Watches of Switzerland Group plc

So morning everyone and welcome to the presentation of our results for fiscal year 24. Our agenda is an update from myself for the group, then David Hurley for the US, Craig Bolton for the UK, Anders Romberg our CFO will go through fiscal year 24 results and fiscal year 25 guidance. I will then present an update on our 25-28 long-range plan and we will then open for your questions. The Watches of Switzerland group operates in great product categories. The luxury watch market, which is more than 90% Swiss, is robust, resilient, with a long-term focus on product quality and innovation. Demand for Swiss luxury watches exceeds supply for key brands, and consumers often wait patiently for their chosen timepiece, in many cases for years. The market was impacted by the pandemic. 2020 was impacted by lockdowns. Then two years of unusually high growth for luxury watches and jewellery. And since mid-2022, the markets have adjusted to this high growth and normalised. Looking at this volatile period in total, the luxury watch market has been strong, as seen with average growth for the UK of 6.3% compounded per annum from 2019, and that is despite the loss of tourism in the UK. And in the US, average market growth has been 14.6%, evidencing the underdevelopment and potential of this market. A further significant factor in the UK in FY24 has been the impact of cumulative price increases from the brands, due mainly to the strong Swiss franc, at a time of high interest rates and cost inflation. This resulted in a perceived affordability gap and a drop in volume with the aspirational consumer segment. We are encouraged that brands have responded to this development through product introductions with product affordability and product appeal. The Watches of Switzerland model focusing on large, welcoming, luxury showrooms and great client service continues to succeed and we gain market share in both the US and UK markets. We are very positive about the prospects for the Roberto Queen brand in North America. Market reaction to our acquisition has been very positive and we see great growth potential with existing partners and new opportunities through monobrands and multibrand showroom elevations. The pre-owned sector development has been very positive for our group, and both the Rolex CPO program and other pre-owned products are exceeding our sales expectations. We have a fantastic program of major showroom projects, both in the US and UK, as David and Craig will present. And we're pleased to confirm both our guidance for fiscal year 25 and our fiscal year 28 long-term target of doubling sales and increasing profitability. In fiscal year 24, the U.S. division increased to 45% of group sales, and if we add the sales for Roberto Coen for calendar 23, the U.S. sales would represent 49% of the group. The major change in customer mix of our sales since 2019 has been the loss of international tourist business in the UK due to the removal of VAT-free tourist shopping. Group sales in fiscal year 24 were 95% domestic UK-US. We continue to believe that VAT-free tourist shopping will inevitably return but we have not included this in our future financial plans. Fiscal 24 group sales of the top 8 brands shown here continue to represent 77% of total sales. Luxury jewellery was 7% of sales in FY24, but if we include pro-former Roberto Coen using calendar 23 sales, this would increase to 14%. Pre-owned has been great for our group, particularly since the launch last year of Rolex CPO. We have expanded procurement in the UK and US, and we have good and improving processes with Rolex for authentication and servicing. Consumer response to the availability of highly sought-after pieces, albeit at premium prices, has been excellent. ASP for CPO is very good. We have expanded our major watch service centres in the US in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and in the UK in Manchester, and we have opened a further facility in Leicester. This is in response to increased servicing demand and to support the capacity for the increasing pre-owned businesses. Luxury jewellery will play a major role in our further expansion plans. We feel both super positive for the growth prospects of Roberta Cohen in North America and we look forward to the opening of our new concept of a multi-brand luxury jewellery showroom in Manchester next spring. If, and as we expect, this is successful, we will expand the concept in the UK and US. This is not currently reflected in our plans. In fiscal year 24, we stepped up our client engagement activities through increased client events, expanding our virtual boutiques, UK and US, servicing clients digitally, and we completed our exclusive partnership with American Express Centurion in the US. Our group continues to focus on our wider responsibilities towards our colleagues. We are proud to be a living wage employer in the UK and we continue to achieve high engagement scores with our more than 2,900 colleagues. Our planet, an ongoing focus for our group with internal dedicated resource, our MSCI rating is in fact triple A. And our communities, both in the UK and US, our foundation supports charities either who work to alleviate the impacts of poverty or educational charities such as the Princess Trust. Cumulatively, we have donated £7.5 million to the foundation since FY21. We achieved record levels of volunteering by our colleagues in FY24, and we have plans to further support volunteering programs in the future. I'll now pass over to David.

Thank you, Brian. We're happy with the continued growth in the U.S. market, going from $120 million in year one to just below $900 million last year. We've proven that we can acquire and integrate businesses successfully, open up highly profitable new showrooms in markets such as Cincinnati, where we had no presence, and expand into new product categories such as pre-owned. I'm very proud of our team's partnership with Rolex Uncertified Pre-Owned, where we were one of the founding partners. It launched early in FY24, but had been a collaborative project for most of the prior year. and we continue to innovate in marketing and partnerships. We are delighted that Amex Centurion selected us as their timepiece partner, given our shared goal to provide one-of-a-kind experiences and services for clients. We opened American Dream in May 23, anchored by Rolex, and with our largest Cartier espace. This showroom has performed beyond our expectations, and we believe this mall will only get stronger as the luxury area fills out. Balenciaga has just opened opposite us, and the Gucci adjacent showroom opens in the next few weeks. Our expanded and relocated Rolex boutique opened in Mall of Millennia in Orlando. Though we've more than doubled the size and added multiple seating areas, we still end up utilising all spaces. We'll go bigger again with our third Rolex boutique in Lenox, Atlanta. Lastly, we opened up our third multi-brand showroom in New York at the base of One Vanderbilt, with a first-of-its-kind new Cartier concept. It's also anchored by Omega and the first jewellery shopping shops for Masika and, of course, for Roberto Coyne. FY25 will be our biggest year yet for showroom projects. One of the highlights will be the Patek Philippe expansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Our first action post acquiring Betteridge was securing an additional 2,000 square feet adjacent to the current showroom. We are currently building this out to open in the fall with almost all of that space dedicated to Patek. In FY22 we acquired Timeless Jewelers in Legacy West in Plano, Texas. This year we will open up a new Watches of Switzerland showroom, adding Rolex as our anchor brand partner, alongside adding Cartier, and with expanded spaces for Omega and Tudor. So, at the start of FY25, we acquired the distribution rights for RobertoCoin in North America, something we had been working on for well over a year. Similar to our acquisition of Mayors, we're incredibly fortunate to inherit great dedicated teams with real expertise in their space. Brian and I have also enjoyed spending time with key RobertoCoin partners in North America and returning to our wholesale roots. And we plan to expand our branded jewellery category just like we expanded pre-owned through our acquisition of Analog Shift. The RobertoCoin brand continues to be led by its namesake founder and his family. It's located in Vincenza and Roberto is incredibly proud of the city's history in jewellery manufacture and his role in keeping that alive and enhancing it. At the heart of the brand's success is the product design itself, and we are delighted with our partner's positive reaction to the latest designs that were exhibited at the Couture Show in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago. And of course, Roberto signs each one of these pieces with a ruby cast inside the jewel in direct contact with the person who wears it. We're going to continue to support the momentum and growth of RobertoCoin through monobrands. We're already negotiating our first locations and we'll be taking possession of the first spaces later this fiscal year. And we're going to support online through using our expertise to both develop RobertoCoin.com and developing the Wholesale.com channel. Wholesale Partners will continue to be the bedrock of the RobertoCoin business, and we look to elevate that presence on an ongoing basis and do the same thing in our own showrooms, something that we've been working on for the last six months. We believe the high-end RobertoCoin collection can be a key growth category, and we're very excited about the potential in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. And we'll support all of this through increased brand marketing. I will now hand over to Craig Bolton to discuss the UK business.

Thanks David. I'd like to update you on the significant developments we have been delivering here in the UK. We have continued the rollout of our Goldsmiths luxury design across a number of key locations in FY24, most significant being Metro Centre Newcastle, Bullring Birmingham, Trafford Manchester and this amazing expansion in Liverpool. The image here shows the scale of the transformation as we expanded our new showroom to 6,500 square feet across two floors, anchored by significant spaces for Rolex and Cartier. We have also continued to launch luxury jewellery brands across the Goldsmith estate, with Foppe, Roberto Coyne, Masica, Pommelato, Fred, plus others all taking a leading role. We will continue to roll out the Goldsmiths luxury design in FY25, including our beautiful Northern Goldsmiths showroom in Newcastle, renowned for being the UK's first ever Rolex retailer back in 1919. In November 2023, we opened and relocated the expanded showroom in Trafford Centre, Manchester, currently our number one turnover Goldsmiths showroom. This relocation allowed us to retain the previous location and build out this joint Cartier space and Hublot boutique. Both brands are very different in aesthetic and are very complementary to each other. Early trading and client feedback has been excellent. Following the successful launch of our new map and web design, we have continued this rollout in FY24. We have relocated our Map & Web showroom in Blue Water Shopping Centre from a previous space of circa 2,000 square feet to this beautiful new showroom of over 5,000 square feet, accommodating a large Rolex and Cartier room plus significant branded areas for other key luxury watch brands alongside a new fine jewellery gallery. As well as Blue Water, we have also completed projects for Map & Web in York, Guernsey and Glasgow and plan to continue this rollout across the Mappin' and Webb estate. This continued very recently with the opening of our new Mappin' and Webb showroom in Moultrie's Walk, Edinburgh, the luxury shopping destination in the city. The showroom is anchored with a large space for Cartier, as well as branded areas for key luxury watch brands. The second floor has been designed to showcase luxury jewellery brands and our very own Mappin' and Webb jewellery. In our famous 155 showroom on Regent Street, we completed a redevelopment of the Burlington floor, culminating in the expansion and elevation of the Patek Philippe area. This new area is 1,300 square feet and benefits from luxurious consultation areas as well as a VIP space and dining room. Thierry Stern and Patek Senior Management visited in March and feedback was excellent. Across Watch the Switzerland, we continue to develop and expand our estate in FY24 and will continue to do so in FY25. Most significant being the expansion of the new Watch the Switzerland showroom in Fenchurch Street, London, opening November 2024. Work continues in building the new Rolex boutique on Old Bond Street, London. Completion is planned for March 2025 for this hugely exciting project. Once complete we will operate across four floors in circa 8,000 square feet and will include the first dedicated Rolex certified pre-owned floor as well as three floors dedicated to sales and hospitality and an after sales lounge home to six watchmakers and technicians. This boutique will be the single Rolex agency on Bond Street from what was previously four points of sale. We have also agreed with Rolex to double the size of our Rolex boutique on Buchanan Street, Glasgow. This hugely successful showroom has traded beyond expectations since opening in 2019 and now requires this expansion to allow us to service increased number of clients as well as introduce Rolex certified pre-owned in a dedicated space and create a quality after sales area with in-house watchmakers. This project will commence early 2025. As previously announced, we have agreed to enter into a joint venture with Audemars Piguet to open a townhouse in King Street, Manchester, and will be the only point of sale in the UK for Audemars Piguet outside of London. Across 6,500 square feet, the Grade 2 listed townhouse is being designed with the highest level of client experience in mind, offering dining facilities, VIP space, music lounge, and rooftop eventing space. The planned opening is Spring 2025. We will develop a first-of-its-kind Mapping & Web luxury jewellery showroom in St Anne's Square, Manchester. This Grade 2 listed building in the heart of luxury retailing in the city will be home to the most amazing selection of luxury jewellery brands, curated across 5,500 square feet of branded spaces, hospitality, bespoke and eventing space, including the first De Beers monobrand boutique outside of London. All of the brands listed here will also be exclusive to Mapping & Web in Manchester, giving us a real point of difference for our clients. The showroom is scheduled to open in Spring 2025. Following the acquisition of the 15 showrooms from Signet in November 2023, we have now fully rebadged and integrated these businesses and our new colleagues. These showrooms are very much in the space of luxury watches with great potential for growth in luxury jewellery too. All showrooms are in good geographical locations, complementary to our current estate. Showroom development commences in FY25 with the relocation and expansion of Peterborough, Milton Keynes and Kingston. Trading is in line with expectations with improving trends. Many thanks. I will now hand over to Anders to discuss the financials.