ONE recent night, the ballroom at Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt hotel was transformed into an elegant Parisian salon. Several dozen very wealthy families from all over China were flown in for a weekend of cruises, property tours and a gala auction. Chow Tai Fook (CTF), a Hong Kong firm that is the world’s largest jeweller, paid the bill.
A new report from CLSA, a stockbroker, forecasts that more than half of this year’s growth in luxury goods will come from China, where sales are set to soar by 24% in 2012. The country is already the largest market for jewellery after America, and for gold after India, and is gaining fast on both leaders. Prada and Gucci owe a third of their global sales to the rich in China. CTF saw same-store sales on the mainland shoot up by 45% from April to September last year.