Retail sales at Hong Kong-based jeweler Luk Fook soared in the third fiscal quarter as tourism recovered and the price of gold surged.
Sales grew 46% year on year for the three months that ended December 31, 2023, the company said last week. The rise comes on the back of a mounting revival in visitor traffic to the municipality since early last year, when the border reopened as the latest Covid-19 restrictions eased. Sales were up 40% compared to the same period of 2019, prior to the start of the pandemic.
“Following the complete reopening of borders among Hong Kong, Macau and [the] mainland, the Hong Kong and Macau market [has] shown a sustained recovery,” the company reported. “Despite an annual rise of over 14% in the average international gold price…[overall] same-store sales for gold products still displayed significant growth of 80%.”
In Hong Kong and Macau specifically, retail sales spiked 97%, with same-store sales — those at branches open for at least a year — gaining 80%. On the mainland, those figures increased 37% and 18% respectively.
Same-store sales of gold products jumped 94% in Hong Kong and Macau, as the rising price of gold led to higher-value transactions. In that category, fixed-price gold jewelry — as opposed to gold sold by weight — rose 88%, while diamond-set jewelry went up 25%.
In China, same-store sales of gold products advanced 22%. Fixed-priced gold jewelry was up 23%, somewhat offsetting a 35% drop in diamond-set jewelry.
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Main image: A Luk Fook store in Hong Kong. (Hpalsgm)
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