memory point, is facing competitors who are also increasing their investment in China's light luxury jewelry market. Interface Fashion has reported that light luxury jewelry brand APM Monaco has submitted a listing application to the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the Chinese mainland market accounts for more than half of the total revenue. Austrian raymondska and jewelry brand Swarovski has also launched a new flagship store concept in China in order to accelerate the transformation strategy of high-end and youthfulness.