Turnover for Chisholm Hunter rose by 2.5% for the financial year ended March 31, 2018, with sales of jewellery and watches totalling £36.7 million.
Operating profit dropped by 8% to £2.5 million, although this was hit by a negative exchange rate swing of around £250,000 over 2017, without which profits would have been roughly flat over the prior year.
The group ended the year with the same number of stores, 24, as in 2017, but the number of staff dropped from 291 to 268 over the year.
“The directors are satisfied with the performance in the year,” Chisholm Hunter managing director Harry Brown states.
Chisholm Hunter has been continuously investing in improving its stores and reconfiguring its network so that showrooms occupy the best possible locations in shopping centres and other retail destinations.
The company has also been pushing upmarket with its portfolio of watches, particularly with Swatch Group brands.
In December the group said it had invested £2.5 million in the expansion and refurbishment of its Glasgow flagship and the opening of a double-sized store in Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre.
Bluewater is now described as one of Chisholm Hunter’s most prestigious stores thanks to a £1.5 million investment that has moved a former store that was not in a triple-A location to a prime spot in the shopping centre and a showroom that is double the size of the previous one.
An additional £1 million was spent refurbishing and expanding Chisholm Hunter’s original Argyll Arcade, Glasgow, flagship, which now occupies two floors and has added Swatch Group’s Breguet, Blancpain and Glashutte Original to its portfolio of prestigious watch brands. It continues to stock Parmigiani Fleurier and Bremont among other luxury marques.
The Bluewater Store may have doubled in size but it’s sparsely stocked and actually looks totally uninviting, it’s just all glittery and too bright, actually like a downmarket Swag. Kudos for stocking GS though