retail
Customers are less likely to go to the jeweler – but buy more expensive
The industry is satisfied with the past year. But there is a problem that, in addition to specialist retailers, also hits the jewelry and watch industry.
Despite less customers, the German jewelers and clock businesses have implemented almost as much as in the previous year. The industry turnover dropped by 1.2 percent last year to 5.26 billion euros, as the BVJ industry association announced on the occasion of the jewelry fair Inhorgena in Munich. However, it still lies close to the two of the two previous years. After the pandemic, sales had made a strong jump around a fifth in 2022 and have been at this new level since then.
“We are relatively well compared to other industries,” says association president Stephan Lindner. “We had two fantastic years 2022 and 2023. This party could not go on endlessly.” The current light minus is just a blue eye. But the industry has a problem: sales are made by fewer and fewer customers, says Lindner. Your number is “not satisfactory”.
Average prices rise significantly
The average prices of the jewelry sold, on the other hand, rose significantly. This was among other things due to increasing raw material costs. “Gold and diamonds remain trendy, the material prices do not change that,” said Lindner. In the case of clocks, however, the demand for top models has calmed down a little, even if high-quality mechanics are still very popular with customers. In 2024, clocks in the specialist trade ensured 1.2 billion euros in sales. Jewelry was responsible for a good four billion euros.
The German jewelry and watch industry also gives relatively stable figures: the exports of jewelry, gold and silver goods fell slightly to 5.1 billion euros, but the watch exports increased slightly to 1.9 billion.
Gold price polishes the balance sheet
However, their industry association BVSU, based in Pforzheim, points out that, especially in the jewelry, the severely increased gold price “makes the results significantly nicer than that would be the case if the sales were still made with gold prices in 2023”. Here, too, there is the problem that the number of pieces sold has dropped. At least in part, according to BVSU, this also applies to the watch industry.
Overall, the situation in the industry has clouded over the past year. Consuming flakes in important international markets, inflation, a high wage level and especially the high gold price caused the factories.
dpa
Source: Stern
