Bloomberg reports that Bulgari recorded a net income loss of 89% in the 4th quarter. Bulgari's biggest losses came in the watch category. Sales of Bulgari watches fell 11%. The company has put all new store opening plans on hold.
Bulgari, which also missed sales and profit estimates for the third quarter in November, proposed a dividend of 10 cents, compared with 32 cents last year.
Full-year net income slid 45 percent to 82.9 million euros, missing the 100 million-euro median estimate of 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Watch sales fell 11 percent, jewelry slipped 2.5 percent and accessories declined 1.5 percent, Bulgari said today. Sales of perfumes rose 12 percent.
Bulgari CEO Francesco Trapani told Bloomberg, "The current crisis is huge and it's global. It's difficult to make any forecasts."
Bulgari is not the only company struggling with luxury watch sales. Bloomberg says that in January, 2009, Swiss watch exports had their biggest monthly decline in over 20 years.
Bloomberg 
