Bucherer Holding Limited, the UK subsidiary of the Swiss-based international jewellery and watch retailer, saw sales bounce back to £93.1 million in 2021 after a dip in covid-affected 2020 when revenue dipped to £67.5 million.
Bucherer runs The Wonder Room for luxury watches in London’s Selfridges, a Rolex monobrand boutique in Knightsbridge and multibrand showrooms in Covent Garden and within the Westfield shopping centre in West London.
The Covent Garden showroom opened in April 2021, replacing a much smaller store a few doors away in the popular shopping and leisure destination.
The UK subsidiary of Bucherer returned to profit last year, generating a £0.9 million operating profit after 2020’s operating loss of £3.25 million.
For the sake of consistency, when WATCHPRO reports financial results for businesses in the UK, it has always used operating profit as a measure for all companies.
In the case of a multinational like Bucherer, it is arguably more useful to look at EBITDA, which shows underlying profits before the parent company takes its cut.
By this measure, Bucherer in the UK posted EBITDA before group management fees of £4.9 million in 2020 and £12.1 million in 2021.
With all of its stores located in Central London, Bucherer has been particularly exposed to a downturn in high-spending tourists to the capital and, potentially, the slow return of workers to their offices in 2021 and since.
It is worth remembering that all non-essential stores were forced to close in the first quarter of 2021.
“Management are pleased with the performance given the challenges faced at the start of 2021,” Bucherer says in its financial statement.
