Three months ago, John Hardy, a Bali-based jeweller, opened its first store in Hong Kong, inside the International Finance Centre, one of the city's main luxury shopping malls.
The timing might have seemed ominous. Hong Kong had just entered its first recession since 2003. The shop's inauguration coincided with a round of job cuts by Hong Kong's financial institutions, some of them also housed within the IFC.
The store has, however, since performed above expectations, including a “very good” February that, according to Guy Dernoncourt, John Hardy's chief executive, was about 50 per cent above the company's budgeted forecast. The jewellery is getting sold “almost at full retail price,” Mr Dernoncourt says, with occasional discounts “more because that is part of the Asian mentality rather than because there is a crisis.”