Earnings Call Excerpt
Harry Winston Diamond Corporation (HWD)
F3Q08 Earnings Call
December 13, 2007 9:00 am ET
Executives
Nancy Murray – V.P. Investor Relations & Communications
Robert Gannicott – Chairman & CEO
Thomas O’Neill – President
Alice Murphy – V.P. & CFO
Presentation
Nancy Murray
Welcome to the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation third quarter fiscal 2008 webcast. We are pleased to report strong first quarter operating results. We delivered a 22% increase in consolidated sales and a 79% increase in earnings from operations, both driven by the mining segments carat production and rough diamond sales. While we posted these record results we continue to invest in our retail businesses calibrated salon expansion that positions us for long-term growth.
The agenda for the presentation today includes Bob Gannicott, Chairman and CEO, who will comment on our mining segment. Tom O’Neill, President of Harry Winston Diamond Corporation and CEO of Harry Winston Inc. will discuss the retail segment and then Alice Murphy our CFO will provide the quarterly financial review.
Please note that we will make some forward-looking comments today. The principal risk that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations is detailed in the OSC and SEC filings.
Now let me turn the call over to Bob.
Robert Gannicott
Thanks Nancy and good morning. As this is our first earnings call under the new name of Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, I’d like to spend my time today discussing what we know best, which is diamonds. The Diavik Mine continues to exceed expectations by any measurement, whether it is grade, throughput or production of white diamonds and we continue to supply our customers with not only finely delineated assortments, but with the quality of stones that is our hallmark. The [delinkage] of rough diamond sales to the polished diamond purchases of the company, we have continued to more closely align our rough diamond prices with price increases in polished diamonds.
On the mining side, this reported quarter saw a 10% increase in diamonds recovered over the same period last year. Our share of the mine [inaudible] production for the quarter was more than 1.2 million carats. That brings our portion of the year to date production to 3.6 million carats at a grade of 4.95 carats per tonne. Continued improvements in the processing plant have led to increased diamond recovery. The increase in carat production that resulted in higher grade and better plant utilization continues to underscore Diavik’s position as a world class mine and operation.
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