LaoPu Gold's surge in China reshapes competitive rules for high jewelry
Bottom Line Impact
If LaoPu Gold sustains its current growth and productivity trajectory, Western maisons risk a multi-year erosion of China jewelry revenue growth, margin leverage, and cultural leadership unless they rapidly adapt product, pricing, and experiential strategies to a market that now demands both cultural resonance and tangible value retention.
Key Facts
5- LaoPu Gold's H1 2025 revenue reached 12.35 billion RMB ($1.72 billion), up 251% year-on-year, with net profit rising 286% to 2.27 billion RMB ($314 million), significantly outpacing broader luxury sector growth in China.
- Average revenue per store in H1 2025 was 459 million RMB ($63.9 million) over six months, implying an annualized run-rate of ~918 million RMB ($128 million) per location, roughly 2x Cartier and 3x Van Cleef & Arpels per HSBC estimates.
- The brand operates over 40 self-owned stores across 16 Chinese cities and is the only domestic jeweler with full coverage of China's top-10 prime retail destinations, co-locating with Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Van Cleef & Arpels in tier-1 luxury malls.
- LaoPu Gold's Beijing SKP store generates approximately 3 billion RMB ($418 million) in annual revenue, accounting for about one-seventh (~14%) of the mall's total sales despite competition from 100+ international luxury brands.
- Rothschild projects LaoPu Gold will surpass Richemont's China jewelry revenues in 2025, signaling that a local, culturally anchored brand may overtake Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Buccellati combined in their most strategically critical market.
Time Horizons
Key Roles Affected
Executive Summary
LaoPu Gold is redefining the economics and cultural codes of China's high-jewelry market, combining ultra-high per-store productivity with a value proposition anchored in Chinese heritage and gold-as-asset logic. If current growth and store productivity levels sustain through 2025, leading Western maisons risk ceding both revenue share and cultural authority with top-spending Chinese clients, forcing accelerated shifts in product, pricing, and experiential strategies.
Actionable Insights
Immediate Actions (Next 30-90 days)
Establish a China-specific high-jewelry strategy taskforce within 30 days to reassess positioning, product mix, and store experience versus LaoPu Gold's emerging standard.
Rationale: LaoPu Gold's trajectory suggests a structural redefinition of what premium Chinese clients expect from high jewelry; a generic global strategy risks underperforming and ceding share in the group's most strategically critical jewelry market.
Role affected:CEO
Urgency level:immediate
Short-term Actions (6-12 months)
Pilot at least one China-exclusive high-jewelry capsule in 2025 centered on Chinese cultural motifs and clearer value-retention narratives, supported by localized storytelling and cultural advisors.
Rationale: LaoPu Gold is proving that deep cultural anchoring and perceived financial rationality drive both traffic and very high ticket sizes; testing Chinese heritage-led collections will indicate how far the brand can stretch while remaining authentic.
Role affected:CMO
Urgency level:short-term
Re-benchmark China jewelry store economics against LaoPu Gold and renegotiate key tier-1 mall leases to secure more favorable rent-to-sales ratios or performance-based rent structures.
Rationale: With LaoPu Gold setting a new productivity benchmark for landlords, underperforming stores will face mounting pressure on occupancy cost ratios; proactively renegotiating terms or resizing footprints will protect margins and capital efficiency.
Role affected:CFO
Urgency level:short-term
Strategic Actions
Redesign clienteling and in-store service models in key China flagships to incorporate cultural interpretation and educational storytelling, supported by targeted hiring of cultural specialists and upgraded training.
Rationale: LaoPu Gold's staff function as cultural interpreters rather than traditional sales associates, turning purchases into cultural experiences; without comparable depth, Western boutiques risk being perceived as transactional and less meaningful.
Role affected:Chief Retail & Client Officer
Urgency level:strategic
Risks & Opportunities
Primary Risks
- Accelerated share loss in China's high-jewelry segment to LaoPu Gold, particularly among top 5% of spenders who may rebalance wallets toward culturally rooted, value-retentive pieces.
- Margin compression in China driven by the need to increase intrinsic value (e.g., higher gold weights) or introduce more compelling value narratives, without fully passing costs to consumers in a more rational, price-sensitive environment.
- Brand dilution risk if Western maisons overreact by superficially appropriating Chinese cultural elements, potentially triggering consumer backlash or perceptions of inauthenticity.
Primary Opportunities
- Opportunity to reposition European heritage as complementary to Chinese cultural narratives, creating co-created or bi-cultural collections that command premium pricing and deepen loyalty with sophisticated clients.
- Potential to leverage the group's global scale in gold sourcing and craftsmanship to introduce a new segment of high-intrinsic-value, heirloom-grade jewelry that competes more directly with LaoPu Gold on value-retention attributes.
- Strengthening of relationships with Chinese landlords by offering differentiated experiential concepts and co-investing in cultural programming, using LaoPu Gold's success as a catalyst to secure better long-term space commitments.