American luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. said Thursday that sales in Japan in the February to April quarter plummeted 30 percent from a year earlier to $122 million amid a weakening yen and declining consumer spending.
In addition to the yen, which has fallen 12 percent against the dollar since last year, sales in Japan, normally higher than Europe, dropped sharply from a year ago, when customers rushed to make purchases before the first stage of the doubling of the consumption tax hike in April 2014, exacerbating the decline and leading to a "difficult year-over-year comparison," the company said.
"In last year's first quarter, we achieved 30 percent (comparable) store sales growth in yen when customer demand surged in anticipation of a consumption tax increase on April 1," Tiffany Chief Financial Officer Ralph Nicoletti said on an investor conference call, noting that same-store sales were down 24 percent in yen terms in this year's quarter.