Swarovski-CEO Alexis Nasard sees the Tyrolean crystal group back on the right track following several challenging years. The year 2023 was characterized by “solid growth” – despite a slowing luxury market and a volatile geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, he said at a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday. Sales remained stable at 1.83 billion euros in the previous year.
Earnings before taxes and interest (EBIT) before restructuring costs were positive once more for the first time since 2019, despite significant negative currency effects. Organic growth and significant cost savings contributed to this. The company does not publish specific profit or loss figures. Just this much: “We still face some challenges, but we are on the right track,” said Nasard. The restructuring process is expected to be completed in two years.
The most important sales markets for Swarovski are the USA and China. The USA accounted for 20 percent of sales and China 13 percent. Both markets performed well. Like-for-like sales in the USA rose by five percent in 2023 and by twelve percent in China. However, the situation in China is not yet stable because there is a crisis of confidence among Chinese consumers. In general, the development of the entire luxury industry is somewhat more difficult to predict than in the past, says Nasard.
The number of Chinese tourists is also not yet at the pre-crisis level of 2019. For Swarovski In Austria, tourists are an important group of buyers. Instead, the company is seeing more European tourism and much more tourism from the USA and India.
Large-scale layoffs
The withdrawal from Russia in 2023 had “minimal impact” on the result as it was for Swarovski It wasn’t a very big business there and most of the stores were operated by third parties anyway. “The costs for the withdrawal were manageable and we are glad we did it.”
The crystal company had been confronted with severe turbulence in recent years. On the one hand, this affected the group management as well as the economic situation, not least due to the corona crisis. Former boss Robert Buchbauer initiated a restructuring of the group – including large-scale layoffs in Wattens – with which part of the family clan did not agree. An arbitration tribunal ultimately ruled that the structural reform was illegal and had to be reversed. For the first time in 2022, a person from outside the family, Nasard, took over management of the company.
Currently busy Swarovski According to its own information, there are around 16,600 employees worldwide, and in Wattens there are around 3,000. There are currently no concrete plans to reduce the number of employees, but it cannot be ruled out, says Nasard. The crystal manufacturer is represented in over 150 countries with around 2,300 stores and 6,600 sales points. Compared to the pre-corona period, there was a 25 percent decline in stores.
