UK sales for LVMH Watch & Jewellery, which runs wholesale and retail operations for TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith, hit £99 million in 2017.
Annual turnover growth slowed to 6.3% after two years of double digit rises in 2015 (20%) and 2016 (30%). Operating profit for LVMH Watch & Jewellery UK rose by 15% to £11 million.
The figures do not include LVMH’s Bulgari luxury jewellery and watch business, which had sales of £66 million last year.
In a statement accompanying the 2017 accounts, Rob Diver, managing director of TAG Heuer UK and director of LVMH Watch & Jewellery UK, said that strong sell-out in all points of sale plus the successful launch of the TAG Heuer Connected watch contributed to the strong results.
The 2017 accounts include less than two months of sales from a TAG Heuer boutique that opened on London’s Oxford Street in November, but all of the costs of launching that store.
The cost of securing the site and the start of construction work for a Hublot store that opened this summer on London’s Bond Street will also have been a drag on profit in 2017.
Mr Diver told WatchPro in 2018 that the TAG Heuer boutique had broken even since opening, but the marketing impact made it a successful investment.
