Richemont results: Cartier owner's sales up 17% as jewellery grows 19%

Richemont, the Swiss group that owns Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, reported on Friday, 13 November 2026, that its sales rose 17% at constant exchange rates to €12.28 billion in the six months to 30 September 2026, led by its jewellery houses, whose sales grew 19%. Operating profit rose 33% to about €3.1 billion, and net profit rose to €2.53 billion from €1.81 billion a year earlier, according to the company's results and reports of them. Sales in the second quarter alone rose 13%.

Richemont's results show one part of the luxury market growing strongly: high-end jewellery. The group's jewellery houses, led by Cartier, grew sales by close to a fifth, faster than the group as a whole.

The results also show how much the business now leans on those houses. Its specialist watchmakers grew more slowly. And the shift towards selling directly to customers, through Richemont's own boutiques and websites rather than through department stores and wholesalers, continued: more than three of every four euros of sales now come through the company's own channels. That gives brands more control over pricing and the customer experience, which is a central theme in how the fashion and luxury industry is changing.

There was one pressure point, and the company's regional picture was uneven: it said growth was led by the Americas and Japan. High gold prices raise the cost of making jewellery, and a report on the results said gold costs weighed on the underlying gross margin, the share of sales left after the cost of goods. For readers in India, where gold prices are watched closely by households and jewellers, this is the same force seen from the side of a global luxury maker.

The story is also one of enterprise. Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and the smaller Italian houses Buccellati and Vhernier are design-led businesses where craftsmanship, brand and retail experience drive profit, the same mix that Indian jewellery and fashion labels are trying to build at home and abroad.

Peepals calculation: Net profit rose about 40% (2.53 ÷ 1.81 ≈ 1.40), faster than sales at 17%. The jewellery houses' operating result rose about 28% (3.2 ÷ 2.5 = 1.28). And because the jewellery houses' operating result of €3.2 billion was larger than the group's total operating profit of about €3.1 billion, the rest of the group, taken together with central costs, reduced profit by roughly €0.1 billion. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The results confirm that demand for top-end jewellery stayed strong through September 2026, even as the wider luxury market stayed uneven.

Long-term: Richemont's dependence on its jewellery houses, and on gold, means its profits are increasingly tied to the price of the metal and to the appetite of wealthy buyers in the Americas and Japan.

Who is affected: Richemont's shareholders and staff; jewellery and watch retailers; rival luxury groups; and craftspeople and suppliers who work for high-end jewellery houses.

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