Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) reported Tuesday that net sales for the holiday shopping period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 25 increase by 26 percent to record levels, it was announced by William R. Chaney, discount Tiffany Set.The sales gains, compared with the same period in 1988, in each of Tiffany's three channels of distribution were as follows: U.S. retail sales increased 7 percent; direct marketing sales rose 17 percent, reflecting strong performance both in Tiffany's corporate and catalog businesses; and international retail sales gained 170 percent, resulting from continued strong sales to consumers in the Far East and Europe, (Results are based on preliminary, unaudited sales.)Chaney stated that "these fine results continue to confirm Tiffany's strategic advantage of being a geographically diversified company with multiple channels of distribution. We are most gratified with our growing success in serving discriminating consumers around the world.""As we enter a new decade, we are especially excited about Tiffany's many opportunities for continued expansion in both new and existing markets in the United States, the Far East and Europe," Chaney added."Our plans for 1990 include new full-line Tiffany stores in the Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia markets, a boutique in the new Taj Mahal Resort in Atlantic City, and a relocation and expansion of our Beverly Hills store."We also look forward to discount Tiffany Watch an expanded client base of U.S. corporations and increasing our distribution of Selections catalogs through our Direct Marketing activities."Internationally, we plan to expand our market opportunities in the Far East and Europe through Tiffany stores and boutiques, and will increase the size our Zurich store."Tiffany merchandise offerings include an extensive selection of fine jewelry, sterling silverware, china, crystal, watches, clocks, stationery, leather goods, scarves and fragrance.
In addition to its flaship New York store, Tiffany operates retail stores in Atlanta, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Dallas, Houston and San Francisco.Exclusive Tiffany merchandise is also offered through a select group of prestigious jewelers and specialty retailers in other cities. Direct Marketing is carried out through the corporate division and the Tiffany Selections catalog.International retail sales are made through Mitsukoshi department stores and a wholesale distributor in Japan, the Tiffany stores in London, Munich, Zurich and Hong Kong, and through Faraone tiffany in Milan and Florence.Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) has purchased a significant interest in Faraone S.p.A., one of Italy's most prestigious jewelers. In addition to its flagship store in Milan, Faraone operates a retail store in Florence.William R. Chaney, chairman of Tiffany said, "We view this venture as a unique opportunity to introduce Tiffany merchandise in the Italian market. Both Tiffany and Faraone have several complementary channels of distribution which will provide synergistic opportunities. This represents a marriage of two great companies.""Faraone provides Tiffany with an important presence in Italy where a strong consumer awareness of Tiffany already exists," Chaney continued."In Faraone, we have a well-established, highly regarded jeweler with an outstanding reputation. Faraone stores will now also offer a selection of Tiffany merchandise."
Chaney added, "This relationship provides Tiffany with retail stores in Italy's most exclusive shopping areas, located on Via Montenapoleone in Milan and on Via Tornabuoni in Florence. In addition, Faraone provides Tiffany with existing wholesale trade and corporate businesses and jewelry manufacturing capabilities."Commenting on the agreement, Cesare Settepassi, managing director of Faraone said, "I am extremely pleased with this new relationship with Tiffany & Co. The 45-year heritage of Faraone will continue and our future opportunities will be enhanced by Tiffany's financial cheap Tiffany Bangle and its worldwide reputation." Settepassi added, "Tiffany is more than 150 years old, and like Faraone, is a uniquely prestigious jeweler."Under terms of the agreement, Faraone management will retain an ownership position in the company and Settepassi will continue to operate the stores under the Faraone name.Tiffany merchandise offerings include an extensive selection of fine jewelry, sterling silverware, china, crystal, watches, clocks, stationery, leather goods, scarves and fragrance.In addition to its flagship New York store, Tiffany operates retail stores in Atlanta, Beverly Hills, Calif., Boston, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Calif., Dallas, Houston and San Francisco.Exclusive Tiffany merchandise is also offered through a select group of prestigious jewelers and specialty retailers in other cities.
A president's first year in office is often a time for learning. The harshest lessons are beginners' mistakes, like the Bay of Pigs fiasco for JFK. The real key is to figure out how to Tiffany Set for sale the prestige of the office to get things done: when to conserve your political capital, and when and how to spend it. Judging from Obama's campaign, which revolutionized politics with its ability to tap grassroots networks of donors and activists, many expected President Obama to go over the heads of Congress and mobilize popular passions to achieve his top priorities. But on what may be his signature issue, that wasn't really the case.Obama came close to prematurely ending his effectiveness as president before finally pulling out the stops. In the last push for the health-care bill, he reminded voters of Obama the candidate, fiery and full of hope. But during the health-reform bill's long slog up and around Capitol Hill, Obama was a strangely passive figure. He sometimes seemed more peeved than engaged. His backers naturally wondered why he seemed to abandon the field to the tea partiers. The answer may be that at some level he just doesn't like politics, not the way Bill Clinton or LBJ or a "happy warrior" like Hubert Humphrey thrived on the press of flesh, the backroom deal, and the roar of the crowd. That doesn't mean Obama can't thrive or be successful-even Richard Nixon Tiffany Watch for sale elected to two terms. But it does mean that the country is run by what New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wryly called "the conquering professor"-a president who leads more from the head than the heart, who often relies more on listening than preaching.
Obama entered politics as a community organizer, and as a presidential candidate he oversaw an operation that brilliantly organized from the ground up. So it was a puzzle to Marshall Ganz, a longtime community organizer, that Obama seemed to neglect the basic rule of a grassroots organizer: to mobilize and, if necessary, polarize your popular base against a common enemy. Instead, President Obama seemed to withdraw and seek not to offend while Congress squabbled. "It was a curiously passive strategy," says Ganz, who worked for 16 years with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and now teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School. In a way, he says, Obama's "fear of a small conflict made a big conflict inevitable."The health-care battle "was a tiffany near-death experience for the president and congressional leaders," says Bill Galston, formerly Clinton's domestic adviser and now an old Washington hand at the Brookings Institution. Galston describes Obama's style as "drift and mastery." He recalls early in Obama's presidential campaign, in the summer of 2007, when the candidate seemed oddly inert as he dropped in the polls. Then he perfected a rousing stump speech, just in time for the run-up to the Iowa caucuses. Obama, says Galston, seems to have his own "inner gyroscope," but he also shows a distaste for the messy business of governing in fractious Washington. "He has something approaching contempt for the hyperreactional government in Washington, where people pay way too much attention to the crisis of the moment," says Galston.
The president doesn't have all that much use for the niceties of international diplomacy, either. Early in his term, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke of renewing the "special relationship" between Britain and the U.S. When he came calling in Washington in the winter of 2009, Brown brought a penholder crafted from the timbers of a 19th-century British ship that blockaded the African slave trade. Obama's Oval Office desk is made from the timbers of a Tiffany Bangle ship. In return, Obama gave Brown a lame gift of some Hollywood DVDs and blew him off without a dinner or press conference. Brown has stayed miffed. More recently, Obama has given the cold shoulder to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. That may have been more calculated-a rebuff intended to get Israel to act more in line with U.S. interests. One can imagine LBJ exercising the same manipulative disdain.
As an e-commerce leader, eBay has a responsibility to protect consumers and promote trust in its marketplace, Kowalski said. EBay knew that counterfeit merchandise was being sold on its site and Tiffany Bracelet sale took no effective steps to stop it. EBay deliberately misled consumers for profit and, unfortunately, the court has justified its actions. The consumer is the real loser today.Meanwhile, eBay general counsel Michael Jacobson said the opinion validated the San Jose, Calif.-based Web firm's anticounterfeiting efforts.We continue to support cooperation, rather than litigation, as the best way to address these issues in everyone's best interests and we remain confident that the one remaining issue in the case will be decided favorably on remand, Jacobson said.New York-based Tiffany first brought suit against the online marketplace in 2004. It alleged a majority of the Tiffany goods for sale on the site were counterfeit and that eBay was contributing to infringement by offering a venue for their sale. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan sided with eBay and dismissed the suit in July 2008 following a weeklong bench trial.An 11 percent increase in same-store sales helped Tiffany & Co.'s fourth-quarter earnings bounce back to the high end of its own projections, but the jewelry retailer fell short of Wall Street's expectations.In the three months ended Jan. 31, the New York-based firm logged net income of $140.4 million, or $1.10 a diluted share, more than Tiffany CuffLink sale the year-ago mark of $31.1 million, or 25 cents. The 2008 figure included charges for restructuring and other purposes which reduced EPS by 56 cents.Rising Sales Boost Earnings at TiffanyAn 11 percent increase in same-store sales helped Tiffany & Co.'s fourth-quarter earnings bounce back to the high end of its own projections, but the jewelry retailer fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
In the three months ended Jan. 31, the New York-based firm logged net income of $140.4 million, or $1.10 a diluted share, more than quadrupling the year-ago mark of $31.1 million, or 25 cents. The 2008 figure included charges for restructuring and other purposes which reduced EPS by 56 cents.The profit profile matched the high end of projections lifted by Tiffany when it reported a 17 percent increase in year-over-year holiday sales on Jan. 12, but EPS for continuing operations of $1.09 fell 4 cents short of the $1.13 analysts, on average, had expected. EPS for 2010 was projected at $2.45 to $2.50, 2 cents to 7 cents higher than the consensus estimate of analysts prior to the report.After spending much of the day in Tiffany Earring sale territory, shares closed at $47.41, up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, before turning lower in after-hours trading.Net sales rose 17.2 percent to $981.4 million from $837.6 million. As has often been the case among luxury retailers in recent months, revenues failed to match levels from the final quarter of 2008, when Tiffany registered $1.05 billion in net sales. Eliminating the positive effect of currency fluctuation, comparable-store sales rose 8 percent during the quarter, with U.S. comps up 11 percent and, adjusted for currency effects, Europe up 14 percent and Asia-Pacific up 3 percent as a 9 percent decline in Japan was more than offset by a 24 percent boom in other parts of the region.Net sales were up 14 percent in the Americas to $523.5 million, up 14 percent in Asia-Pacific to $318 million and up 29 percent in Europe to $311.8 million. Gross margin contracted to 58.7 percent of sales from 59.4 percent a year ago, principally because of increased wholesale trade in rough diamonds at little or no profit.
Mark Aron, vice president of investor relations, said on the company conference call that sales in the New York flagship rose 22 percent, and 19 percent in the New York territory, in the quarter. Although the flagship's volume was down 15 percent for the year, and its share of worldwide sales fell to 9 percent last year from 10 percent in 2008, sales per square foot finished at $5,500.Aron told WWD the company remains firm in its belief that the U.S. market could support 150 stores, versus the current count of 79 among its 220 total, and that its typical footprint moving forward will be about 3,700 square feet. We tested a 2,500-square-foot model that didn't have engagement jewelry, but we quickly learned that a Tiffany without engagement jewelry wasn't acceptable to our customers, he said.In the new year, the company plans 17 new stores six in the Tiffany Key Ring sale, eight in Asia-Pacific and three in Europe with five of the six North American stores in the U.S. Sales are expected to rise 11 percent.For the full year, net income expanded 20.4 percent to $264.8 million, or $2.11 a diluted share, from $220 million, or $1.74, in 2008. Net sales contracted 4.9 percent to $2.71 billion from $2.85 billion while comps were down 7 percent and off 8 percent at constant exchange rates. Comps were off 14 percent in the Americas, including a 15 percent drop in the U.S., and, adjusted for currency fluctuation, down 3 percent in Asia-Pacific, principally because of an 11 percent drop in Japan, and up 16 percent in Europe.The Going Green program really started five years ago when we opened the Manhattan cafeteria and people were saying, if you're opening this beautiful facility, we should make some 'green' changes," [John Dettori] says. "They ended up pushing all the right buttons and finally Tiffany's came in and made a tremendous