Chloé, Alaïa and Dunhill owner Richemont has reported its results for Q3 — the all-important ‘Golden Quarter’ — with sales up by 4% on a reported basis to €5.593 billion, or 8% at constant exchange rates (CER).

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That was a slowdown at the end of the calendar year as sales over the nine-month period to the end of December increased by 5% (or 11% CER).

It was clear from the report that the luxury sector faces a number of ongoing challenges and the explosive growth of some previous periods is hard to come by. But it’s also very clear that even in a tough period, affluent consumers are still buying luxury fashion, handbags, watches and jewellery in large numbers.

The company said the quarter saw “a continued uncertain macro-economic and geopolitical environment” but it managed growth across most regions, primarily driven by Japan, Asia Pacific and the Americas. The latter’s growth is a good sign given how tough the Americas has been for luxury of late.

Channel performance was led by Retail, which was up 11% and 6% at constant and actual exchange rates, respectively, with increases across all business areas.

Its Jewellery Maisons continued to generate the strongest performance (up 6%, or 12% CER) with the very rich still in love with power brands like Cartier.

Digging deeper into the figures, by distribution channel this divided down into a jump of 11% (or +6% CER) at Retail, reaching €3.942 billion. Online Retail was down 5% (or -9% CER) at €356 million, while Wholesale & Royalty rose 4% to €1.295 billion. The company didn’t give a CER figure for the latter channel.

The Online figures don’t include Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP), even though the deal for Frafetch to take it on has fallen through. YNAP is still represented as ‘discontinued operations’ in the accounts and the company said it saw sales down 14% (or -11%CER) for both the three and nine months’ periods ended December, “in a continued challenging environment for pureplay online distributors”. It didn’t put a monetary value on those sales.

The 12% rise at the Jewellery Maisons translated into revenue of €3.952 billion, while specialist watchmakers rose 3% (but fell 1% CER) at €939 million. And the so-called Other channel, which takes in the group’s fashion and leathergoods operations was actually down 1% (or -4% CER) at €702 million.

Looking at the CER figure, Richemont said the Other segment’s performance was affected by lower wholesale and online retail sales, but these were “largely mitigated by mid-single-digit growth in retail sales, markedly driven by the performance at Alaïa, Delvaux, Dunhill and Peter Millar”.

Americans stay home

Overall sales in Europe were down 3% (or -4% CER) at €1.226 billion, as higher sales to Chinese and domestic shoppers failed to compensate for an overall reduction in tourist spending, “notably from Americas-resident clients”.

Asia-Pacific Rose 13% (or +8% CER) to €2.49 billion. This was fuelled by a 25% sales increase in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau combined, on favourable comparatives against the prior-year period, more than offsetting softer performance in several other Asian markets.

The Americas rose 8% (or +3% CER) to reach €1.355 billion, Europe’s woes helped the increase in the Americas as shoppers stayed home and the rise was “driven by a resilient economy and lower purchases abroad by domestic clientele, notably in Europe”.

Meanwhile Japan jumped 18% (or +8% CER) at €514 million, helped by growing domestic sales and strong tourist spending, “notably from Chinese clients, somewhat favoured by a weakened yen”.

Finally, the Middle East and Africa was up a healthy 10% (or +5% CER) at €449 million, supported by both robust local and tourist demand in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.