Pandora goes platinum-plated to cut reliance on costly silver

By Helen Reid

LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Jeweller Pandora PNDORA.CO is shifting to platinum-plated products to reduce its exposure to wild swings in the silver market after a speculative frenzy sent the metal's price to a record high over the past year.

The Danish company's share price has become highly sensitive to sharp moves in silver, with last week's plunge in the metal sparking a rally in the stock.

"We have to decouple the performance of the company and the share value from the commodity," CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier told Reuters in an interview. "We are a jewellery brand, we are not a silver trader."

New versions of Pandora's best-selling charm bracelets will ditch sterling silver for a trademarked alloy base plated with platinum.

Platinum trades at about $2,000 an ounce, far above silver, but Pandora will use less of it, making the final product cheaper to manufacture and easing pressure on margins.

Pandora's shares gained more than 5% after the announcement.

A TRANSITION YEAR

Pandora, the world's biggest jewellery brand by items sold, sells silver charm bracelets from $80 and has limited room to raise prices as its core customers cut back on non-essentials.

Late on Wednesday, it reported fourth-quarter organic revenue growth of 4%, in line with forecasts, but warned revenue this year would rise at most 2%, and could fall 1%.

Store traffic, consumer sentiment and credit card spending in the U.S. are still sluggish, de Pablos-Barbier said, after warning last month of weak holiday demand in its biggest market.

De Pablos-Barbier, who took charge on January 1, named Philippa Newman, formerly of Michael Kors, as chief product officer, saying Pandora needs fresh designs to pull in different customers.

"2026 is expected to be a year of transition, and we expect to reap the benefit of these changes in 2027," de Pablos-Barbier told analysts on a call.

Pandora plans to switch at least 50% of its relevant silver assortment to platinum-plated in 2027, and ultimately reduce the share of silver jewellery in its offering to 25%, de Pablos-Barbier said.

Silver has whipsawed over the past week as speculators piled in and then rushed out. After hitting a record $121.64 last week, spot silver XAG= lost more than a quarter of its value the next day. It was trading at $74.94 an ounce on Thursday.