Pandora’s latest financial results showed its hot streak continuing, with like-for-like sales rising 8% and U.S. comps growing a strong 5% in the second quarter.

The Copenhagen-based company said its overall revenue in the quarter ended June 30 was 6.7 billion Danish kroner (approximately $986 million), up 15% from that period last year. Revenue in the U.S. jumped 14%.

On a conference call following release of the financial report, CEO Alexander Lacik said Pandora is pushing ahead with its goal of being perceived as a “full jewelry brand,” which sells more than charms.

“We have always had a wide variety of collections, but that hasn’t been the consumer perception,” he said. “We are moving away from specific product-centric marketing to driving desirability and affinity to the entire Pandora brand.

“We are only at the start of the journey of really stretching this brand,” he added. “We are attracting more consumers into the brand, which is the most important thing for us.”

Lacik called growth in the United States, its largest market, “robust…in the context of a market that is still likely in negative territory and is overall challenging.” He said Pandora plans to open more stores and introduce new diamond assortments in the U.S.

The brand continues to tout its lab-grown diamond collection, with sales rising 88% during the quarter, to 61 million Danish kroner (or $9 million)—though that product line still represented less than 1% of Pandora’s quarterly revenue. Most of its diamond sales (which are LGD only) were in the United States, chief financial officer Anders Boyer said on the call.

In a subsequent Bloomberg TV interview, Lacik predicted that within a decade, a majority of diamonds sold will be lab-grown.

“The mission of Pandora has been to democratize the jewelry space,” he said. “The initial path was to use silver instead of gold, and therefore you could reach a very different value equation.

“Everything we do is targeting the middle of the market.… If you look at that customer base, many of them would desire to own a piece of diamond, but a mined diamond is too expensive for them, so that’s out of reach. Again, we’re going back to our mission statement: Is there a place here where we can democratize this space? With lab-grown diamonds, it offered a different value equation, so therefore I can offer this to my audience.”

Lacik appeared unenthusiastic when a Bloomberg reporter suggested Pandora might pursue expansion faster through mergers or acquisitions.

“Five to six M&As typically do not generate shareholder value,” Lacik responded. “You might have two that are kind of neutral, and two that actually generate positive shareholder value. So an M&A strand is more risky than an organic [growth strategy].”

(Photo courtesy of Pandora)

 

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