Can Tiffany’s Directors Help the Company Weather a Stormy Market?

Although the upscale jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co (NYSE: TIF) slightly tempered investor optimism by lowering its earnings projections from $2.28 to $2.30, it nevertheless reported that worldwide holiday sales increased by 8 percent over the same period last year, with a net increase of 6 percent when foreign currency exchanges are excluded, the company said in a statement.

Tiffany’s overseas stores performed more robustly than those in the U.S.

The company’s international sales rose 12 percent when the exchange rate is kept constant, with its largest increases in Asia. Specifically, while sales increased only one percent in Japan, they increased by a whopping 30 percent in other Asian-Pacific countries.

The company’s sales performance in Europe was also strong, having increased at a net rate of 18 percent.

Significantly, even the company’s sales increase of four percent in the U.S. market seemed to be largely driven by foreign customers who were spending in its world-famous Fifth Ave store in New York.

“While we were delighted with continued strong sales growth across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan, U.S. sales softened after robust growth for much of the year,” said Tiffany’s CEO/Chairman Michael J Kowalski in the statement.

He added the following explanation of how the sales increase was distributed between its domestic and international customers:

“A ten percent increase in New York flagship store sales in the holiday period was driven by foreign tourist spending. We believe a recent pullback in U.S. spending likely reflected a more cautious attitude among customers about the near-term direction of the economy and related factors. From a product perspective, we saw healthy sales growth in the engagement jewelry and silver jewelry categories.”

The markets responded negatively to the company’s statement: while the share price previously closed at $40.32, it was at $34.93 in late morning trading (11:47am ET).

Given the importance of leadership when a company’s share price is being buffeted in a volatile market, NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections of the company’s Board of Directors as a method for assessing their knowledge of business and for determining the likelihood that the company’s Management Team would benefit from the former’s advice.

The Knowledge Map shows that several of Tiffany’s Directors also serve on the boards of other companies. The one with the most involvement, however, is Director J Thomas Presby, who sits on a total of five other boards; they include: American Eagle Outfitters, Amvescap Plc, First Solar Inc, TurboChef Technologies Inc, and World Fuel Services Inc.

Director Rose Marie Bravo’s other board room experience is also especially noteworthy, because she is also a Director for two other companies that cater to upscale consumers, Burberry Limited and Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).

Click here or copy this link into your Internet Explorer browser for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=c644d867-dfb9-482f-bcb7-941a523249f3