Watches of Switzerland Group plc

So good morning and thank you for joining our presentation of the final results of the Watch the Switzerland group for fiscal year 25. You'll be hearing firstly from me, Brian Duffy, CEO of the group, then David Hurley, President of North America and Deputy Group CEO, then Craig Bolton, President UK, and finally, last but not least, Anders Romberg, our Group CFO. I'll then have some closing remarks before opening the lines for your questions. In fiscal year 25, we achieved record sales of $1.652 billion. That was plus 8% in constant currency versus prior year. And we had a stronger second half gross, achieving plus 12%. Our US division passed an important milestone, achieving sales of over $1 billion in the fiscal year. Adjusted EBIT of £150 million was 12% ahead of last year, representing an improvement in profitability of 30 bps, and we ended with a decent balance sheet. Throughout the year, we continued with our strategy of investing for profitable growth through developing our showrooms. With new points of sale for Rolex in the US, in Jacksonville and Plano, Texas. The stunning new Rolex flagship boutique here in London and Old Bond Street. Expansion of Patek Philippe in Greenwich, Connecticut. And all in all, a total of 15 showroom projects for the group. and we have an exciting program of investment projects in fiscal year 26 and 27 that you'll see from david and craig's presentations we're delighted with the acquisitions of roberto coin inc and hedinki integrations are going very well and we've great prospects for those two businesses Pre-owned both Rolex CPO program and other brand CPO have performed very well exceeding our expectations. As we have presented previously, we see significant growth potential in the luxury branded jewellery sector, particularly through Roberto Coyne, but also with other luxury jewellery brands. We have relaunched our US websites through Shopify. Watches of Switzerland is up and running and performing very well. And Roberto Coyne and Mayers will go live in the coming weeks. We see really big opportunity in the online space in the US. The luxury watch market is unique and characterised by demand exceeding supply overall, long term price inflation due to high value commodity materials and Swiss Franc denominated production costs, strict management of brand image and distribution and a relentless focus from the brands on product quality and innovation. Following many years of low growth and underinvestment, the US market started to outpace other markets from 2019 and achieved an impressive compounded average growth rate from calendar 2019 through to 24 of plus 14% annually. This compares to a US CAGR growth of 24.7% from fiscal year 20 to fiscal year 25, largely overlapping the same period. the us is now the clear number one market globally the uk market in fact is the number one market on a domestic per capita basis and has shown consistent long-term growth over many many years the uk market has grown at a compounded average growth rate of 5.1 percent from calendar 19 through 24 We have outperformed the market growth over this period with a rate of 8.1% fiscal year 20 to fiscal year 25. The chart on the right shows the comparison for the US, UK and global markets in the year to April 25 compared to 24, 23 and 22. Compared to 22, the US market in the year to April 25 has increased by an impressive 51% and the UK in the same period by 20%. Both markets outpacing the global market, which was impacted by declines in the Asian markets of Hong Kong and China. Watches and Wonders 2025, where the brands present their new developments and marketing plans, was excellent this year, as are the new products and plans presented by other brands who do not participate in the fair. We now have a new product family from Rolex, the Landweller, and more new novelties from Patek Philippe. A refocus on icons from the major brands was great to see and a clear response from most brands to the trend in both men's and women's watches of smaller case sizes. The importance of value has clearly been recognised and there are some great marketing plans for the coming year. All very, very positive. We like certified pre-owned and certified pre-owned of other brands continues to perform very well, exceeding our initial expectations. This chart shows the march of the luxury jewellery market towards branded product from unbranded product, which is the basis of our strategic focus on branded jewellery, with in particular Roberto Coyne and also other brands. Our model is working and is uniquely advantaged. We have scale, full in-house functional resources and the financial resources to support our commitments and growth plans. We have strong, very long-standing relationships with our brand partners. We are now diversified geographically and in complementary product categories of luxury watches, luxury jewellery, pre-owned watches, after sales and servicing and also now media with Hedinki. We are multi-brand, multi-facier, multi-channel and international. We are one of the largest and oldest players in our category with an extensive retail experience and a focus on client service. As presented earlier, the luxury watch market is strong, resilient and offers long-term consistent growth. Recent years impacted by the global pandemic resulted in a period of unprecedented volatility. The impact of the COVID years was a reduction in production up to 25% due to lockdown in Switzerland and an increase in demand as consumers had the disposable income and the time and inclination to shop for watches and jewellery. For a luxury watch category, this led to an increased disparity of supply and demand, resulting in a dramatic spike in secondary market prices and an excess of demand for new product. These excesses were corrected in the 2023-24 period when demand normalised, although demand was further impacted by high price increases in 2023, which impacted the UK market significantly. The US market was less impacted by price increases and has remained pretty strong throughout as presented earlier. Where we are now, we believe that brands have responded to the conditions with more modest pricing and a focus on new commercial product development and impactful marketing. Secondary market prices have now stabilised overall at above pre-Covid levels, with some key brands showing some price increases in recent months. In our experience, the UK market has stabilised in line with pre-Covid growth trends and the US continues to be strong and outperforming other geographies. We will come on to talk about US tariffs later in the presentation. If we look at our group's performance over this volatile period, we've delivered a sales CAGR of plus 13.5%, fiscal year 25 on 19, and an adjusted EBIT CAGR for this period of 19.3%. We've achieved this performance by sticking with our model and optimising our core business and adapting to new opportunities as pre-owned and branded jewellery. In terms of my key messages, we've made good financial progress and significant strategic progress. We've successfully navigated a period of unprecedented volatility. The markets we are in remain attractive. Our unique model positions us well for sustained profitable growth and out-market performance. We are pleased with our financial performance and also with our continued support and engagement with our responsibilities in ESG. We are proud that thanks to our great colleagues in the UK and US, we were accredited a great place to work this year. We are number seven in the FTSE 250 for female leadership. We are rated AAA by MSCI on ESG. And since its inception in 2021, I'm proud to say that we have now committed £8.3 million to our foundation, through which we support causes in the UK and US focusing on education and alleviating the effects of poverty. I now hand over to David, the President of North America and Deputy CEO.

Thank you, Brian. We're delighted with our continued growth in North America, having gone from no presence to $1 billion in sales in a little over seven years. This has been driven by continuous investments in talent, technology, evidenced by our e-commerce launch, investments in our showroom portfolio and acquisitions. The US now makes up 48% of our group, and we see lots of opportunities for future growth in this fragmented market. This year, we've completed a number of significant showroom projects with key partners, particularly Rolex. These include the relocation of Mare's Tampa, Florida to a much larger space, the expansion of our recently acquired Betteridge Vale showroom, relocations of Mayer's Jacksonville and Watches of Switzerland Plano, Texas, where Rolex was introduced into the brand lineup, and the conversion of our Mayer's Lennox Atlanta showroom into a Rolex boutique. In terms of showroom investments, we still see significant opportunities to grow revenue through renovations, expansions, showroom relocations, and new agencies. We have a strong pipeline of projects through FY26 and 27, which will complete the rightsizing of our existing estate. We're delighted with our new Patek Philippe salon in Betteridge, Greenwich. We are finalizing the plans for the rest of the Betteridge showroom, and we'll begin this major refurbishment during FY26. Watches of Switzerland Ross Park in Pittsburgh is an example of a new showroom we have opened that is anchored by Cartier and Omega. Both of these brands are performing strongly across our showroom network and also online. One year in, and we're even more excited by the potential of RobertoCoin than we were at the time of the acquisition. RobertoCoin has been performing well, and we're pleased to have retained an intact retail distribution network. Brian and I were in Las Vegas at the JCK Couture Show, and it was great to see the fantastic reactions to our product launches from our retail partners. We're working on a number of significant growth opportunities for this brand in the North American market. These include a focus on brand range, development and merchandising, ensuring the retail network has the right range and depth of key collections. We recently launched a marketing campaign with Dakota Johnson as global brand ambassador. This campaign has been received really positively by the press and our retail partners and will help to elevate the brand's prominence. We've developed a new in-store design and shop and shop concept that we've trialed in our mirror showrooms. We've seen a significant uplift in sales from this, and there's an opportunity to expand this through the wholesale network. We are also working closely with our department store partners and independent retailers on space expansion opportunities and pursuing monobrand boutiques. During FY26, we will also launch a new upgraded website to boost online sales. I'm pleased to share that we are progressing with three monobrand RobertoCoin boutiques in Hudson Yards, New York, Miami Design District, and Caesars Las Vegas, which will be run through a DTC model. RobertoCoin has had phenomenal success with monobrand boutiques in Europe and the Middle East, and we are excited about the elevation that these boutiques will bring to the brand in the US. Hedinki is going from strength to strength. They've just had the most successful watch in wonders, and we are also very excited about what we have coming down the line over the next 18 months. Again, similar to Roberto Coyne, we knew how influential, loved and respected Hedinki was, but we are still very pleased by the support we are seeing from the watch brands and most importantly, the wider watch community. And finally, we are continuing to develop our e-commerce business. We've recently re-platformed our WatchesofSwitzerland.com website onto Shopify, and there will be a migration of all of our other websites onto that platform. Very early performance is proving positive. We see e-commerce in the US as a significant opportunity for growth. I will now hand you over to Craig, President for the UK.

Thanks, David. I would like to focus on the significant showroom development we have been delivering here in the UK across FY25 and plans for FY26 and beyond. Let's start with the most significant project completed this year. I am extremely pleased to announce we completed the development of the new Rolex Boutique on Old Bond Street, London, opening on Friday the 14th of March 2025. This boutique is the single Rolex agency on Bond Street from what was previously four points of sale. operating across four floors in circa 7,200 square feet, including 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. Let's take a look at this short video. So as you can see, it's an amazing boutique. The performance of this Rolex boutique has exceeded all expectations. We have received over 15,600 visitors in just the 13 weeks since opening. Having built an amazing team for our boutique, we engaged some months ago with Antonia Hock, an international client experience expert, to help us with our team training and delivery of a world-class client experience unique to Old Bond Street. I am extremely pleased with our results so far in terms of net promoter score and direct client feedback, particularly relating to the colleague satisfaction. We have continued the rollout of our luxury designs across a number of key locations in FY25, with significant new developments and expansions for Mappenham Web Edinburgh, Goldsmiths Milton Keynes and Cheltenham, as well as Watches of Switzerland Oxford Street. In November 2024, we expanded and more than doubled the size of our location in Fenchurch Street, London, converting the showroom to a new Watches of Switzerland. Across two floors and nearly 6,000 square feet, the showroom incorporates a large Rolex area, along with multiple branded spaces for key luxury brands, as well as the first branded Rolex certified pre-owned space. As we move into FY26, our first significant project was the completion of our joint venture with Audemars Piguet. Their AP house in King Street Manchester, the only point of sale in the UK for Audemars Piguet outside of London. Across six and a half thousand square feet, the Grade 2 listed house has been designed with the highest level of client experience in mind. offering dining facilities, VIP space, music lounge and rooftop eventing space. The client feedback in the early weeks has exceeded our expectations. Newcastle born and bred makes me very happy to be completing such a major refurbishment and upgrade to our amazing and beautiful Northern Goldsmiths showroom. The showroom is renowned for being the UK's first ever Rolex retailer back in 1919. And Rolex, along with Rolex Certified Pre-Owned, will feature heavily in this development, along with our amazing precious jewellery and luxury jewellery brands. This project completes July 2025. We are making great progress developing a first-of-its-kind mapping and web luxury jewellery boutique in St Anne 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, created across 5,500 square feet of branded spaces with hospitality and bespoke eventing space. It will also include the first De Beers monobrand boutique outside of London. All of the brands in the showroom will be exclusive to Mappin & Webb in Manchester, giving us a real point of difference for our clients. The showroom is scheduled to open in September 2025. The remainder of FY26 will see us complete a number of major refurbishments, expansions and relocations in key regional locations, majority completing in the first half of FY26. This pipeline of amazing projects continues into FY27. We have agreement from 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 an increased number of clients as well as introduce Rolex certified pre-owned in a dedicated space. And also to create a quality after sales area with in-house watchmakers. This project will commence in October 2025. Many thanks. I will now hand over to Anders, our CFO, to discuss the financials.