COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish jewellery maker Pandora on Tuesday raised its full-year revenue outlook as it reported better-than-expected second-quarter sales helped by an improved performance in the U.S. and China.
"Given our solid performance so far, our updated guidance now sees another year of positive organic growth," CEO Alexander Lacik said in a statement.
Pandora said it now expected organic sales growth of between 2% and 5%, against an earlier range of between -2% and 3%. Ahead of the news analysts had on average expected 3% organic sales growth this year, according to a company-provided poll.
It maintained its estimate of its margin on earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of "around 25%".
Shares in Pandora traded up 2.5% at 0701 GMT.
Sales rose to 5.9 billion Danish crowns ($864 million) in the April to June period from 5.7 billion a year ago, compared to an average of 5.7 billion expected by analysts in a poll published by Pandora. Organic growth was 5%.
"Surprisingly strong revenue growth, which shows that sales are more resilient than both we and the market had dared to hope for," Jyske Bank analyst Janne Vincent Kjaer said in a note.
"There are no signs of any slowdown in sales, not even in the U.S."
Organic sales in the U.S., Pandora's largest single market, came in flat in the second quarter, helped by better store traffic and online sales, an improvement compared to the first quarter's 4% decline.
In China, the world's largest jewellery market, which accounts for 3% of Pandora's business, like-for-like sales grew 5%.
Pandora aims to triple its sales in China from 2019 levels, but said in May it would slow a planned country-wide relaunch of its brand in China as customer demand has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
"In China, I had probably hoped for a stronger rebound, but that's not how it panned out," Lacik told Reuters.
"Since the relaunch was initiated mid-July, we have seen some pick-up in traffic in both stores in Shanghai and Beijing as well as online," the company said.
($1 = 6.8320 Danish crowns)