Record gold prices and premium watch sales boost profit for Ramsdens
14 January 2025, 16:34
Chief executive Peter Kenyon said pre-owned premium watches, particularly Rolex, were selling well.
A rebound in demand for Rolex watches and higher gold prices prompting more people to sell unwanted jewellery have helped drive record profits for retailer and lender Ramsdens.
Ramsdens, which has 169 stores in the UK, made a pre-tax profit of £11.4 million for the year to the end of September – 12% more than the previous year.
It said this was driven by growth across all areas of the business, which include foreign currency exchange, pawnbroking, jewellery retail and buying and selling precious metals.
Ramsdens’ chief executive Peter Kenyon said pre-owned premium watches, particularly Rolex, had been “selling really well” in recent months.
This was driven by online and in-store sales – with confidence improving since being hit by the cost-of-living crisis in 2023 – and the premium watch market becoming less volatile.
The average selling price of a premium watch was £4,100, Mr Kenyon said.
Ramsdens also reported a boost from record gold prices over the past year.
Mr Kenyon said more customers found it to be a “great time to sell” unwanted jewellery, gold and precious metals because gold prices were high, with that “awareness driving behaviour” among consumers.
Ramsdens generated revenues of £31.2 million from the service, with more gold being sold on to bullion dealers.
Pawnbroking saw a slight slowdown in demand compared with recent years when more customers turned to the service for short-term credit.
Pawnbroking allows people to take out a loan against the value of a piece of jewellery or a watch, and if they cannot repay the loan then the pawnbroker sells the item.
Mr Kenyon said Ramsdens is expecting an extra £2 million in annualised costs from greater national insurance contributions and a higher minimum wage.
“We are trying to get past this hurdle by growing the business,” he said, having opened more stores over the past year and with additional openings in the pipeline.
He said the company was finding ways to use automation and artificial intelligence to speed up some work, such as jewellery processing, but that it would not try to mitigate higher costs by slowing the pace of hiring.
