Good morning or good afternoon all. Welcome to the Watches of Switzerland Q4 FY23 trading update. My name is Adam. I'll be your operator for today. If you'd like to ask a question in the Q&A portion of today's call, you may do so by pressing star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now hand the floor over to CEO, Brian Duffy, to begin. Brian Duffy, please go ahead when you are ready.
Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. I'm Brian Duffy, the CEO of Watches of Switzerland Group. I'll be adding some further commentary and color to the Q4 fiscal year trading announcement that we made this morning. Our CFO, Anders Romberg, will then add some comments on our full year 2024 guidance, which we also announced this morning, and then we'll both be happy to take whatever questions you have. I'm very pleased with our strong revenue performance in Q4 and for the fiscal year. Consistent with Q3, the macro backdrop has continued to be more challenging in Q4 as we expected and forecasted. Macroeconomic pressures impacting wider consumer confidence.
Despite these challenges, we delivered sales growth of 22% in Q4, 25% for the full year, both in reported currency and at the higher end of guidance and expectations. Sales growth in the US remained strong in Q4 at +27% reported, +17 constant. UK, Europe sales were up 18% in the fourth quarter, with the UK business benefiting from timing of deliveries of key brands. Luxury watches for the year grew 28%, and the market information we have shows that we gained share both in the UK and in the US. Growth was driven by the combination of increased average selling price as well as volume. Regarding our registration of interest lists, there was no change to what we experienced and commented on in Q3.
Demand remains strong, outpacing supply and we continue to add to net registration of interest numbers in both markets. Luxury jewelry in Q4 was down 17%. That reflected both market trends and our strategy and focus on full price sales. Average selling prices grew double digit as we continue to merchandise to higher price points and reduce discounting in the US. We further progressed our expansion into Europe with the opening of our first TAG Heuer boutique in Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin. Our new stores in Stockholm and Copenhagen are performing well and in line with our expectations. Our teams in those two cities are full of enthusiasm and doing a fantastic job. Consumers in these markets are responding well to elevated showroom experience and client service.
The ASP in both markets is really very good and higher than UK and US averages. Looking back at the fiscal 2023, we reflect on what's been an important investment year for the group. Highlights for the year include opening five showrooms and the iconic Battersea Power Station development. We did that last autumn. We expanded our presence in Boca Raton, Florida, and trading in these showrooms has been higher than expectations. We also continue to roll out our successful Goldsmiths luxury format here in the UK. Our program of elevated customer experience, Xenia, continues to embed in our retail culture and is impacting positively in client relations and sales. Turning to full year profitability, we expect fiscal year 2023 adjusted EBIT to come out between GBP 163 million and GBP 167 million.
Prior year margins did benefit from GBP 5 million of UK business rates relief, an impact of around 30 basis points on profitability. Fiscal year 2023 saw another year of margin expansion as we continue to leverage our fixed cost base despite headwinds from interest-free credit costs, increases and a negative impact from product mix. We're delighted to announce today plans to open our first Audemars Piguet house in the region of the St. Anne's area in Manchester. That will be through our joint venture partnership with Audemars Piguet, and it will open or planned to be open in spring 2024.
This joint venture represents a further milestone in the long-standing relationship we have built with Audemars Piguet and further endorsement of the strength of demand for luxury watches across the UK. The city of Manchester continues to increase its profile as a center for sports, music, hospitality, and as a retail destination for a large North of England catchment area. We love the Manchester market. We've also announced today our plans to open our fifth Tudor mono-brand boutique in the UK. This new flagship boutique will be in a wonderful location at the corner of Bond Street and Piccadilly in London and promises to elevate the experience for both loyal and new Tudor clients browsing the brand's iconic timepieces. The news represents the latest step in the continued evolution of our partnership with the Tudor brand.
These projects will add to our existing pipeline of projects, including our flagship Watches of Switzerland showroom, an American Dream, which will open this month. The refurbishment and expansion of Mayors in Dadeland, Florida, which has now just opened in recent days, and the relocation of our Rolex boutique in Orlando, Florida. With that relocation, we'll move from a 1,000 sq ft store to a 3,000 sq ft store, and that will happen in October. Excuse me. Our Bond Street flagship boutique is due to open in the first half of 2024. We're also looking forward to the launch of CPO in Q1, Certified Pre-Owned product from Rolex, that is, in Q1 in the US and Q2 in the UK.
As we close out, fiscal 2023, we'd like to point out where we stand against the long-range plan that we presented to the market in the summer of 2021. Sales are significantly ahead of that plan, in fact, north of GBP 200 million ahead of the plan, and that excludes the benefit of favorable movements in foreign exchange, which makes the differential even greater. Our adjusted EBIT margin has improved by more than 100 basis points versus what we had planned, and we're way ahead on cash and returning capital employed. We're very pleased with our progress, our momentum, and our prospects for future profitable investment and growth. With that, I'll now hand over to Anders Romberg, our CFO, to talk through the fiscal 2024 guidance.
Thank you, Brian Duffy. I'm delighted to be back and look forward to working with the team again. As Brian Duffy mentioned, we entered FY 2024 significantly ahead of where we expected to be in our long-range plan, following two years of exceptional performance, notwithstanding the macroeconomic backdrop. Our guidance for FY 2024 is on an organic pre-IFRS 16 basis, assuming the current exchange rate. We are guiding to revenue between GBP 1.65 billion-GBP 1.7 billion, which assumes a revenue growth rate of between 8% and 11% at constant exchange rates. We expect adjusted EBIT margins to be in line with what we experienced in FY 2023. FY 2024 guidance anticipates that the more challenging trading environment of the second half of FY 2023 will continue into the first half of this fiscal 2024 before improving in the second half of the year.
Due to product intake timing, which supported the growth in Q4 of FY 2023 and strong prior year comparatives, the group expects a modest sales decline in the first quarter of FY 2024 before normalizing in the second quarter. Our guidance also reflects the current visibility of supply from key brands and confirmed showroom refurbishments, openings and closures, but excludes uncommitted capital projects and acquisitions. We expect the underlying tax rate to be between 27%-28%, reflecting the recent increase in the UK Corporation Tax. FY 2024 will be another strong investment year, and we plan to spend between GBP 70 million-GBP 80 million on capital. With that, I will hand over to the operator to run the Q&A session.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your headset is fully plugged in and unmuted locally. That's star followed by one to ask a question today. Our first question is from Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas Exane. Melania Grippo, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. I have a couple of questions. First one is on the impact from higher product intake in Q4 2023. We estimated it to be around GBP 50 million. Is this correct? I would like to ask you an update on Patek Philippe door cuts. A re you at the end of your negotiations? Is there anything that you can tell us on this? Finally, on the Rolex CPO program, we heard the date that you would like to launch the program in both US and UK Could you explain to us how does it work? Will you be able to put the watches also online in both countries? Can you give us a little bit of, explain how does it work? Thank you.
Hi Melania Grippo, thanks for your questions. Your question about, I'm sorry, the impact of intake was 2023 or 2024? The last quarter was FY 2023.
I see. Have we said an exact number? I think, what we saw in the quarter was a continuation of what we experienced in our third quarter, where the UK growth rate was sitting at around 7%. That was the underlying trend that we could read on the Q4 numbers. Obviously we came in at 18, so there is a delta which is related to the timing of intake. On the Patek situation, we haven't been public yet with exactly what doors that we're talking about. There will be door reductions in our group from Patek, both in the UK and in the US Overall, we think this is completely right for Patek to do. Actually, it's probably overdue.
There's huge demand for Patek. They have been very public in saying that their cap on their production is 70,000 units. I think we all know they could sell that several times over globally. It does make sense to concentrate the business on fewer locations. We will be expanding locations that remain. The critical thing overall is that the intake of product we are pretty confident will remain at the levels that it's been in recent years, UK and in US I think there will inevitably be an increase in the average selling price. We think it's a really good move for Patek.
We're delighted with some of the investments that we'll be expanding on with them. It won't negatively impact our business. In fact, we see it as an opportunity in the future. Of course, we then have very high quality, desirable space available and more than enough brand partnership opportunities to take further advantage of that. Overall, we see it as positive. Rolex Certified Pre-Owned, we've been working with Rolex for months and months on this. We think it's a very exciting program. They're doing it in a typical Rolex way in terms of being very disciplined and detailed on processes and materials and everything else.
We will be able to sell these products online to answer that specific question, which for us, we think is again, a really nice opportunity. We obviously have a great online presence, UK, and a growing one in the US We also have our Virtual Boutique, which is fully trained salespeople that are able to assist shoppers online, and we think that will be very, very beneficial for Certified Pre-Owned. We'll also be opening, branded presentations of Certified Pre-Owned and agreed locations with Rolex. We'll include a big statement in our new flagship reopening in Bond Street. We think it's very exciting. We think it's going to offer, significant growth in the years ahead.
The limiting factor, initially will just be logistics and capacity. Obviously, it's taking watchmakers and Rolex to authenticate and refurbish products, and watchmakers are a scarce resource in Switzerland. Capacity has been created, but it'll have to be built, and I don't think initially it will be at the level necessary to support the demand that will be there. We think it's very positive, consumers coming into a Watches of Switzerland store, able to buy Rolex products, which will all be 100% as good as new, guaranteed by Rolex, guaranteed by us. I think it's a very, very strong proposition.
Just a follow-up. Is the impact from this Rolex CPO, should we assume that it is included in your guidance for April 2024?
Yes, it is included in 2024. As I say, that is the start-up year. It's likely to feature more when we present our long range plan.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Thierry Coquillat from Societe Generale. Thierry, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Three questions for me. First, you expect around 10% growth this year. I was wondering if you could give us a breakdown of that, of price versus mix versus volume. Would price expected to be around half of the 10% be a fair estimate? Secondly, if you could comment on the M&A market in the US. I was wondering whether at this point you consider it to be quite active and the opportunities, or is it more calm than usual? Lastly, on demand currently, I'd like to know a little more what you're seeing or expecting for the year in terms of sales trend of supply constrained brands versus traffic dependent business and/or between more entry price versus higher price points. I mean, are there differences that you expect and that you already see materializing? Thank you.
Thanks, Thierry Coquillat . Anders Romberg, do you want to take this first point?
Sure. Thanks, Thierry Coquillat . The, the pricing impact that we saw come through in FY 2023 was around 6% weighted for the group. That is reduced in next year to 3% because that's the roll forward impact of the pricing actions that we saw come through. We never include any new pricing in that we don't have visibility in the plan, but obviously, we take into consideration the roll forward impact. In terms of mix within the portfolio, we do expect jewelry to continue to be challenged as a category, which is more driven by macroeconomic conditions than anything else. Then the rest of the business, obviously, the supply constrained business we expect to hold up based on supply. The other piece is up against some pretty tough comms here in the first quarter. As we go through the year, those comms are becoming more reasonable.
On M&A in the US, Thierry Coquillat , I don't think conditions have really changed. I think the logic and the case for the consolidation is pretty obvious. I think in the US, it remains a market where we expect to see the greatest growth from acquisitions. We're obviously active as we've always been in the market. I t takes time. It's inevitably family businesses. It takes negotiation with our and discussion with our brand partners. It all takes time. The market that acquisition in the US remains a key part of our strategy and our growth potential. W e intend to follow through as productively as we can on that.
On demand overall, I think the key thing that we've commented on is that, our registrations of interest for our key brands continue to increase overall, despite the fact that we are not, we're not accepting everyone for key products that obviously already have very long waiting lists. And despite that, we're adding more people. So demand remains very strong overall in the category in total. Traffic-dependent businesses, Anders Romberg just commented that we relate that mainly to our jewelry business. There are some other brands that have more of a traffic dependence as well. But, the perspective of the UK, where we commented on concerns about macroeconomic impact in our second half year, it was last October, November.
I think the feeling back then was more pessimistic than it is now. Traffic is generally improving. We still have, big city traffic numbers to recover, like here in the UK and in London and New York and the US, but particularly with people coming back to work and domestic air tourism. Traffic's improving overall, and all that obviously we've considered in the guidance that we've given. From a pricing standpoint, the move on pricing, generally average selling prices on watches and jewelry, increased during the year. Consumers I think are looking on our category in many respects as a sensible one to invest in when inflation is out there and just wonderful products that people love to own. The move that we've experienced from product mix has been an upward one on average selling price.
Great. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
The next question comes from Jon Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux. Jon Cox, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning, guys. A couple of questions for you, if I can. Anders Romberg, I think you mentioned Q1 sales would be lower. Just can you talk a little bit about that and what quantum should we expect? You're talking about the group as a whole there, I understand. What sort of quantum would there be? Because clearly, if you look at at least the export data, et cetera, that is still positive. Just wondering, even if the comp is difficult, the market still seems to be growing overall. That's the first question. Second one, just on the jewelry. You're talking about that category being under pressure. Wonder if you could talk a little bit more about that.
Is that mainly in the US. or the UK, or it's the US is the issue there? Third question, just on the Rolex certified, just wondering if the profitability for you will be accretive to the group margin from that program. Anything on whether you're seeing a load of customers basically all running to you and saying, "Well we want to sell this," and expressions of interest ahead of time. I'm just wondering what you think that secondary could become of your overall Rolex business down the line. Is it 10%, 20%, 30%, potentially?
Just the last one, I know you guys don't like to talk about it too much, but in terms of that growth guidance, this 10% odd constant currency for this year, just wondering how we should think about it. Is it like a couple of points from you, as always, with the renovation program, of the fifth of the network, and you get a 10% uplift or whatever it may be, plus market growth, plus maybe a bit of market share gains? I'm just wondering how we should think about that 10% figure. Thank you.
Your first question, Jon Cox, on the first quarter, obviously, as we indicated, on the previous person that asked, our growth rate in the UK in the last quarter of fiscal 2023 benefited from the early intake of Rolex. Clearly, the underlying growth was more in line with what we saw coming out of the third quarter. You have a delta there of around 11% or so that we benefited on sales in the UK that's going to reverse as we enter into the first quarter. That has an impact of give and take GBP 15 million-GBP 20 million in the quarter.
We're also up against a quarter where we had a very strong market conditions in FY 2023, and the strategic partner brands were, as you can see in our Q1 release, really performing exceptionally strong. That, those brands have moderated in growth throughout the year as the macroeconomic situation changed. Those are the reasons. W hat we said is that we expect a modest sales decline in the first quarter, and we'll stick with that rather than giving a specific number on it. Yeah, and your question on jewelry, Jon Cox, it is more traffic dependent. It's a more competitive market. It's one in which we are less competitively advantaged overall from a market share standpoint.
It's one in which the inclination of competition is to be very promotional as well and with chasing volume. It is more affected by consumer confidence. Just to emphasize it's around 7% of our group business is jewelry, just to keep it all in perspective. Of all of what we sell, it's the one that's most subject to the mood and the, as I say, competitive activity. It's, we have we love our jewelry brands. W e have plans to grow in our jewelry brands.
I think we're doing a really good job of positioning both UK and US, where we are positioning on the quality of the product and higher price points overall. In the US, we are positioning, full price and looking to eliminate discounting, which is much more prevalent in that market. I think we're absolutely doing the right things, but it is, as I've said a couple of times, a category that's more subject to a consumer mood. CPO, the financials will be that the gross margin will be smaller or less than our average, but bottom line will be in line with our average.
At this point, we wouldn't see it as being necessarily a case of or dilutive. Overall, we plan to maintain an overall profitability in CPO with the impact of CPO. I mean, I think could it be honestly, as I said earlier, the restriction of the level of business we'll do will be about capacity of watchmakers initially rather than consumer demand. We think both in our stores and online that it does have significant potential, and we'll talk more about it when we present our long range plan. I n terms of the guidance, I think it's interesting.
You look back at 23, we stuck with our guidance that we gave at the beginning of the year and ultimately achieved what we said we would do towards the higher end of it, in fact. Obviously, there were a lot of moving parts as the year went on. The change in macroeconomics, exchange rates, so a lot of moving parts, and we delivered. We look at this year with that same mentality. We have, as Anders Romberg said, visibility on supply, which we can lock in for the calendar year. We're conservative on the balance of the year on supply overall. We don't assume any pricing.
I think something probably will happen in January, but maybe less than as what's happened in the previous couple of years. We are making investments. They will deliver increases in sales overall. Again, we've taken that into account. Our plan is always to gain share. We've done it every year with that we've been working on this plan for the last 10 years. We would always intend to do so as we go forward. All of that's there baked in against this, expectation of this more negative macroeconomic situation, which we see continuing through the first half of our fiscal and then getting better in the second half.
Yeah. I wonder if we just have a follow-up on the Q1 modest sales decline. I guess that would be like mid-single digit, first follow-up. Second one, more on Europe, how to maybe accelerate that process because obviously there's a lot of opportunity there. Just wondering what your thoughts are, particularly regarding maybe acquiring some Rolex authorized dealers in Europe maybe over the next 12, 18 months or so.
Yeah. We would like to do that. We're as active in Europe as we are in the US, and it's pretty much the same approach. It's the same situation that we're looking at. A lot of family-owned business. Some good retailers that are out there. Some cities that we would look and see that the potential's greater. Yes, we would like to do that. Again, we haven't included obviously any acquisition in the, in our guidance that we've given, and whatever we're able to deliver will be incremental on that as is always the case. W e would like to do that. Our plan is that we will over this future period, we will secure some acquisition in the US, in the Europe.
The modest sales decline, mid-single digit?
Yeah, again, we're not confirming a number. One man's modesty is another man's .
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
The next question comes from Piral Dadhania from Royal Bank of Canada. Parag, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, everybody. 3 from me, please. Number 1, could you please give us an update on the performance of the non-supply constrained brands in Q4 and what you're seeing in the beginning of Q1? Obviously, a lot of questions on Rolex and supply constraint, but just wondering whether there's a bit more economic sensitivity to the Omegas, the Cartiers and the non-constrained brands in the portfolio. The second question is just on the shape of growth relative to the guidance for 2024. What gives you confidence that the second half has the potential to accelerate? You're talking about maybe less of a macro headwind in the back half of the year and softer comps, but actually, the Q4 comp is quite high based on what you've just posted.
I just wanted to understand what you're seeing. It could be the supply situation, I'm not sure, but any further color there would be helpful. Thirdly, just on interest-free credit, is there any change in the overall mix or incidence of revenues being generated from credit sales? How do you expect that to evolve in the next 12 months or so? Thank you.
Thank you. The non-supply constrained brands that you referred to or we refer to them as our strategic partner brands, Omega, Cartier, Breitling, Tudor, TAG, are great brands with really strong momentum, great partnerships for us. The sales continue to be strong. We've also developed really good partnerships with smaller, more niche brands like MB&F, Moser, and so on, that we are dealing into our future plans too. There's some other great performing brands out there, like Vacheron, for example, from Richemont, particularly in the US. The category overall is doing really well, and all of these brands continue to perform well.
Supply with those brands it's wrong to describe them as not supply constrained because there's been a limitation on supply for the category overall, for luxury watches overall, particularly with component manufacturing and the impact that there was of lockdown and a catch-up. Supply with these brands has become better. New product introduction timings have become more reliable. A ll good all around. W e have expansion plans with every one of them. O ur growth, obviously in the second half, we will be up.
We do foresee that the eco-economic conditions are likely to improve, and we'll be up against the second half year comps that are obviously more attractive from a growth standpoint. We also have a number of projects that we are working on and initiatives that we have with our brand partners. We do very detailed budgeting by brand, by store. W e do a detailed phasing, which has allowed us to talk about Q1 and allowed us, I think, to feel pretty confident about, H1, H2 numbers that we're looking at. We're pretty confident about the indications that we've given today on guidance. Anders, IFC.
In terms of credit penetration in the business, it's very stable here in the UK. In the US, it ticked up slightly during the year, but that's more about us tactically using it as a sales tool, than any change in consumer behavior really. It sits at around 12% of group revenue. Clearly we don't expect, and we can manage that by selecting our offerings to the consumer. We will hold it at around that level. Historically, that's where we've been in the UK. It has significantly come down in the US, since we entered into that market, so we're taking that out as a subsidy, on a lot of parts of our business.
Yeah. Just to emphasize to everybody, we don't take any risk at all on credit. That's all from our financial partner. We cover costs, but we take absolutely no financial risk on it overall. Levels of credit business are actually at, I think, probably all-time lows. Overall, we don't give any subsidized credit on Rolex Patek, for example.
Perfect. Thank you.
The next question comes from Richard Taylor from Barclays. Richard, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning. It was a question on the, on the margin headwinds that I think you called out for FY 23 and how we should think about it in FY 24. The, the headwinds that you call out are interest-free credit and product mix. Can you help us understand which is the bigger headwind out of those two, please? On, on each item, you obviously just confirmed that the participation rate is broadly stable on IFC, so are we right to think that the sensitivity from here is what happens to interest rates and how the phasing of that is rather than participation? On products, should we read the product mix headwinds to be that the super high demand watches are selling better than the rest of the portfolio, the other watches and jewelry? Thanks very much.
Thank you, Richard Taylor. I'll answer the question on IFC. Obviously, as we saw base rates climbing up towards the second half of the year, that put cost pressure on us because obviously we offer these programs on 12 to 48 months terms. Obviously you can . So 4 years of 1% cost us quite a lot of money. Clearly that has had an adverse impact on our margin in FY 2023, particularly so in the second half. We expect that to continue or to be the case throughout the year. We have actually included a couple of rate increases as we planned out the budget. It is a drag on profitability. It's something we believe is temporary and over time will revert.
We don't think that the base rates are going to stick at these levels long term. At some point in the future, I think that margin expansion is going to come back actually. In terms of product mix, Brian Duffy, you want to talk to that?
Again, as I say, we do really detailed budgeting by brand, by store. That's reflected in our expectations for this year. We're not really anticipating, as a result, a significant change in product mix or impact on product mix on margin. Probably the most significant thing still there is jewelry overall. We're not expecting a big recovery until well into fiscal year. Other than that, product mix, I don't think we're expecting much of a change overall.
Okay, thanks. Just one quick follow-up. I think there was some expectation you made that your long range plan, is that going to happen at the full year results or over the summer? Have you decided on that yet, please?
We haven't firmed up on a date. Obviously, Anders has only been with us for a couple of weeks, we did again a very, very detailed five-year plan. He's just getting fully versed in all of that. O nce he's totally comfortable with everything that's there in detail that he will be, we can then confirm exactly a date. We're keen to present it to the market. As soon as it's all buttoned out and Anders has got his words in line, we'll confirm a date.
Great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Natasha Brilliant from Credit Suisse. Natasha, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking my questions. I just wanted to come back on the margin point. I hear you on the sort of impact and the gag that you're talking about from product mix jewelry and also interest rates as well. In the absence of that, because you talk about it being temporary and sort of cyclical, what sort of leverage or what sort of margin improvement should we be thinking about in a year that you can do 10% top line growth? How should we think about the operational leverage of the business in a kind of normal point of the cycle? The second question was just on the JV with AP in Manchester. Obviously a slightly new business model and new approach for you.
Could you just give us a bit more color on how the economics of that will work and whether we could see similar deals like this with AP or indeed other brands? Do you get a sense that some of the other brands might be thinking about their distribution as well? Thank you.
On the operational leverage, Natasha Brilliant, obviously, we're over a percentage point ahead of where we thought we were going to be in our long-range plan. Clearly we've done much better. And that's come through operational leverage and not through product margin expansion. When we did the long-range plan, we were conscious that we would have some things working in our favor and other things working against us. We actually didn't in that plan reflect any sort of margin improvement. We have achieved it. It's come through operational leverage. I would say that obviously if we wouldn't have had the headwinds of increased, credit costs this year, we would have had the benefit of continued operational leverage come through.
Again, we had something that went against us. I'm not going to really comment on specifics in what it could have been and what it will be. Because, again, as I said, visibility of the interest costs that are going to incur in the first six months of the year, which is not matched off in last year.
Yeah. Natasha Brilliant, every year we've managed improvement in profitability. L ast year's 20 basis points was still an improvement up against some obvious headwinds. As Anders Romberg said way north of what we had assumed we could achieve in a long range plan. That model still works. We're not going to get into detail of the Audemars Piguet joint venture at this point, obviously we have a percentage of what we think will be a great investment. We're only doing a percentage of the capital. We're only getting a percentage of the profit back. They're highly productive stores, highly desirable brand, and one that we think is perfect for the market of Manchester.
Well, we have an opportunity of doing more with them, we hope so. UK and US, we really, enjoy working with the team at Audemars Piguet. They've expanded production a bit. They opened a factory in Le Locle. more product. Having said that, it's still well below the level of demand that's out there for sure for the brand. Yes, we'd like to do more, let's get this one open. Let's, celebrate it and see the success of it and let's see opportunities. JVs as a model with others, no one else has proposed that as a concept to us nor us to any of the brands.
We think this is something that. It's pretty public with Audemars that they do like that format. They clearly have moved to monobrand everywhere. They love their AP Houses with big areas for social interaction and so on. That's a great format for them. They've been very selective about partners that they do it with. We are delighted that one of those partners is us.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
The next question comes from Louise Singlehurst from Goldman Sachs. Louise, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, Brian Duffy, Anders Romberg, a warm welcome back to Anders Romberg, of course, on the call. It's great to hear you again. I've got just a couple of follow-ups, if I can. Just firstly on the underlying consumer. Brian thinking about those comments back in February, just to make it very simplistic for us. Is there any particular change when we look across the US or UK in terms of underlying trends? I know you called out in an earlier question that traffic's actually slightly improving. Anything across price point conversion? Obviously across luxury, we're hearing a little bit more of a slowdown in the US particularly. I know you already highlighted that back in February. For the UK specifically, are there any differences in behaviors that you're seeing in London versus the other regions?
My second question, and the final one, was just thinking about that growth outlook for 2024. I know we'll get more details later on, but when we think about that 8%-11% underlying growth, is it safe to kind of assume 1/3 like for like and 2/3 space in the overall mix component? Thank you.
Consumer behavior, Louise Singlehurst, there's no real change that we are perceiving. The consumer has been trading up for the last couple of years. As we've commented, continues to do so. The as I mentioned earlier, the major markets, I think there's a lot more to come out of London, New York, Vegas. Vegas is booming. Florida actually is booming as well. They're in great markets like Miami. Atlanta is a good market in the US, and we've talked about Manchester here. There isn't any difference on your question, that we are perceiving London versus other.
It's pretty much all domestic, because obviously they don't have the benefit of tourism that other markets are enjoying and 'cause of the VAT situation, which we think inevitably will change again. Obviously not assuming that at this point, but when it does, it will be incremental. We really are dealing with domestic consumers. There's actually been an impact on with strikes, the rail strikes. That's had an impact and probably has more influence to London than anywhere else. London obviously is a local destination for domestic air tourism, and mainly people coming in by train, the strikes haven't been helpful all around.
Other than that, in terms of demand, willingness, interest in products and the behavior of clients in the market, we haven't really seen a big difference.
In terms of our we don't ever give out our like for like because essentially , in our network we have quite a few of these Rolex locations, as you're well aware of. The performance of all stores will be driven by how we allocate the product. It can be a little bit misleading. What we do know is that when we invest in these stores, clearly we don't do that without discussing what incremental volume we would expect to get as a result of that.
As pointed out, the payback on these projects historically has been really good, so, and they still are. In terms of new mono brands, yes, that is an expansion, and that is how we gain share in some of these strategic partner brands by absorbing distribution geographically. Some of those will be incremental, but we, as I said, never have quantified it, and we don't intend to do so.
Thank you. Can I just ask 1 final one? On the Rolex deliveries in Q4, which obviously benefited from the timing of the shipments, can I just check if we were to assume Q4 and Q1, the total level of Rolex inventories were in line with your original plans? It's just the timing between the two quarters.
Yes.
Great. Thank you.
The next question comes from Daniel Isaacs from Threadneedle. Daniel, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Thanks for the presentation. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. The first is, so just on acquisitions, you mentioned earlier that you're always in a process and it can be a lengthy process. Can you just remind us the capacity of a balance sheet? Could you say what the net cash number is and what sort of leverage you're happy to go to, first of all? Second of all just listening to the answers to other questions, it sounds like, the main margin headwind would be in the jewelry mix. T hat's fallen back quite strongly. If we look at some of the other jewelry players in the market, their results have generally been quite resilient.
Maybe you can just chat to a bit of what the difference is there. Is it something like brand to jewelry taking more share or something to that effect? Thank you.
On the question on acquisitions, obviously we just renewed our financing, we entered into an RCF of GBP 225 million and closed out the year with cash on the balance sheet of GBP 16 million. We have pretty good headroom. We also have baskets in this facility that allows us to expand it if needed. Cash is not going to be a restrictor in that sense.
Yeah, and jewelry, we've been over the last couple of years, we've actually been gaining share here in the UK market. What's been a reasonably moribund market, I have to say, in the last couple of years. We've been very happy with what we've done in terms of what's been a modest market share gain, but very much improved profitability and a jewelry strategy that's very compatible with the wonderful watch plans that we represent. The US there is a market tendency in the US for negotiation and discount that's typically been there.
We, when we acquired Mayors on the, some years ago, we fairly quickly got out of the cadence of discounting and special client events and all that sort of thing. We're doing the same with the, with our new friends and colleagues in the Betteridge group, and we are sacrificing a bit of top line numbers in order to get the strategy, the client relations and margin and profitability correct. In that sense, in terms of total sales, we'll lost out a bit on what's been and what's been overall good market trends, but very deliberately and for good reasons and as I said, improved profitability overall. As I mentioned earlier, we're just not as competitively advantaged in jewelry.
We fully intend to be at some point in the future, but currently not. We are subject to where whatever trends are happening in the market. I mentioned again earlier, in the UK market, that trend tends to become promotional, we think unnecessarily, but it tends to, and we really don't participate in that either.
Okay, thank you. It sounds like it could be become quite a promotional environment in that space and be more participating.
Yeah.
Thanks for that. Can I just ask one other question? I was just curious in terms of, if the business was looked at as an acquisition, would there be any issues with the relationships you have with your suppliers?
Yeah, I mean, totally speculative. Obviously, the relationship we have with brands is fundamental to our business. They've been built over generations, actually. They are obviously important for the value of the business, but they are entirely speculative as to what would be thought of any acquisition.
Yeah. I was just curious. I mean, would, let's just say someone's interested in buying Watches of Switzerland Group, would Rolex say, "No, hold on a minute. Our relationship is with the business, and we're not interested in any changes"?
Yeah. Under selective distribution, all of the brands have a right to review on a change of control. It's something that we deal with, obviously, when we are making acquisitions, that we're discussing all of the brands in advance, obviously, and know where we stand. In principle, yes, but entirely speculative and theoretical.
This does conclude today's Q&A session, so I'll hand back to the management team for any concluding remarks.
Thanks, everybody for joining us again, for your questions. In summary, we are very pleased with our strong performance of fiscal year 2023. Looking forward, we continue to operate in a category with very strong underlying performance. It gives us great confidence in our fiscal 2024 guidance and the ongoing investment in the business that we are committed to through CapEx and acquisition. As we discussed during product intake timing, and that's all that it's been, which supported Q4 fiscal 2023 and the strong prior year comparatives we have. In Q1 fiscal 2024, the group does expect a modest sales decline in quarter one before normalizing in quarter two. All of it has been clearly considered in our full year guidance that we've given.
We continue to target market share gains in countries in which we operate. We're encouraged by the ongoing dynamism of the category, reflected in particular in the recent Watches and Wonders show in Geneva, which was spectacular. Brands showcasing great novelty products, production expansion and great marketing. We feel positive about our strategy. We feel confident about the guidance that we've given. I'd like to thank all of our teams, our colleagues, and everybody involved in delivering what we think has been a very strong year. Once again, thanks for joining us and for your comments and questions.
This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.