Jewelry maker Pandora hit by weak US holiday shopping

U.S. shoppers bought fewer charm bracelets and necklaces than expected in the key holiday season.

U.S. shoppers bought fewer charm bracelets and necklaces than expected in the key holiday season. (Max Rossi, Reuters)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Pandora's shares fell 10% after weaker-than-expected U.S. holiday sales.
  • CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier cited low consumer sentiment and high silver prices.
  • Pandora aims for 6% sales growth in 2025, below previous 7%-8% guidance.

STOCKHOLM — Pandora warned of weaker 2025 sales growth on Friday, ​sending the Danish jewelry brand's shares down 10%, after U.S. shoppers bought fewer charm bracelets and necklaces than expected in the key holiday season.

Pandora, ⁠which sells silver charm bracelets for $70 and upward, as well as lab-grown diamond jewelry made at its factories in Thailand, is grappling with lower-income shoppers cutting their spending, the impact ⁠of U.S. tariffs and a 161% rise in silver prices last year.

"The main thing ‌happening in the U.S. ‍is that we had lower traffic than we have had in previous ⁠seasons," said Berta de Pablos-Barbier, who took over ⁠as Pandora CEO on Jan. 1.

"Consumer sentiment in the U.S. is at the lowest in many years," de Pablos-Barbier added. The U.S. is Pandora's biggest market, accounting for around a third of its revenue, and holiday gifting is a key driver of sales.

Pandora said in a preliminary reading of 2025 results that it now sees full-year organic sales growth of 6%, ‍below its previous guidance of 7%-8%.

Shares in Pandora, which is due to publish full fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 5, fell 10% to their lowest level since June 2023.

'Re-energizing collections'

De Pablos-Barbier, previously Pandora's chief marketing officer, said the company would focus on developing more new product lines to lure cautious consumers back into stores.

"We need to be better at re-energizing our collections, we need to bring ‌more impactful newness into the market, because this is going to drive excitement," de Pablos-Barbier said.

Pandora also said it ‌expects a full-year operating profit of around 7.8 billion Danish crowns ($1.2 billion) and an operating margin, matching previous guidance, of around 24%.

Silver's high cost was a "good trigger" for Pandora to start working on new materials and designs, de Pablos-Barbier said.

Pandora will present its strategic priorities ⁠for 2026 next month, ​including an update on plans to lower its ⁠commodity exposure to protect margins.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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