American jewelry house of Tiffany reports full year 2014 worldwide net sales rose to $4.25 billion, which represented a 5% increase in dollars or a 7% increase on a constant exchange rate basis which was on top of a 10% increase in 2013 on that same basis.

Tiffany net earnings for the full year rose 167% to $484 million. However, on an apples-to-apples basis, excluding charges in both years, net earnings rose 13% and EPS of $4.20 was slightly better than the original guidance of $4.05 to $4.15 that we published at this time a year ago. And that 13% earnings increase in 2014 was on top of the non-GAAP 15% increase in net earnings that we achieved in 2013.

The Americas represented 48% of worldwide net sales in 2014 unchanged from 2013; Asia-Pacific was 24% of worldwide sales, up slightly from 23% a year ago; Japan was 13%, down slightly from 14% in 2013 and that was largely due to currency translation; and Europe at 12% of worldwide sales was unchanged

In 2014, Tiffany opened a total of eight company-operated Tiffany&Co. stores closed two. Tiffany is currently planning to increase its company-operated stores by a net of approximately 12 to 15 stores during 2015. A majority of that net addition is planned in Asia-Pacific with the balance in the Americas and Europe.