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Signet Expects a Full Recovery in Bridal by 2027

April 20, 2023  |  Anthony DeMarco

Signet Jewelers has set an ambitious goal of up to $10 billion in annual revenue within five years, primarily through a reemergence of bridal-jewelry sales. The Akron, Ohio-based retail jeweler reported total sales of $7.8 billion at the end of fiscal year 2023.

With the number of engagements increasing after substantially falling during the Covid-19 pandemic, Signet’s diversified brand portfolio is in an excellent position to capture this category, according to its CEO, Virginia Drosos.

“We’ve been anticipating this coming tailwind and investing to make sure we capture disproportionate growth as engagements return,” Drosos said Tuesday at Signet’s Investor Day meeting, which took place in New York. “We expect this to drive significant upside in our business in the coming years because the category will need to grow approximately 25% by calendar year 2026 just to return to prior engagement levels. This is especially valuable to signet because bridal is intentionally and strategically an overdeveloped part of our mix. [Some] 50% of Signet’s merchandise sale [is] in bridal compared with 20% for the jewelry category.”

The bridal market’s recovery is expected to deliver up to “$600 million in growth over the next several years” for Signet, Drosos added.

Drosos touted Signet’s collection of jewelry brands in the US and UK — which the company refers to as “banners” — as providing an edge over its competitors.

“It’s key to our ability to pivot and take advantage of where we anticipate the market is moving,” she said.

Because of this diversity, Drosos anticipates growth for Signet in several areas of its operations. Its accessible-luxury banners — which include Kay Jewelers, Jared, James Allen, Blue Nile and Diamonds Direct — are expected to deliver more than $1 billion in growth over the next five years, “supported by bridal and real estate expansion,” she said.

The company is also expanding the services it offers. Because of this, its business-services operation is expected to grow by up to $500 million during the five-year period, with nearly 50% of that coming from its repair business.

The company is improving its digital and data-collection operations, which is already showing results, Drosos continued. “Personalized marketing investments are expected to deliver another $450 million across all banners [in five years] as we achieve and activate our customer-data platform,” she said.

However, much of the focus was on Signet’s positioning to take advantage of the return of strong bridal jewelry sales.

“We’re very confident in the data that we have that indicated in advance of it happening that engagements would go through a trough period. That trough actually happened this fall,” she said. “We expect to see engagements begin to pick up in the fourth quarter, and then very strong growth next year [and] calendar [20]25. [We’ll still see] some sustained oversized growth in 2026. Then back to normal trends in ’27…. In terms of revenue, that’s over a half-billion [dollar] opportunity for us.”

There’s an opportunity for Signet to gain market share as well, Drosos observed. Currently, Signet’s banners have a 30% share of the bridal market.

“We’ve invested to get to that share because it is a launching point for lifetime value,” she elaborated.

This includes future gifting and fashion purchases and then having customers invest in the new loyalty program Signet has launched for its Jared, Kay and Zales brands. Within a year, those three banners have gained more than 2 million loyalty members, with a goal of achieving 10 million subscribers.

“Loyalty is a huge enabler for us, but it’s brand new,” she said. “We know that our loyalty customers are significantly more likely to repurchase, to engage with us online as well as in store, so we think the loyalty program has significant promise.”

Main image: A Kay Jewelers store in Peabody, Massachusetts. (Shutterstock)

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Signet Expects a Full Recovery in Bridal by 2027

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