Tiffany & Co, a retailer of fine jewellery, crystal and china, announced recently that first quarter 2005 earnings increased 9% from 2004, as strong US sales helped offset weakness in Japan. Net income increased to US$40.1M for the three months ended 30 April/05, from US$36.8M a year earlier. Sales rose 12% to US$509.9M ($457). Excluding the translation effect from a weaker US dollar, net sales rose 11% and worldwide same-store sales were up 4% Gross margin declined to 53.9% in the first quarter 2005 from 56.7% in the previous year, mainly due to changes in geographic ad product sales mix, as well as higher product costs. Tiffany is targetting full year sales growth of 8% to 10% including annual same-store sales growth in a mid-to-high single-digit range in the US and in a low-single-digit range in Japan.
