Good morning, and thank you for joining our presentation of the final results of the Watches of Switzerland Group for fiscal year 2025. You'll be hearing firstly from me, Brian Duffy, CEO of the Group, then David Hurley, President of North America and Deputy Group CEO, then Craig Bolton, President of the U.K., and finally, last but not least, Anders Romberg, our Group CFO. I'll then have some closing remarks before opening the lines for your questions. In fiscal year 2025, we achieved record sales of $1.652 billion. That was + 8% in constant currency versus prior year, and we had a stronger second half gross achieving + 12%. Our U.S. division passed an important milestone, achieving sales of over $1 billion in the fiscal year.
Adjusted EBIT of $150 million was 12% ahead of last year, representing an improvement in profitability of 30 basis points, and we ended with a decent balance sheet. Throughout the year, we continued with our strategy of investing for profitable growth through developing our showrooms, with new points of sale for Rolex in the U.S., in Jacksonville and Plano, Texas, the stunning new Rolex flagship boutique here in London on Old Bond Street, expansion of Patek Philippe in Greenwich, Connecticut, and all in all, a total of 15 showroom projects for the Group. We have an exciting program of investment projects in fiscal year 2026 and 2027 that you'll see from David and Craig's presentations. We're delighted with the acquisitions of Roberto Coin Inc and HODINKEE. Indications are going very well, and we have great prospects for those two businesses.
Pre-owned, both Rolex CPO program and other brand CPO, have performed very well, exceeding our expectations. As we have presented previously, we see significant growth potential in the luxury branded jewelry sector, particularly through Roberto Coin, but also with other luxury jewelry brands. We have relaunched our U.S. websites through Shopify. Watches of Switzerland is up and running and performing very well, and Roberto Coin and Mayors will go live in the coming weeks. We see a really big opportunity in the online space in the U.S.. The luxury watch market is unique and characterized by demand exceeding supply overall, long-term price inflation due to high-value commodity materials and Swiss franc denominated production costs, strict management of brand image and distribution, and a relentless focus from the brands on product quality and innovation.
Following many years of low growth and underinvestment, the U.S. market started to outpace other markets from 2019 and achieved an impressive compounded average growth rate from calendar 2019 through to 2024 of + 14% annually. This compares to our U.S. CAGR growth of 24.7% from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2025, largely overlapping the same period. The U.S. is now the clear number one market globally. The U.K. market, in fact, is the number one market on a domestic per capita basis and has shown consistent long-term growth over many, many years. The U.K. market has grown at a compounded average growth rate of 5.1% from calendar 2019 through 2024. We have outperformed the market growth over this period with a rate of 8.1% fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2025.
The chart on the right shows the comparison for the U.S., U.K., and global markets in the year to April 2025 compared to 2024, 2023, and 2022. Compared to 2022, the U.S. market in the year to April 2025 has increased by an impressive 51%, and the U.K. in the same period by 20%, both markets outpacing the global market, which was impacted by declines in the Asian markets of Hong Kong and China. Watches and Wonders 2025 for the brands present their new developments and marketing plans was excellent this year, as are the new products and plans presented by other brands who did not participate in the fair. We now have a new product family from Rolex, the Left-Dweller, and more new novelties from Patek Philippe.
A refocus on icons from the major brands was great to see, and a clear response from most brands to the trend in both men's and women's watches of smaller case sizes. The importance of value has clearly been recognized, and there are some great marketing plans for the coming year, all very, very positive. Rolex Certified Pre-Owned and certified pre-owned of other brands continues to perform very well, exceeding our initial expectations. This chart shows the march of the luxury jewelry market towards branded product from unbranded product, which is the basis of our strategic focus on branded jewelry, with in particular Roberto Coin and also other brands. Our model is working and is uniquely advantaged. We have scale, full in-house functional resources, and the financial resources to support our commitments and growth plans. We have strong, very long-standing relationships with our brand partners.
We are now diversified geographically and in complementary product categories of luxury watches, luxury jewelry, pre-owned watches, after-sales and servicing, and also now media with HODINKEE. We are multi-brand, multi-facia, multi-channel, and international. We are one of the largest and oldest players in our category with an extensive retail experience and a focus on client service. As presented earlier, the luxury watch market is strong, resilient, and offers long-term consistent growth. Recent years impacted by the global pandemic resulted in a period of unprecedented volatility. The impact of the COVID years was a reduction in production up to 25% due to lockdown in Switzerland and an increase in demand as consumers had the disposable income and the time and inclination to shop for watches and jewelry.
For a luxury watch category, this led to an increased disparity of supply and demand, resulting in a dramatic spike in secondary market prices and an excess of demand for new product. These excesses were corrected in the 2023-2024 period when demand normalized, although demand was further impacted by high price increases in 2023, which impacted the U.K. market significantly. The U.S. market was less impacted by price increases and has remained pretty strong throughout, as presented earlier. Where we are now, we believe that brands have responded to the conditions with more modest pricing and a focus on new commercial product development and impactful marketing. Secondary market prices have now stabilized overall at above pre-COVID levels, with some key brands showing some price increases in recent months.
In our experience, the U.K. market has stabilized in line with pre-COVID growth trends, and the U.S. continues to be strong and outperforming other geographies. We will come on to talk about U.S. tariffs later in the presentation. If we look at our group's performance over this volatile period, we have delivered a sales CAGR of +13.5% fiscal year 2025 on 2019 and an Adjusted EBIT CAGR for this period of 19.3%. We've achieved this performance by sticking with our model and optimizing our core business and adapting to new opportunities as pre-owned and branded jewelry. In terms of my key messages, we've made good financial progress and significant strategic progress. We've successfully navigated a period of unprecedented volatility. The markets we are in remain attractive. Our unique model positions us well for sustained profitable growth and out-market performance.
We are pleased with our financial performance and also with our continued support and engagement with our responsibilities in ESG. We were proud that thanks to our great colleagues in the U.K. and U.S., we were accredited a great place to work this year. We are number seven in the FTSE 250 for female leadership. We are rated AAA by MSCI on ESG. Since its inception in 2021, I'm proud to say that we have now committed GBP 8.3 million to our foundation, through which we support causes in the U.K. and U.S., focusing on education and alleviating the effects of poverty. I'll now hand over to David, the President of North America and Deputy CEO.
Thank you, Brian. We're delighted with our continued growth in North America, having gone from no presence to $1 billion in sales in a little over seven years. This has been driven by continuous investments in talent, technology, evidenced by our e-commerce launch, investments in our showroom portfolio, and acquisitions. The U.S. now makes up 48% of our Group, and we see lots of opportunities for future growth in this fragmented market. This year, we've completed a number of significant showroom projects with key partners, particularly Rolex. These include the relocation of Mayors, Tampa, Florida, to a much larger space, the expansion of our recently acquired Betteridge Vail showroom, relocations of Mayors, Jacksonville, and Watches of Switzerland , Plano, Texas, where Rolex was introduced into the brand lineup, and the conversion of our Mayors, Lenox, Atlanta showroom into a Rolex boutique.
In terms of showroom investments, we still see significant opportunities to grow revenue through renovations, expansions, showroom relocations, and new agencies. We have a strong pipeline of projects through FY2026 and FY2027, which will complete the right-sizing of our existing estate. We're delighted with our new Patek Philippe salon in Betteridge, Greenwich. We are finalizing the plans for the rest of the Betteridge showroom, and we'll begin this major refurbishment during FY2026. Watches of Switzerland Ross Park in Pittsburgh is an example of a new showroom we have opened that is anchored by Cartier and Omega. Both of these brands are performing strongly across our showroom network and also online. One year in, and we're even more excited by the potential of Roberto Coin than we were at the time of the acquisition. Roberto Coin has been performing well, and we're pleased to have retained an intact retail distribution network.
Brian and I were in Las Vegas at the JCK Couture Show, and it was great to see the fantastic reactions to our product launches from our retail partners. We're working on a number of significant growth opportunities for this brand in the North American market. These include a focus on brand range, development, and merchandising, ensuring the retail network has the right range and depth of key collections. We recently launched a marketing campaign with Dakota Johnson as Global Brand Ambassador. This campaign has been received really positively by the press and our retail partners and will help to elevate the brand's prominence. We've developed a new in-store design and shop-in-shop concept that we've trialed in our Mayors showrooms. We've seen a significant uplift in sales from this, and there's an opportunity to expand this through the wholesale network.
We are also working closely with our department store partners and independent retailers on space expansion opportunities and pursuing monobrand boutiques. During FY2026, we will also launch a new upgraded website to boost online sales. I'm pleased to share that we are progressing with three monobrand Roberto Coin boutiques in Hudson Yards, New York, Miami Design District, and Caesars, Las Vegas, which will be run through a DTC model. Roberto Coin has had phenomenal success with monobrand boutiques in Europe and the Middle East, and we are excited about the elevation that these boutiques will bring to the brand in the U.S.. HODINKEE is going from strength to strength. They've just had the most successful Watches and Wonders, and we are also very excited about what we have coming down the line over the next 18 months.
Again, similar to Roberto Coin, we knew how influential, loved, and respected HODINKEE was, but we are still very pleased by the support we are seeing from the watch brands and, most importantly, the wider watch community. Finally, we are continuing to develop our e-commerce business. We've recently re-platformed our watchesofswitzerland.com website onto Shopify, and there will be a migration of all of our other websites onto that platform. Very early performance is proving positive. We see e-commerce in the U.S. as a significant opportunity for growth. I will now hand you over to Craig, President for the U.K.
Thanks, David. I would like to focus on the significant showroom development we have been delivering here in the U.K. across FY25 and plans for FY26 and beyond. Let's start with the most significant project completed this year. I am extremely pleased to announce we completed the development of the new Rolex boutique on Old Bond Street, London, opening on Friday, the 14th of March 2025. This boutique is the single Rolex agency on Bond Street from what was previously four points of sale, operating across four floors in circa 7,200 sq ft, including the first dedicated Rolex Certified Pre-Owned floor, as well as three floors dedicated to sales and hospitality, and an after-sales lounge home to six watchmakers and technicians. Let's take a look at this short video.
As you can see, it's an amazing boutique. The performance of this Rolex boutique has exceeded all expectations. We have received over 15,600 visitors in just the 13 weeks since opening. Having built an amazing team for our boutique, we engaged some months ago with Antonia Hock, an international client experience expert, to help us with our team training and delivery of a world-class client experience unique to Old Bond Street. I am extremely pleased with our results so far in terms of Net Promoter Score and direct client feedback, particularly relating to the colleague satisfaction. We have continued the rollout of our luxury designs across a number of key locations in FY25, with significant new developments and expansions for Mappin & Webb, Edinburgh, Goldsmiths, Milton Keynes, and Cheltenham, as well as Watches of Switzerland, Oxford Street.
In November 2024, we expanded and more than doubled the size of our location in Fenchurch Street, London, converting the showroom to a new Watches of Switzerland. Across two floors and nearly 6,000 sq ft, the showroom incorporates a large Rolex area along with multiple branded spaces for key luxury brands, as well as the first branded Rolex Certified Pre-Owned space. As we move into FY26, our first significant project was the completion of our joint venture with Audemars Piguet, their AP House in King Street, Manchester, the only point of sale in the U.K. for Audemars Piguet outside of London. Across 6,500 sq ft, the Grade II listed house has been designed with the highest level of client experience in mind, offering dining facilities, VIP space, music lounge, and rooftop event and space. The client feedback in the early weeks has exceeded our expectations.
Newcastle born and bred makes me very happy to be completing such a major refurbishment and upgrade to our amazing and beautiful Northern Goldsmiths showroom. The showroom is renowned for being the U.K.'s first-ever Rolex retailer back in 1919, and Rolex, along with Rolex Certified Pre-Owned, will feature heavily in this development, along with our amazing precious jewelry and luxury jewelry brands. This project completes July 2025. We are making great progress developing a first-of-its-kind Mappin & Webb luxury jewelry boutique in St Anne's Square, Manchester. This Grade II listed building in the heart of luxury retailing in the city will be home to the most amazing selection of luxury jewelry brands, created across 5,500 sq ft of branded spaces with hospitality and bespoke event and space. It will also include the first De Beers mono-brand boutique outside of London.
All of the brands in the showroom will be exclusive to Mappin & Webb in Manchester, giving us a real point of difference for our clients. The showroom is scheduled to open in September 2025. The remainder of FY26 will see us complete a number of major refurbishments, expansions, and relocations in key regional locations, majority completing in the first half of FY26. This pipeline of amazing projects continues into FY27. We have agreement from Rolex to double the size of our Rolex boutique on Buchanan Street, Glasgow. This hugely successful showroom has traded beyond expectations since opening in 2019 and now requires this expansion to allow us to service an increased number of clients, as well as introduce Rolex Certified Pre-Owned in a dedicated space, and also to create a quality after-sales area with in-house watchmakers. This project will commence in October 2025. Many thanks.
I will now hand over to Anders, our CFO, to discuss the financials.
Thank you, Craig. Before we get into the numbers, I wanted to take a moment to provide an overview of the Group's financial framework for value creation. We operate in a market with attractive long-term structural growth dynamics, where demand continues to outstrip supply for key brands. As Brian and David talked to earlier, we have a strong track record of revenue growth, recording a CAGR of 13.5% since IPO, while growing our U.S. business to over $1 billion from a standing start in 2017, and we believe our key growth drivers will see this strong momentum continue. Likewise, our margin progression has been strong, with a CAGR of 19.3% since IPO. Our balance sheet is strong, supported by good Cash Flow Conversion. The Group has a disciplined approach to capital allocation, focusing on organic and inorganic growth, with surplus capital returned to shareholders.
I will talk in more detail about our capital allocation approach later. Finally, we offer our shareholders long-term compounding returns. Onto the numbers. FY 25 was a year of stabilization and a return to growth in the U.K., while momentum in our U.S. business continued to be strong. Sales came in at GBP 1.652 billion, or +8% in constant currency. Sales growth was driven by the U.S. market, with growth of 16% in constant currency, despite the impact of the Q1 stock build. Our adjusted EBIT of GBP 150 million versus GBP 135 million in FY 24 was up 12% in constant currency, with an adjusted EBIT margin of 9.1%, or up 30 basis points versus prior year. Our Free Cash Flow was GBP 98 million, and return on capital employed was 19%.
If we split the year in two halves, you can see the improving sales trend, with the U.K. returning to growth and the U.S. business up 19% in the second half versus the 11% in the first half. Turning to the income statement in more detail, as mentioned, Group revenue at plus 8% in constant currency, or plus 7% at reported rate. Net product margin percentage declined by 30 basis points due to product mix, partially offset by savings on interest-free credit. Our adjusted EBIT margin grew by 30 basis points to 9.1%, and adjusted EBIT for FY2025 came in at GBP 150 million, up 12% in constant currency. Adjusted EPS came in at GBP 41.6, or up 9% on prior year. Our balance sheet is strong. In the year, we spent GBP 107 million on the acquisitions of Roberto Coin and the HODINKEE business, both of which are progressing well.
Continued capital investment in our estate to elevate the network and drive future growth remains a key component of our strategy. Inventory levels were up 14%, reflecting inventory on acquisitions of GBP 54 million. Underlying inventory levels and terms remained healthy. As a reminder, inventory is a very low-risk asset in our category. We closed the year with a net debt position of GBP 96 million, reflecting acquisition spend. Our Net Debt to EBITDA leverage came out at 0.6 times. We continue to be highly cash-generative. Our Free Cash Flow for the year was GBP 98 million, with a Cash Flow Conversion of 51%. This was impacted by one-off changes to supplier payment terms, which, if excluded, would have given a cash conversion of 71%. In March, we announced the launch of a GBP 25 million Share Buyback program, which completed in early FY 2026. We spent GBP 11 million during FY 2025.
As mentioned earlier, we have a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our focus is on showroom investments, strategic acquisitions, and in the event of surplus capital, returns to shareholders. Showroom investment remains a key priority, offering attractive returns, and our ongoing elevation program is progressing well, as evidenced earlier by David and Craig. We have a disciplined approach to strategic acquisitions, with strong focus on returns. This remains one of our key pillars for growth, particularly in the U.S.. Were we to have surplus capital above and beyond the requirements of the business, we will return to shareholders, as evidenced by the recent Share Buyback program. Across the piece, we look to optimize capital deployment for the benefit of all of our stakeholders, focusing on long-term sustainable growth while maintaining financial and operational flexibility, allowing us to react tactically to opportunities.
The current macroeconomic environment is volatile, making it uncertain. Our guidance for the 53 weeks of FY2026 is based on: current U.S. tariff rate of 10% maintained beyond the 90-day pause; currently announced margin changes from brand partners in response to the 10% tariff. As it stands today, the 10% tariffs on imported goods from Switzerland have led some of our brand partners to put through mid-single-digit price increases in the U.S., alongside reducing their authorized distribution network's margin percentage. Our view is that some brands are looking to share the tariff pain with retailers rather than passing the full cost on to the consumers. Our guidance is based on visibility of supply of key brands, which we have for the calendar year 2025. Guidance also reflects confirmed showroom projects but excludes any uncommitted capital projects or acquisitions.
We're guiding towards revenue growth in constant currency, or between 6%-10%. Adjusted EBIT margin percentage flat to down 100 basis points on prior year, reflecting margin changes from key brand partners. Our capital expenditure is planned to come in between GBP 65 million and GBP 75 million. The outcome of U.S. tariff developments remains uncertain. We are in regular dialogue with our brand partners, but it's too early to comment on the potential sector impact of further changes. We will provide further updates as to the potential impact on FY26 guidance once the situation becomes clearer. With that, I will now hand over to Brian for some final remarks.
Thank you, David, Craig and Anders. To summarize, the Group has performed well during the year with significant strategic progress. We've continued to invest in our showroom estate and have a strong pipeline of projects through fiscal 2026 and 2027 with our key partners. The performance of certified pre-owned has been encouraging, and we have major growth opportunities for e-commerce in the U.S. and luxury branded jewelry. The integrations of Roberto Coin and HODINKEE have gone well, and we have initiated a number of significant growth initiatives with these acquisitions. Importantly, we've continued to support the Watches of Switzerland Group Foundation, which provides essential support to local and national charities focused on poverty, social mobility, hardship, and education. We have a uniquely advantaged model with attractive strategic opportunities, and we are very well placed to continue to deliver profitable growth.
Thank you. We will now begin a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. You may also submit your questions via the webcast platform. Again, it is star one to ask a question over the phone. Our first question is from Adrian Duverger from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The first one would be on the U.S. market, please. Could you comment on what surprised you the most regarding the performance in the U.S. over the last six months? Could you also comment on the exit rate and what you've been seeing in the last couple of months? The second question would be with regards to the inventory. Given the numbers we've seen for Swiss watch exports coming into the U.S. in April, could you please comment on where you see inventory in the U.S.? More broadly, how do you feel about the outlook for inventory allocation across the brands? Is it in line with your expectations looking ahead for FY2026? Thank you very much.
Okay, Craig, thanks for your question. You know, I would not say that there is too much surprising about the U.S. market. You know, I think our original thesis that there was a great love of Swiss watches and that demand has been not fully potentialized because of limited investment and retail. I think that is clearly been proven to be correct. Passing $1 billion last year was, I think, a real exceptional milestone for the Group there. We have, you know, it is across the U.S., their performance has been good. There is a great appreciation and love for their luxury watches. There is a fantastic market in the U.S. for luxury branded jewelry, which has also been very strong.
There is wealth, there is an attitude in America that they will continue to enjoy life and indulge in responding to what we are offering of great client service and great environments, and obviously representing the best brands in the market. Honestly, nothing that we would really characterize as surprising. We have got to keep working hard at it. Of course, we do. We keep investing, we keep training other people, we keep elevating client experience, and the consumer is responding very well. We did finish the year strongly. We have got really important initiatives that are going to be impacting in the year ahead, including the launch of e-com, or the revised e-com launch, which is off to a great start. Very, very positive about Roberto Coin and the potential that is there.
You heard from David the important steps that were taken with mono-brand stores, with e-com, and obviously this fantastic reaction we have had to our great Dakota Johnson campaign. Very positive about that. Pre-owned was a much more established market in the U.S., and we have clearly managed to take a strong position in that, and we have got great momentum on Rolex CPO, and other pre-owned. We are very happy with our progress and happy that we understand that market and how to respond to it. Inventory, Anders.
As for the inventory, Adrian, obviously April was inflated because what the brands did, they accelerated the intake to the market in expectation of tariffs. It is not something that has hit the distribution network. It is more held by the brands themselves. If you look at the U.S. market from an inventory point of view, it is very healthy.
You know, the growth in the market over the LTM period is 15.5%. I think it's more relevant to look at it over an extended period of time than taking an isolated month. It is also important to recall that it's not, you know, this import number has nothing to do with what the inventory levels in the distribution network itself is. There is no excess inventory in the market.
No. That's very clear, I think. If I can just have a follow-up on growth in the U.S., could you please comment on the growth in the U.S. ex-Roberto Coin?
There's not a number that we've given out, so we can't be specific on that. As I mentioned, we have a number of growth initiatives. Being over, we are on supply, obviously, from key brands, and that's played into our expectation. We have both finding Roberto Coin, but we also have important growth around e-com, around important projects, those that we completed towards the end of the second half of the last fiscal year and others that we have planned going into this year. You know, the uncertainty in the market remains tariffs, of course, which we've made really clear. We'll have hopefully clarification on that in the coming days, really, hopefully next week. We have a number of growth initiatives. Roberto Coin is an important one, but we have other important ones as well.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Our next question is from John Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, guys. Sorry, Brian. Your answer there on the U.S., I couldn't really catch it at the start. I think there's a problem with the microphones there. You exited, or more recent trading in the U.S. is improving, is that what you said? I'd like to ask the same question about the U.K., just trying to get a feel for the overall market. Is it the same as it was a couple of months ago, or things are improving or deteriorating, you think, on an underlying basis? Second question, just in terms of the shop closures you announced in the U.K., just wondering what are your efforts there? Is it obviously to improve profitability? Just wondering in terms of the negative impact on revenue. You know, I guess those stores are pretty low, low, low, single-digit million contributors at best in terms of revenue. Thank you.
Sorry, David, the answer. Can you hear me okay now?
Yeah, it's not great. It's like you're talking into a tunnel or something.
Okay, we've moved the mic a bit closer.
Yeah, that's much better, yeah.
Okay, sorry you didn't hear me. You missed out. I didn't see anything of improving. We did have a good second half, both U.K. and U.S., as we've reported. Our only comment on current trading is it's in line with our expectation. Nothing to report on it. Good momentum, mechanic, good momentum out of last year, and that continues so far in this year. We have a lot of growth initiatives in the U.S. I presume you heard me say all of that around jewelry, certified pre-owned, e-com, and a lot of great projects that we completed last year, impacting in this year, and then other new projects that we have planned, David reported.
All good, and we've described the U.K. market as having stabilized following a period of really unprecedented volatility, really impacted the post-COVID period, and then impacted by resulting high inflationary prices impacting at a time when U.K. consumer sentiment was pretty negative. The market overall, and we within that market, had a tougher period, second half 2023 through to 2024. We see that it's largely over the market, the consumer behaving in a way that we recognize and our brand partners in particular responding as they typically do to the market conditions, really great product development, modest price increases, and great marketing to support the new products that are going on. Stabilized is how we see the U.K. market, and that's how we've projected it going forward. The closures that we did were, as you described, there's very little loss of sales, actually.
The agencies in those stores that we want to maintain, we have maintained, and we've moved into other stores in the local geographies. Overall, it is a cost saving for the year that we'll have from the store closures and no real significant impact on sales.
Okay, I want to just follow up in terms of your non-supply constrained brands. Just wondering how the environment is for those or anyone's maybe doing particularly well, maybe others for whatever reason not doing particularly well. Just in terms of your guidance, what are your thoughts about, will there be a decline? Is that what you're forecasting for those non-supply constrained brands, or are you assuming flat sort of development? Any sort of detail you can provide would be great because everybody knows how great the Rolex and all of the store expansions are. It's a great story. It's just people are obviously a bit concerned more about the non-supply constrained stuff. Thank you.
Yeah, as you know, we have a really great portfolio of brand partnerships. The period that I referred to, the volatile period, really impacted the kind of price segment for our $3,000-$7,000 around the brands that are in that segment. Collectively, those brands, as has been very typical of the industry, it's pragmatic, it's responsive. The response in terms of new product development and marketing has been, and pricing, I think has been very, very good. We've worked with the brands. There's more product, new product impact. Again, during the COVID years, new products were subdued a bit because it was obviously such initially huge demand going on, and production was optimized during that time. Watches and Wonders this year and the other brands that are presenting new products, we were very, very pleased by.
We've already had deliveries of new products and the reaction to the market's been good. We're not calling out anything specifically with regards to those brands. We'd regard today's market as very much more recognizable in terms of consumer behavior and brand momentum.
Great, thank you.
Sure.
Our next question is from Alison Lygo from Deutsche Numis. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Three, if I might please. The first one was just on how you talked about the brands and their kind of reaction to the import tariffs and taking a bit of a price and also kind of some of the contraction on the margin. I'm just wondering if that's impacting how you're thinking about the ranging across your network in terms of those different brands where maybe you're being required to kind of take a bit more pain or maybe actually you feel like some brands are taking more price than perhaps their brands in the position to support, kind of coming back to your earlier point in terms of more rational pricing. Just wondering if that's impacting anything there in terms of how you're thinking about the range that you're putting to consumers.
The second one was just around supply payment terms. You were clear that there was a one-off change there in terms of a working capital impact. Is that at all connected to what's happening in the U.S. and those kind of supply brands, or is it just a totally different kind of supply base and completely unconnected? I'll come back on Roberto Coin if that's okay.
Okay, Alison, thanks. The changes that have happened will not impact in our ranging overall. We have great brand partnerships. We manage things long term with the brands, and there is not anything within kind of differentiated behavior of the brands, if you like, that would cause us to reconsider any of that. There will be no impact on our ranging from the tariff implications.
In terms of the payment terms, it is a one-off correction by some of our network. They reduced terms in both the U.K. as well as in the U.S. We view it as a one-off, and it is probably linked to working capital from their side, pushing it onto the distribution network. It should normalize, so our cash conversion should come back to the 70% or so in the coming year.
Brian, that's super helpful. Thank you. Just.
It's not connected to the tariffs, by the way.
Okay, got it. Thank you. Then just on Roberto Coin and maybe some of your kind of expectations and sort of plans for growth there in the year, just wondering how we should be thinking about the incremental impact from those monobrand boutiques, both in terms of the revenue and how maybe the operating economic shift, and maybe how we should be thinking about the margins of that bit of the business progressing. Thank you.
It has got to be an important year for Roberto Coin. We have just spent the last year getting to know Roberto and his family, his management in the Chandler in Italy, and also with Peter Webster and the team in the U.S., and getting to understand the market they operate in, meeting a lot of the customers. Myself and David Hurley were in Las Vegas for the JCK Couture show and met many of the customers. We met quite a few last year, but we met a great deal more this year. It is a great, great brand. It is a fabulous product. It is on a great market. It is really the best market in the world for a luxury brand in jewelry and for jewelry overall as the U.S. market. A great portfolio of customers and distribution. Now, we have added to that some significant investment, obviously, behind the Dakota Johnson campaign.
It is a brand that clearly is ripe for elevated distribution and consumer presentation and ripe for monobrand development. Our plans are to do monobrands directly in some cases where we are in a strong position within those markets. We also plan to do it with good branded partners that are stronger regionally through a franchise model. We are also upgrading the presentation in our wholesale distribution, both with our strong independent partners and the department stores, and we are doing e-com. The three stores that David announced are all in markets that we are already strong in, one in Las Vegas, one in New York and Hudson Yards, and one in Miami Design District that was there already. We are just expanding the space and kind of upgrading the presentation. The financials obviously are attractive from a margin standpoint because effectively we will get combined wholesale and retail margin.
Yeah, very, very excited and confident about the prospects for the brand.
Brian, thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from Kate Calvert from Investec. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. I'm just coming back on Alison's question on Roberto Coin and trying to pin you down a bit more. Should we think about Roberto Coin as being a low single-digit growth business or a mid-single-digit growth business? What sort of range of growth do you think we should be assuming for that business? Also, just from the accounting, when you start putting mono-brand stores in, will that go into the wholesale line, or does that go under the U.S. of a bit line as far as sales are concerned? My second question is just going back to the acquisition of the Ernest Jones package of stores, which you acquired a couple of years ago in the U.K. Could you just update us on the sort of returns and where you are with that package of stores and the performance they achieved last year?
Thanks very much.
Okay, we're not going to give you a specific help on the growth plans that we have for Roberto next year. We did well with Roberto Coin last year. We were anticipating perhaps some reaction from the wholesale distribution, a lot of whom we compete with, obviously, in the watch world, but the reaction to that distribution has actually been good. We start with a strong base, good momentum, and obviously, stores are incremental, online is incremental, expanded space, and our wholesale partners, department stores and otherwise, would hope would be incremental. We've got a lot to go out, but we've formulated plans. I think we've gone about it in a good way. As I said earlier, getting to know the people, the product, the market, the customers well before initiating the growth plans that we have for this year.
We'll probably be more communicative as the year goes on, but we're not going to give you any further direction on the assumed growth for Roberto at this point. On the technical accounting
I n terms of where we're going to record the sales for the monobrands, I mean, it remains a very substantial part of the business going through wholesale, obviously. That will go in under our U.S. normal sales as part of the U.S. business and not separated into the wholesale segment. In terms of the E&Y sort of returns as such, obviously, when we acquired the business, it was predominantly inventory purchase. We bought $32 million of inventory for a total consideration of $47 million, I think it was. The value of the asset that we acquired was nominal. What we essentially got was the right to the agencies.
That was the big win in that acquisition. The returns overall have been really helpful and good. We haven't disclosed any specifics on it, so I'm not going to go into that level of detail. It has allowed us to rationalize distribution and presentation in a number of the regional markets around the country. It has been a positive step for us and, I think, honestly, a positive step for the market overall.
Just follow up with one other question. You're sounding quite positive on the innovation that's coming through for Patek. Do you think the balance or mix between the entry and higher-end sort of watch price points is back to normal and the innovation is sort of back to pre-COVID levels?
I think, yes, the impact and new products may be even a wee bit better because there was a bit of catch-up to do. I think new products did not get the same sort of featuring during this volatile COVID influence period. It is just, you will see the products. We announced them. You will see them. You see them from the brand. You see them from us. It is a great combination of new product excitement supported with great marketing. It is positive for sure. We are obviously working with the brands very closely on product launches and copies of activity, whether it is advertising or events or online activity and so on. All good and good for the market. As I have said a few times, very much more recognizable versus this period that we have come through.
Thanks, Kate.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing star one. You may also submit your questions over the webcast. Now, our next question is from Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas Exane. I have two questions. First question is on your CPO business. You mentioned that the certified pre-owned is growing very strongly with Rolex becoming the number two watch brand. I was wondering if there is any significance, any difference in the U.K. versus the U.S. if you plan to add further locations for Rolex and the other CPO stores. What is your, what do you believe is the number that you can achieve there? My second question is on the online, if you can please remind us what it represents. Thank you.
CPO, the pre-owned market was always and remains much more developed in the U.S.. That has been reflected in our relative development of that category as well. Remind you that we did acquire expertise in the category when we acquired Analog:Shift. It is around the team in Analog:Shift that we have really developed Rolex CPO and other pre-owned. It is a great expertise in a very good market in the U.S. and great momentum. The UK, having said all of that, has also and proportionately has done from where they came, I think, even better. Again, we have set up all of the logistics for procurement and handling logistics between us and Rolex and back to the market. We have brought in, again, some expertise in the category. It has been a great business development for us.
In terms of changes and momentum and other positive impacts, we are implementing from Rolex directly, both window and store furniture. We're investing more in supporting the business online and with a number of things that I think just drive the momentum ahead and what is clearly a very significant category for us overall online.
In terms of online, first, as a reminder, half of our business is not transactional online because Rolex and Patek doesn't allow us to do that. That's just to put things into context. Our online business is around 6% or so of our business overall and growing. We have high expectations in the U.S., as Brian alluded to earlier. We're in the early stage there. We still need to integrate the HODINKEE traffic into our network, which we're working on. That will happen throughout the next quarter or so.
We really look forward to that.
Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions over the phone, I will hand over for any webcast questions. Over to you, Danielle.
Thanks, Sergei. We do just have time for some questions from David Hughes from Shore Capital. Firstly, for the growth expectations for FY2026, how much do you expect in the U.S. versus the U.K.? Secondly, do you have a number in mind for the number of doors in the U.S.? Thirdly, what are the moving parts in your guidance between the negative 100 basis points and the flat EBIT margin?
Yeah, I mean, we'll apologize to David if he's listening. We haven't given and we never do give the split by regional market overall. We just give our overall guidance for our group for fiscal year 2026. We have fewer doors, obviously, in the U.S., but they're bigger. They're highly productive. There's scope for expansion in the U.S. with new developments that are going on with underserved markets and potential from acquisition. I think if you look at our track record of how we've grown, we'd hope to continue to still have those same levers of growth, which would include door expansion. We've never been public on saying this is the overall objective. Quite honestly, it's kind of hard to determine in any event. The opportunities are there, but we've got to do the deals.
We've got to get the support of our brand partners, and we've got to execute, and we carry on doing all of that. We will expand doors in the U.S., but we've never given out a specific number.
In terms of the margin question, obviously, if you hit the upper end of sort of our revenue guidance, you get operating leverage as a result. That would obviously bring you closer to flat. At the lower end, you would experience less leverage, and therefore you would have a more deterioration on your margin.
Thank you. With that, I'd like to hand back to you, Brian, for closing remarks.
Okay, thanks. Thanks, Danielle. Thanks, everybody, for joining and your questions. We're feeling good and upbeat as two months into this new fiscal year, as we've described the market conditions that we're in. We feel good about the U.S. market strong, the U.K. market stabilized. It's all notwithstanding whatever might happen in tariffs, which I think we've made very, very clear. Our model clearly is working. It's advantaged overall. It allows us to outperform the market as we've consistently done now over well over a decade, and we continue to do that. Exciting growth plans ahead. We've got great projects. We've got the projects that we completed in last fiscal year, for example, Bond Street and the Lenox in the U.S., the Patek, Sullivan, and Connecticut, and so on.
Some great projects we completed last year fully impacting on this year, a number of great projects that we have in the pipeline that we presented to you for this year. CPO, we've talked a good bit about, great momentum behind it. We love the business, and we continue to expand e-com in the U.S.. We think it's a really exciting opportunity that we will develop over the next few years. Roberto Coin is a great brand, and we think there's really great potential behind it. We've outlined all of the plans that we have there. Beyond Roberto Coin, other potential planned growth in jewelry, including the opening of our store in Manchester, which will happen in September. We feel good and upbeat about the year ahead. Thank you for joining us again. Thanks for your support.
A huge thank you to our team for having navigated through this period that we've had and for everything that they're doing to keep our clients very happy now. Thank you.