Richemont Group, one of the world’s three major luxury watch groups, recorded its highest-ever sales in South Korea last year, reaching approximately $1.08 billion. Despite this significant revenue, their corporate social contributions in South Korea amounted to only 0.04% of total sales.
Richemont’s Record-Breaking Sales… Operating Profits Plunge by 15%
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system yesterday, Richemont Korea’s sales for the last fiscal year (April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024) were approximately 1.5 trillion KRW (approx. $1.08 billion), a 7.4% increase compared to the previous year.
However, operating profits fell by 15.1% to approximately 106.1 billion KRW ($76 million).
Richemont Korea imports and distributes French luxury jewelry and watch brands in South Korea, such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, and Piaget.
Despite generating over $719 million in sales in South Korea for the past two years (2022 and 2023 fiscal years), Richemont Korea’s donations remain nominal.
Last year, Richemont Korea’s charitable donations amounted to approximately 570 million KRW ($410,000), which is just 0.04% of its total sales.
Louis Vuitton Hasn’t Donated a Penny for Two Years… Dior Remains Stingy as Well
In addition to Richemont Korea, other global luxury companies operating in Korea reportedly make significantly low donations while recording their highest-ever sales.
According to the audit report disclosed on April 13, Hermes Korea recorded approximately 797.2 billion KRW ($574 million) in sales last year, a 22.6% increase compared to the previous year’s 650.2 billion KRW ($468 million). Operating profit also increased by 12%, reaching about $170 million during the same period.
However, their charitable contributions last year were approximately $398,000, decreasing from the $403,000 in 2022.
Christian Dior Couture Korea was also stingy with donations. Despite achieving record sales by breaking the 1 trillion KRW (approximately $840 million) sales mark for the first time in Korea last year, Dior only donated about 19.2 million KRW ($13,800), equivalent to the price of one Dior purse.
Some brands didn’t make any donations.
Starting in 2022, French luxury brand Louis Vuitton has not donated a single penny in Korea for the past two years.
Points are made that these luxury brands in South Korea are stingy with charitable contributions despite their enormous sales amid a recession.
