Signet rebounds in Q3, but warns about holiday

Signet Jewelers Ltd. sparkled in its third quarter amid strong digital and physical store growth.

The parent company of Zale’s, Kay Jewelers, Piercing Pagoda and other banners reported that its revenue rose 9.5% to $1.3 billion for the quarter ending Oct. 31.

Total same-store sales were up 15.1%. e-commerce sales were $238.8 million, up 71.4%. Brick- and-mortar same-store sales increased 6.8%.

Signet noted that through Nov. 30, its same-store sales were up about 3%. But it warned that since its strongest holiday weeks have historically been the two weeks prior to Christmas, same-store sales could be negatively impacted in December as a result of weaker retail store traffic trends amid COVID-related social distancing capacity constraints and store closures due to virus trends.  As such, the company said it believes COVID-related issues will have a more significant negative effect in December versus November. 

Net income totaled about $900,000, or $0.2 a share, compared to a loss of $43.7 million, or $0.84 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to $0.11.  Both earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations.

On a conference call with analysts, CEO Gina Drosos attributed the strong quarterly performance to the company’s embrace of omnichannel, as well as “product innovation and newness.” Additionally, the third-quarter growth may have been driven by pent-up demand from the second quarter during pandemic store closures. 

Signet Jewelers Limited is the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry. Signet operates approximately 3,200 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples and Piercing Pagoda.