RIYADH: Saudi jeweller L’azurde has reported a 20.7 percent profit rise in the first nine months of 2022 on the back of higher revenues. It reported a profit of SR31.4 million ($8.3 million) in the first nine months, compared to SR26 million in the same period last year, according to a bourse filing. The results were helped by higher revenues. The group’s total operating revenues amounted to SR405 million for the current period of 2022, an increase of 3.9 percent compared to SR390 million in the same period of last year. In Saudi Arabia, wholesale operating revenues were12.6 perecent higher than the same period of last year due to strong sales of L’azurde gold in traditional gold markets. Sélim Chidiac, CEO of L’azurde, said the company has also managed to distribute dividends for the first time in five years. He asserted that the jewelry firm has been able to transform the COVID-19 crisis into a favorable opportunity to boost its activities. This has been done by accelerating the company"s transformation to sell modern and affordable jewelry with a higher margin of profit and entering e-commerce through the launch of a digital platform, he explained. The e-commerce business delivered SR 9.2 million in revenues in the third quarter of 2022, the bourse filing showed. This represents a solid share of 6.7 percent of the total operating revenues and 15.6 percent of the firm’s retail revenues in the current quarter. In an interview with Arab News in May, the CEO said the year 2022 started strong for the jewelry maker but the company was confronted with rising inflation and high material prices, including gold, on the back of the global geopolitical situation. Chidiac pointed out that rising inflation along with robust gold prices have left the jewelry industry facing headwinds. He also detailed some of the measures taken by his company to combat high prices and stabilize customer footfall, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “For the first time ever, we launched affordable gold jewelry at SR1,000. And we saw a great demand for this gold jewelry,” he said. This was reflected in the company’s performance in the following year.