Pandora (CPH:PNDORA) announced on Tuesday that it has progressed well with its business transformation programme, labelled Programme NOW.
Announced earlier this year, the transformation programme aims to cut costs following the business’ disappointing 2018 results. Pandora aims to save 1.2 billion Danish crowns under the plan by 2022.
The programme follows a disappointing set of annual results for the jewellery retailer, in which like-for-like sales dropped 4% for the year, decreasing a further 7% in its fourth quarter.
Though the transformation programme is mainly aimed to support revenue growth from late 2019, the business is currently trialling various commercial initiatives to prepare for the re-launch of the brand.
Pandora said that the initiatives have shown encouraging results and includes collaborations with celebrities and influencers.
Pandora is an international Danish jewellery manufacturer and retailers. Founded in 1982, the business is most known for its charm bracelets. Sold in over 100 countries on six different continents, the company employs over 28,000 people across the globe.
Its first-quarter results for 2019 were weak, as the company expected, and were impacted by the commercial reset initiative under the business transformation programme.
Total like-for-like sales dropped 10% as a result of lower store traffic. EBITDA fell 12% to 1.5 billion Danish Crowns, but came in above the 1.3 billion predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll.
“Programme NOW is progressing rapidly and is creating a real transformation of our business, culture and organisation. As expected, the first quarter was characterised by continued weak like-for-like further burdened by our deliberate commercial reset. While the first quarter emphasises the need for our planned brand re-launch, it is encouraging to see that our initial commercial pilots and marketing tests to Reignite a Passion for Pandora show good results,” Anders Boyer, CEO of Pandora, commented.
The jewellery brand will cut a further 1,200 workers in Thailand as the business seeks to turn itself around.
At 09:21 CEST Tuesday, shares in Pandora A/S (CPH: PNDORA) were trading at +0.97%.