Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the presentation of our Fiscal Year 2022 Results. Thank you for joining us. My name is Brian Duffy. I'm the CEO of the Watches of Switzerland Group. I'll be presenting our overall group performance, and then our CFO, Bill Floydd, will present the financial report and the outlook. We will then, as usual, be happy to answer your questions. Fiscal year 2022 was a very strong year for our group, achieving sales growth overall of 40%, US at +48%, and the UK at +36%. Luxury watches grew by 36%. Luxury jewelry was very strong at +86%. Profits benefiting from the leverage and more favorable margin mix grew by 68% at the adjusted EBIT level, with EPS year-on-year growth of 76%.
Return on Capital Employed improved significantly by 770 basis points to 27.4%. We opened our first showroom in the E.U. in Stockholm. We're ahead of schedule with our LRP and feel confident in our LRP goals. Momentum remains strong, waiting list continues to grow, and our business model has proven to be both resilient and adaptable. Looking over the last six years, including clearly the COVID disrupted years, our sales have grown at an average of 17% and EBIT at a CAGR of 31%. If you look at selected markets in the 2000-2010 decade, global growth in Swiss watches was driven mainly by Asian consumers through Hong Kong and E.U. markets such as France. The U.K., during this decade, enjoyed a decent level of annual growth of 2.7%.
The U.S. suffered an average decline during these years of 1.9%. In the most recent 11-year period, which includes the transformation period of our group, the U.K. market was the clear leading market with 8.4% annual growth. The U.S. returned to growth, particularly in the most recent years. In the last 11 years, the U.K. and U.S. have been particularly strong markets. On this chart, we show the per capita sales of selected markets by simply calculating the estimated retail value of Swiss exports to these markets divided by total population. As shown, the U.K. is the number one market outperforming all others, and the U.S., where we've been growing our presence now for five years, and the Nordics, where we are launching, are the two lowest per capita sales markets.
This chart shows the current year Swiss exports compared to last year and two years ago. Whereas the total market has increased by 13% versus last year, the US at +36% and the UK at +31% are leading growth markets, whereas China at -30% and Hong Kong at -8% both declined due to COVID restrictions. We are very much more excited by the luxury jewelry market today, with this chart showing how strong market growth has been on the left over the last six years and on the right, the comparison, again per capita, of the US, UK, EU, and global markets. The US is by far the leading jewelry market, and in Europe, the UK is a leading market at more than two times the EU per capita.
We are developing plans to increase our presence and share in all of these markets. The first pie chart here shows how our high growth in the U.S. has increased the U.S. share of our group sales from 24% in Fiscal Year 2019 to 35% in Fiscal Year 2022. The second pie chart show how our sales are now 98% to domestic clients in FY 2022 versus FY 2019, when 21% of our sales were to tourists and 12% through airports. Demand for luxury Swiss watches continues to further exceed watch production. Consequently, we are in some cases dealing with no in-store stock for sale for key brands, and with many other brands, we have waiting lists for key product families.
The product shortage is across the majority of the Swiss luxury watch category, and we estimate that 75% of the products we sell on a value basis are on wait list today and constrained by availability. The industry is responding to market demand and heightened interest in the Swiss watches by investing in product developments, marketing, and infrastructure. The Watches and Wonders fair that took place in Geneva in spring this year was, we believe, a great success with Rolex, Patek, Richemont brands, and LVMH brands, and many independents all presenting. The annual volume of new products and product variations have increased significantly since 2019. New products are very important for our markets and stimulate interest in multi-product purchasing.
Icons are increasingly popular, such as we see here, the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, the TAG Monaco, and the Gulf Colors famously worn by Steve McQueen, the Cartier Santos, one of the first ever wristwatches with a stunning blue bezel, Patek Calatrava with a textured charcoal gray dial, and the showstopper for Rolex, a GMT left-handed piece with green and black bezel, the Panerai Luminor, the Breitling Navitimer, and Superocean. The IWC Pilot and celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the first steel luxury watch with Audemars Royal Oak. Iconic watches are highly desirable and directly influence product development across the entire industry. Color has been a great vehicle for introducing newness and excitement to product ranges. Increased use of rubber, canvas, and other materials for straps increases color options. The introduction of the joyful colors from Rolex in September 2020 was a huge success.
The rich colors of the new Omega Speedmaster '57 range are stunning. Bright blue and vivid orange are hot colors today. Luxury watches last forever. The pre-owned market is expanding, as is our pre-owned business in the UK and with Analog Shift in the US. We continue to expand our national watch service centers in Manchester and Fort Lauderdale. There is also more development from the watch brands of environmentally positive products and packaging, such as the eSteel Luminor from Panerai using recycled steel, solar- powered products from Cartier and TAG Heuer, and reduced packaging using recycled materials from Breitling. Smaller independent brands provide a disproportionate amount of product innovation, such as a double chronograph from MB&F, the Miss Audrey Sweet Art from a Bovet, for which the dial is made from sugar crystals or the cool dial design from Doxa on the Watches of Switzerland exclusive.
Sales from the smaller independent brands are growing exponentially with many products sold well in advance of delivery. Our jewelry business grew 86% in Fiscal Year 2022, and our presence in the jewelry market has stepped up significantly with our acquisition of Betteridge. We're investing in our house brands of Mayors, Mappin & Webb, and Goldsmiths and in our partnership with global leading brands. Our technology and in-house resources continue to develop. The luxury concierge team based here in Oxford Street now number 31 colleagues with further expansion planned this year. They do a fantastic job achieving an amazing conversion on sales calls of 15.6%, 50 times the typical online conversion. We are building a U.S. virtual boutique team in Fort Lauderdale.
By appointment is now a permanent way of business and a very high positive client experience, and we continue to expand our CRM capabilities, particularly in support of our Xenia client experience program. Our e-com business remained strong in Fiscal Year 2022 following a more than doubling of the business in Fiscal Year 2021. We continue to invest and grow our online business in the U.S., which has significant future potential. Our U.K. digital marketing expands further with social media reach of almost 60 million monthly and total campaign impressions of a staggering 5.7 billion. Digital reach is also increasing substantially in the U.S. Our priority with our U.S. marketing campaigns is PR impressions, which hit 10 billion in the year. The launch of our Xenia client experience program in partnership with The Ritz-Carlton has been a great success, and client and colleague feedback is universally positive.
We have the best teams in the business. These images are from our upcoming annual report. Retail is a people business, and our team engagement and motivation is key to success. We were delighted, therefore, with the response to our recently completed engagement survey, results showing an 86% engagement score, which is exceptionally high for retail, and 90% plus scores on positivity of company success and pride in working for our group. We are pleased to award 50 shares to all of our colleagues and implement a Sharesave scheme in January this year. We have implemented our new purpose and values in recent months, and we continue to step up on all aspects of ESG. The company has made GBP 4.5 million in donations to our foundation this year, GBP 1.5 million of which was accrued last year.
We are actively involved with all of our chosen charity partners, and we have a great group of active, committed trustees. We continue to invest in and expand our showroom network. In the U.S., we now have 40 showrooms, 23 multi-brand, 17 monobrand boutiques. In the U.K., we are present in all markets nationwide with 131 showrooms. This is our new showroom in Cincinnati, Ohio, opened in March this year. Our completely refurbished Rolex boutique in Wynn Las Vegas, which reopened in December 2021, is truly stunning. In the Aventura Mall in Miami, we have more than 100 feet of fascia presenting Rolex, Mayors, and a Bulgari boutique. Here we see Mayors and Rolex, and here we see the Bulgari mono brand, which has been a great success. We opened our first Tudor boutique in Orlando, Florida in January 2022, which is doing great.
Our most recent Mayors opening is the relocated showroom in Boca Raton, including our first Hublot presentation in Mayors. The next relocation will be Dadeland, and the Mayors refurbishment program is planned to be completed by Calendar Year 2024. We are progressing expansion plans with our Betteridge showrooms, and we've taken additional space in Greenwich of 2,500 sq ft ground floor. We have taken additional space in Aspen, and we continue to look for further expansion in Vail. The American Dream project is happening, and we hope to have this showroom open before the holiday season this year. Goldsmiths Luxury design is being implemented at pace, with seven showrooms completed in Fiscal Year 2022, a further seven planned for this year. Mappin in Manchester was relocated and expanded in April 2022. The opening of the Battersea project is now planned for October.
We will open a Watches of Switzerland showroom with Rolex and Cartier, and the first Breitling boutique in the country with a Breitling Café, and a further three monobrand in this development. We've opened our first EU showroom, a Breitling boutique in Stockholm, and the other projects previously announced in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Dublin are all in progress. Our pre-owned and vintage business in the U.S. has been totally upgraded and rebranded with a new showroom on 57th Street, New York, a new website and increased distribution within our network. We have increased procurement, as we can see here, and we have impactful ad campaigns. Pre-owned in both U.S. and U.K. will become an important part of our future business. I will now hand over to our CFO, Bill Floydd.
Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone. I'll start by taking you through some of the highlights on the income statement. This is presented on a pre IFRS 16 basis and excludes exceptional items. Full details of those and the reconciliations to the statutory numbers are included in the RNS. Revenue grew by 40% on a constant currency and 52-week basis, with strong performance in both the U.S. and the U.K. and across all products and services. At a brand level, the average selling price increased for every watch brand, although due to mix at the group level, the ASP reduced. Jewelry ASPs increased in both the U.K. and the U.S. Net margin expanded by 130 basis points due to favorable product mix and higher revenue growth coming from jewelry.
Adjusted EBIT was GBP 130 million, growth of 68% and margin expanding by 190 basis points to 10.5% as we achieved strong leverage across the income statement. The effective tax rate remained at 20.8%, exceeding the standard UK rate due to the mix of profitability coming from the US. In FY 2023, I expect the effective tax rate to be around 21.5%-22% as profitability becomes more weighted to the US. Adjusted EPS increased to 41.8 pence, growth of 76%. Here are some other highlights of a standout year of financial performance. As noted on the previous slide, adjusted EBIT grew by 68% to GBP 130 million. Return on capital employed increased from 19.7% to 27.4%.
I've been very impressed with the discipline that the team display in their approach to CapEx and ensuring that capital is prioritized to the right projects. We conduct lessons learned activities to improve our playbook on a regular basis, and all projects undergo a thorough post-investment appraisal. The ability of the group to drive strong Free Cash Flow provides the opportunity to continue to invest in showroom refurbishment, new showrooms and M&A when the opportunity arises. In the year, net debt reduced from GBP 44 million to GBP 14 million after investing GBP 41 million in capital projects and GBP 44 million in M&A.
Moving to the balance sheet, which is presented here on an IFRS 16 basis, the key items of note are the increase in goodwill and intangibles driven by the acquisition of five US stores, the increase in PPE from our ongoing showroom investment program, and the increase in right-of-use assets and lease liabilities due to the expansion of the showroom network. Inventory increased by GBP 81 million. On a constant currency basis, the increase is 32% in a business growing by 40% on the top line. We would like to expand our inventory holdings further to be able to offer our clients a broader range of products in showroom, and we continue to work with the brands to increase availability. In the year, there was an improvement in the stock turn to 2.6 times compared to 2.1 times in FY 2021.
FY 2022 was another year of strong cash generation. The key points to note here are the working capital outflow on inventory, as highlighted on the balance sheet, the expansionary CapEx investments of GBP 41 million, and the M&A spend of GBP 44 million for the five additional stores in the US. Here we've set out a reminder of the group's facilities. The group enters the year with close to zero net debt and existing cash facilities available for investment and the working capital cycle of GBP 190 million. With the current inflationary pressures in the economy, I've set out for you here the makeup of our cost base so you can get a good idea of how well we are insulated from, but not entirely immune to inflation. Approximately three-quarters of the cost base is product bought for resale.
We operate on fixed margins with our suppliers, so if the wholesale price to us increases, then the recommended retail price increases by the same percentage. Most of the brands announced their price increases in Q1 of the calendar year, and price increases announced so far this year averaged at around 4.5%. People costs represent about 11% of the cost base and clearly there is some pressure here. About a quarter of the payroll is variable by way of bonuses and commissions. We've recently enhanced the overall benefits package for our teams with an additional day of holiday, enhanced medical benefits, launched a Sharesave scheme and gifted 50 shares to all colleagues in December. Rent and other property costs are largely fixed, and while utility costs have increased, these are an immaterial overall part of the cost base.
The largest component of marketing costs is performance marketing, where we apply strict payback criteria to our spend. Other costs include IT, legal, advisory fees and other costs you would expect in a business like this. Today, we reiterate the guidance we gave a few weeks ago when we released our Q4 trading update. We expect revenue to grow at 17%-21% based on the visibility for key brands availability through the 2022 Calendar Year, a recovery of footfall and a return of airport traffic and demand driven by domestic clients with limited tourism. This reflects confirmed showroom openings, excludes M&A and assumes no further lockdowns. We're guiding to EBITDA margin expansion of 0-50 basis points. Leverage should be margin enhancing, offset by investment in the business and some modest inflationary pressures.
This will be weighted to the second half of the year as we benefited last year from zero rates in the U.K. to the tune of around GBP 5 million that annualizes out during the first half. We expect the tax rate to increase slightly because of the increasing geographic mix towards the U.S. The CapEx range of GBP 70 million-GBP 80 million includes investment in a new corporate H.Q. in Leicester, having significantly outgrown the existing facility, with key highlights of the showroom investment program being the new Battersea development, American Dream, seven more Goldsmiths Luxury refurbishments, additional mono brands in the U.K. and U.S., and our expansion into Europe. We've made a strong start to the long range plan with a 40% growth rate in FY 2022 being well ahead of the plan.
While we're conscious of the broader economic slowdown, we remain confident that our category is strongly differentiated through the innovation being brought by our brand partners, the scale of our existing business, our expansion into Europe, our multi-channel approach, the showroom development plan in both the UK and the US, and the M&A pipeline all giving us confidence in being able to deliver the plan. We expect to review the plan in full in the spring of 2023. With that, I'll hand you back to Brian for his closing remarks.
Thanks, Bill, and well done on your first year-end presentation for the Watches of Switzerland Group. Let me just summarize the key points from this year's performance. We've delivered record sales, profitability and return on capital employed in Fiscal Year 2022. Demand and market momentum remain strong. The Watches of Switzerland Group model has been enhanced and we are gaining market share. We've delivered positive progress in all aspects of ESG, and we are ahead of our schedule on our LRP and confident in our goals. We will now be happy to take your questions.
As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing Star one. Now, the first question comes from Karina Nugent of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Brian. Hi, Bill. Thank you very much for a very clear presentation. I have a couple of questions on my side. Thank you very much for the update on current trading and particularly the commentary on the wait list. Clearly there's been a lot of interest from investors and the market alike just in terms of the weakness in secondary market prices, particularly for some of those supply constrained brands like Rolex. Is there anything that you would call out in terms of the wait list structure by price point or by product, while using that similar dynamic of extension to wait lists, on a broad-based basis?
When we look into the more supply constrained brands, is there any change in customer behavior that we should be aware of that could be a leading indicator? Then secondly, I just wanted to touch base on the European expansion and congratulations on opening your new store in Stockholm. Is there any early reads there, in terms of the reception that you've had? When we look forward, in terms of the priorities for expansion, is it more bringing other brands to those cities where you will already have a presence like Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Dublin? Or are you looking to expand the presence of the brands that you've got on those cities to other regions in Europe? Just trying to think about that. Thank you.
Thanks, Karina. I'm gonna be fairly boring in the answer to these questions because our experience is that nothing's really changing on the nature of wait list. You know, we're adding more people than we're able to take off with supply overall. We're actually adding more products effectively to the wait list and it really is a situation now that pretty much goes across just about every brand that we supply. We have some degree of a wait list on it. So they all really no change and to the kind of broader consumer base, again, we're not experiencing any change overall.
The dynamics that you know prevailed throughout last year are a real broadening of the appeal of luxury Swiss watches, an inclination to buy into higher price points within you know the selected brands. All of those dynamics pretty much continue. We haven't really experienced any real change at all. Stockholm, it's too early to comment. You know, we've just got it open. I mean, I would say that our team did an amazing job. It's a beautiful well-located store. You know, we put kind of general management in place for that entire region. We have a great team within the store.
It's a beautiful street with great architecture and we're confident about it. It's summertime in Stockholm, so we really didn't, and they don't have that much of a summer as we know, so they do enjoy it when it happens. July and August are always quiet months, which we knew was gonna be the case. We're happy with the opening, delighted with the team, delighted with the store and, you know, feel confident about the potential. We've always said the Nordics you know has been our entry into Europe. We would look to do more there. Obviously, we've got the announced openings that are coming additionally in Stockholm and in Copenhagen.
We would like to and plan to do more in that region. At the same time, we are looking at other markets. You know, we've given and we presented again today our view that we think we could bring something positive to every market in Europe. Our approach of big stores and scale supported with technology and marketing and great client service we think there's opportunity for. You know, we've got to then turn that into specific store brand and possible acquisition opportunity, all which takes time, but of course we're working on it all.
Yeah, it's really clear.
Great.
Melania Grippo of Exane BNP Paribas , please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas Exane. I've got two questions. First, I wanted to know in terms of price increases, if you know, would expect any further price increases for the remainder of 2022. My other question is on the jewelry performance. If you can please expand what are your expectations for, you know, for next year. I mean, if you still expect a strength in outperformance probably of the jewelry versus watches into next year. Thank you.
Hi, Melania. It would be unusual for the brands to have more than one increase in a calendar year. I mean, there has been reactions before, you know, when Brexit happened and the pound devalued, there was much more pricing activity happened around that. You know, might we be in similar circumstances with the appreciation of the franc, particularly against the pound and the euro? I think that's a valid question, but there's nothing that we know to suggest that there is gonna be any further pricing within this calendar year. Yes, we are aware of obviously the exchange rate differentials that I'm sure brands are looking at. You know, just to remind you and everyone on the call, we buy in the local currencies.
Therefore the loss of value of sterling is effectively cut by the brands. The dollar has remained strong in the U.S. We buy in dollars. We'll see. Our increases announced will be worth between 4%-5% overall. That's all that we've baked into our thinking at this point. You know, as we've been reporting, we're kind of excited about the prospects of jewelry. We're learning a lot, particularly from the U.S. market, our Bulgari stores. I think exceeded everybody's expectation in Aventura. Clearly we'd love to do more of that in other places, and obviously there are discussions that are underway. Everything takes time. Yes, we'd like to do more of that.
Betteridge, we are again learning from them on what they do. They have, you know, a great track record and reputation and in business and jewelry and we are learning from them. At the same time looking at other opportunities, I think the strength of the market in the U.S. is there for all to see. We have great momentum by the way in the U.K. We actually have had for some years. We've got great teams working on it. I think really skilled buying and merch teams, working with the supplier base overall. We were and have been for some years growing in jewelry, but our growth in watches just somewhat overshadowed up until this year.
Yes, we feel positive about the category and the prospects. We're more excited by it and more focused perhaps on it than we might have been in prior years. As soon as we have more specifics, obviously we'll let you know.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please signal by pressing Star one. Our next question comes from Kate Calvert from Investec. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Three from me. The first question is on the UK. You are opening mono brands in the UK, at pace. What do you see as the potential for mono brands in the UK going forward? My second question is on, Rolex. Is there any news from Rolex on future capacity increase? The final question is, could you elaborate, more in terms of how you're expanding into the pre-owned market, in the UK in particular? Thank you.
Okay. We are opening mono brands, but again, we don't announce anything specific until, you know, all deals are done. I think it's been a very successful move by us into the kind of mono brand space. It's a significant elevation of brand presentation, and it's once again resulting in, you know, positive impacts on the consumer conversion overall. You know, we've arranged that we are, you know, it'll be a big day in October when we open in Battersea because we'll open four monobrand alongside our multi-brand. Other projects that we're working on and we've included the number of monobrands and
19 monobrands in U.K. and U.S.
To open, yes.
Yes.
19. Yes, to open. We're currently at, when we announced 31, was it UK?
Yes.
In summary, as there is more potential in the UK and US on monobrands and obviously we continue to work on identifying opportunities and discussing with the brands. There's no news on Rolex capacity. We've again nothing confirmed from Rolex at all in terms of production. But I think they're doing everything they can to respond to the demand that's there within the constraints that they have, obviously, of maintaining the highest quality of everything that they do. No news on capacity overall. As for UK, we get 38 monobrands. We'll send the presentation, 38 monobrands at the end of the year. Pre-owned, we've doubled our business in the UK.
That takes it from 1% to 2%, so it is all still relatively small in terms of our total business. It's all about, you know, sourcing the right quality of products. We have invested in expanding our service center in Manchester who are handling a lot of the refurbishments and so on are there. We have the capability. There's clearly strong response from a consumer viewpoint and are selling pre-owned for sure. We have plans to increase sourcing and expand in the area.
The bigger business, of course, that we have and the bigger market for sure for pre-owned is the US and we've been, you know, invested a lot behind Analog Shift and we're enjoying some really great market response on that.
Brian, can I just come back to you on the UK monobrand? I mean, could you see potential, for example, to double the number of monobrands in the UK from here?
Well, it depends what time period you're looking at. You know, we opened our first Tudor monobrand. That brand is very, very strong. I think it translates very well to a monobrand environment in terms of marketing and shop, the image it's created, so that's additional. We mentioned earlier that, you know, we opened the first monobrand of Bulgari in the US. We have Grand Seiko in the US. So, there are other brand possibilities, and there are clearly other market possibilities for the brands that we're so far developing the category with. You know, we'll see. We'll announce. We just don't like to get into speculative numbers at all on what might happen.
We're following, I think, a strict, you know, code of when we have deals that are done and fixed, we'll tell you about them.
Great. Thanks so much.
Yep.
Richard Taylor of Barclays, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Also had a question on the pre-owned business. I see you've invested about GBP 20 million into pre-owned inventory. I don't know whether that's the total. That's you know, sort of 6% of the stock. Just wondering if it should follow over time that, you know, that sort of amount of your earnings could come from the revenue you generate. Just any update in terms of the earnings power from that part of the business. Then secondly, just be keen for an update in terms of the pipeline for acquisitions that you're looking at in the U.S. and Europe.
I see you've got another single site in the U.S., but just sort of thoughts on, you know, vendor attitudes there and, you know, sort of what you might expect to achieve over the next 12 months from an M&A perspective? Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Richard. We have invested in pre-owned stock, again, as I mentioned in the presentation. Yes, it's turning well. As I said too in the presentation, you know, pre-owned is gonna make a much bigger contribution to our business going forward. You know, I think we are quite optimistic about the incremental business that we will do this year from that stock that you're referring to. You know, the U.S. market for sure is a much more established market overall, in which we've got a great vehicle to participate with Analog Shift, complemented by the you know, credibility and support, obviously, from our group.
Yeah, we'd look to turn that stock and, you know, so far so good, and we've really put the investment in terms of the website, advertising, the showroom. I think you've seen actually the showroom in New York, and of course, you've got to then invest in the stock for the consumer to respond. Acquisition, honestly, we've got nothing to say further than we obviously work on a pipeline of acquisition and we always have done for the last few years. As we've explained often, it does take time. You could do things quicker by overpaying, but we're obviously not gonna do that with shareholder money.
I don't think there is a change overall in attitude, particularly, in the part of those, you know, targets that we're talking with. Again, as soon as we have news like we've just done with the store that you're referring to, as soon as it's done, we'll announce similarly to obviously what we did last year with the five store acquisitions that we made.
Okay. Thanks, Brian.
Thank you all. It appears we have no further questions in the queue at this time. We have another question from Daria Nyshlyadok from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, Brian. Hi, Bill. Thank you very much for the presentation. This is Daria Nyshlyadok from Bank of America. I actually have a couple of very quick questions. First one, could you please comment on your market share in the U.K. and in the U.S.? Would you have any update on this metric? My second one would actually be, do you believe there's any potential margin compression coming from non-supply constrained brands? Kind of similar to a move that Rolex did in the U.S., taking into account very fast growth in other brand sales, price increases, et cetera. Thank you very much.
We don't quote market share, Daria. We really just don't have reliable enough data. In the UK, we have GfK which is, you know, a good source to start with. We then have to do a lot of work in terms of, you know, correcting, and that doesn't include, for example, the corporate boutiques of brands and so on. It's not something that we are therefore in a position to regularly update and be specific on. We have a leading market share in the UK, and I think that's, you know, a very comfortable statement to make, overall, but the specific market share.
We know we're gaining share overall, but that again, from our specific activity that we know and you know, regions and shopping centers where we know we're getting more of a share, more of a presentation we might have had before. US, there's absolutely no data around in the US. You know, I think you're looking at high single- digit type market share there. But it really is a rough estimate. There's nothing better around. Once again, we believe that we're gaining share, that we're tracking ahead of the market overall, and that would translate to gaining share. But it's a relatively modest share that we're starting from. Margin compression, there's nothing new.
We did anticipate in the U.S., where our margins historically were better because productivity was lower. We did anticipate in our long range plan that the likelihood is that margins would come in line with European margins and with the move that Rolex made, that's I think largely done. Yeah, nothing further on the margin.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. As there are no further questions in the queue at this time, I would like to invite the Watches of Switzerland team to provide the closing remarks.
Thank you. Thanks, everybody for joining. Just a summary is that we are very pleased with the results. We're pleased with the start to the year. We feel good about our LRP. We feel good about a lot of things that our business is doing, including our foundation that we've referred to and the engagement we have for our employees and everybody on that, and the work that we're really helping support. Our charity's put in place as necessary, but is really positive to see, overall. A big thanks to our team. They're amazing.
Our team I have here with me now and our team out there in the stores in Leicester and Fort Lauderdale and around, they do a fantastic job and they've delivered these great results. A very much a thank you and appreciation to them and thanks for joining the call.