French luxury group Kering reported steady recovery in its jewellery business in the third quarter of 2020, with high jeweller Boucheron leading the growth. 

According to the conglomerate, its jewellery houses “held up well,” buoyed by Boucheron’s solid performance in Asia Pacific and Qeelin’s growing success. Watch manufactures, who were hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis, are looking at an "encouraging" retail business and focusing on prime distribution.

“Jewellery (is) recovering despite significant exposure to Western Europe and Japan. Boucheron (delivered) high growth in APAC led by Korea, Taiwan and successful store opening in Beijing,” noted the group.

Kering’s consolidated revenue in Q3 2020 was down 4.3 per cent – a sharp rebound compared with the year-on-year contraction of 43.5 per cent in Q2 2020.

Revenues generated by the luxury houses’ directly operated stores are back to the third-quarter 2019 level, it continued.

Sharp growth was recorded in certain regions, notably North America (up 44.1 per cent), driven by a rebound in local demand, and Asia-Pacific (up 18.5 per cent), fuelled by momentum in China. Sales performances in Western Europe (down 41 per cent) and Japan (down 22 per cent) were still severely hampered by the halt in tourism, the company said.