5 Things to Know About Pandora’s Latest Results

Copenhagen, Denmark—Pandora ended its fiscal year on a high note, reporting growth in its fourth quarter and for the full year following a strong holiday season.

In its report on its full-year results, released Wednesday, the company delved into its holiday performance, lab-grown diamond sales, expansion plans, and its outlook for the year ahead.

Here are five key takeaways from the report.

Pandora had a good year.
Fourth-quarter revenue was up 10 percent year-over-year at actual exchange rates to 10.82 billion Danish kroner ($1.56 billion). It reported organic sales growth (excluding the impact of currency fluctuations) of 12 percent year-over-year, with like-for-like growth of 9 percent.

For the full year, revenue totaled 28.14 billion Danish kroner ($4.06 billion) at actual exchange rates.

Organic sales growth was 8 percent, above its guidance of 5 to 6 percent.

Like-for-like sales were up 6 percent.

Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said, “We are very pleased with how we ended 2023 with strong trading across the holiday season.”

He touted the success of Pandora’s ongoing turnaround plan, dubbed “Phoenix,” even amid a “challenging” retail environment.

“Looking back at the past two years since we launched the Phoenix growth strategy, we are proud of how our strategic initiatives have come together to consistently drive strong results despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop.”

Sales in the United States were up 13 percent at actual exchange rates in Q4 (15 percent at organic growth rates), accounting for 29 percent of the company’s total revenue.

For the full year, U.S. sales were up 5 percent at actual and organic growth rates, accounting for 30 percent of revenue.

A new campaign bolstered its holiday sales.
Pandora noted “solid growth” across geographies and collections, highlighting its new holiday campaign, “Loves, Unboxed,” as a primary growth driver.

It credited the campaign for driving an increase in traffic for Black Friday and Christmas.

Throughout the holiday season, Pandora ran the campaign on social media, noting particular interest in its tennis bracelets.

The campaign was accompanied by a special holiday “unboxing” event at the Sphere in Las Vegas and Pandora’s sponsorship of the British Fashion Awards in December.

Pandora recently launched a new campaign, “Be Love,” starring brand ambassadors Selma Blair and Chloe and Halle Bailey.

Its lab-grown diamond sales are climbing.
Pandora’s lab-grown diamonds were especially popular in Q4 with sales up 40 percent year-over-year. 

For the full year, sales grew 24 percent.

Pandora now has four lab-grown diamond collections available in more than 70 stores in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. 

Pandora said North America continued to account for the largest proportion of lab-grown diamond jewelry sales. Rings were the top-performing category, accounting for nearly half of all sales in Q4.

“Pandora will continue to optimize execution and take learnings going forward as it looks to be the go-to destination for lab-grown diamonds,” the company said.

Its other collections posted growth as well.

Pandora’s core segment, which includes its “Moments” and “Me” collections, as well as its collaborations, saw sales up 5 percent in the quarter and 4 percent for the year.

Its “fuel with more” segment, which includes its lab-grown diamond jewelry as well as its “Timeless” and “Signature” collections, saw sales up 26 percent in the quarter and 17 percent for the year.

Pandora’s store network expansion continues.
In Q4, the company opened 72 concept stores and 69 Pandora-owned shop-in-shops.

For the full year, net openings totaled 109 concept stores and 114 Pandora owned shop-in-shops.

“The net concept store openings have been relatively broad-based, mainly across the Americas and Europe, while the openings of Pandora owned shop-in-shops have been concentrated around Latin America,” the company said.

Looking to the year ahead, Pandora plans to open 75 to 125 net concept stores and 25 to 50 shop-in-shops.

It’s continuing to roll out its new store concept, Evoke 2.0, which incorporates a simplified layout and centers around personalization, including engraving services.

The company began testing the new store concept in late 2021 in Milan and London.

In 2023, Pandora opened 55 Evoke 2.0 stores, including refurbishments, and will scale up the rollout this year.

The company hopes 60 percent of its company-owned stores will be updated to Evoke 2.0 by 2026.

Pandora operated 2,651 concept stores as of Q4 as well as 4,035 other points of sale, including 578 owned by Pandora.

The company is uncertain how 2024 will play out.
Looking to the year ahead, Pandora expressed cautious optimism.

“The economic outlook for 2024 continues to remain uncertain,” said the company. “Continued inflation and still-high interest rates suggest another challenging backdrop for consumers across many markets.”

However, it plans to carry on with its Phoenix strategy and is aiming for growth in the year ahead.

The company is forecasting organic growth of 6 to 9 percent in 2024, with the low end of the guidance accounting for a potential decline in macroeconomic conditions, and an EBIT margin of around 25 percent.

Pandora is scheduled to report its interim first-quarter results on May 2.