In its second quarter as a public company, Brilliant Earth saw sales soar—and it announced plans to double the number of its brick-and-mortar showrooms.
Sales for the San Francisco–based company’s fourth quarter (ended Dec. 31), jumped by 37.6%, to $121.9 million. Sales for fiscal 2021 rose 51%, to $380.2 million. Net income totaled $11.4 million for the fourth quarter and $26.3 million for the fiscal year.
It projected 2022 sales will fall in the $485 million–$500 million range, which would represent 28%–32% growth.
On a conference call following the release of its financial results, CEO Beth Gerstein said sales have continued to grow in its current quarter, according to a Motley Fool transcript.
The “digitally native” company also expanded its brick-and-mortar presence in 2021, opening six showrooms—in Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; Dallas; New York City; and Scottsdale, Ariz. It now has 15 locations.
In 2022, it plans to “approximately double” its number of showrooms, with another opening coming in Bethesda, Md.—its second showroom in the Washington, D.C., area.
“[E]very time we enter into a new market, we see this major lift in the overall market,” Gerstein told analysts. “It’s a really powerful model.”
Gerstein noted that it had removed Russian-origin stones from its website “ahead of [its] peers,” and she doesn’t expect any “material impact” from that change, given its “extensive, diverse supply chain.”
“We are really proud of the decision that we made to remove Russian diamonds for our website,” she added later. “We think this was the right decision for our company, for our customers, and community, and for the Ukraine.”
The company also recently introduced a Fairmined gold collection, which Gerstein called “one of our most successful new releases.”
“Consumers loved it,” Gerstein said. “It has storytelling. It has real meaning behind it.”
Other new introductions—Avant Premiere Tacori collection and the Solstice collection—”perform[ed] well,” she said.
When asked about blockchain-traced diamonds, she said it’s “an effort that we have really been leaders and innovators on…. And what it does is it really enables an unparalleled level of transparency to the customer. So, they’re really able to understand the journey of their diamond.”
Marketing costs for the year rose to $74 million, close to 19.6% of net sales, according to chief financial officer Jeff Kuo.
The company also released its first sustainability report, “A Brilliant Future,” which can be seen here.
Top: A Brilliant Earth showroom (photo courtesy of Brilliant Earth)
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