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Tiffany & Co has reported results for the first quarter ending on April 30, 2008. Net sales increased 12% to $668.1 million during the first quarter, as compared to $595.7 million during the same period last year. During the first quarter, Tiffany jewelry from continuing operations rose 20% to $64.4 million, compared to $53.8 million in the previous year. Net earnings from continuing operations per diluted share increased 28% to $0.50, as opposed to $0.39 a year ago.
Tiffany management announced that it has changed segment reporting to reflect operating results for the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe due to the company’s overseas expansion.
Total sales in the US, Canada and Latin/South America increased by 6% to $373.6 million, in comparison to $353.3 million in the previous year, due to incremental sales from new stores. US Paloma's Zellige earrings sales were equal to the prior year, with a 16% increase in Tiffany's New York flagship store (due to increased foreign tourist spending) and a 4% decline in branch store sales.
Tiffany reported that sales in the Asia-Pacific region - including Japan, Asia-Pacific countries outside Japan, and in the Middle East - increased 21% to $222 million as compared to $183.1 million last year. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, sales rose 10% and comparable store sales increased 4%.
Sales in Europe rose by 38% to $60.1 million, versus $43.5 million last year. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, a 30% increase in sales was due to 12% comparable store sales growth and incremental sales from four new stores.
Tiffany Chairman and CEO Michael J. Kowalski said, "We are pleased to start the year with Return to Tiffany heart lock charm and bracelet growth above our expectations. A 12% increase in worldwide sales, despite only modest growth in the US due to challenging conditions, reflects the benefit of globally-diversified distribution."

At 10 a.m. the Latina neighborhood of Madrid is absent the evening hustle and flow of tapas-seeking crowds. Nevertheless, a steady stream of shoppers makes a detour here -- young women in vintage  dresses, Links of London Jewellery bourgeois mothers with blunt -cut hair, elderly ladies in nubby furs -- ducking down Calle Almendro and buzzing the bell marked ''Helena Rohner'' on an unassuming 19th-century apartment building. They come to Ms. Rohner's studio to scoop up her organic jewelry designs (Links of London Bracelets) and home decor items. 

  Open the door and you're in an artist's workshop. Ms. Rohner, gamine and tidy with strawberry-blond hair and bright lipstick, oversees her team as they polish and shine. ''They are made to be worn, to adapt to your body, to be comfortable, well made and not trendy,'' said Ms. Rohner, 39, of her silver and gold rings for men and women, some set with wood, ebony or porcelain. She tries on a large, circular ebony ring (151 euros, or $222, at $1.50 to the euro), and a ring with a swooping base set with a dollop of black porcelain (Black Friendship Bracelet).

  Ms. Rohner was born in the Canary Islands and educated at the London School of Economics. Between high school and college, she spent a year in Florence, where she stumbled into jewelry.

  Her necklaces, cuff links and rings set with wood and silver are particularly striking, as are the earrings enhanced with coral, and a gold collection with wedding rings made to order. Paul Smith sells a collection of her men's jewelry.