CEO of firm behind Kay Jewelers and Zales says anticipating early holiday shoppers paid off

Signet Jewelers — which owns Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared and other brands — anticipated that holiday customers would shop early this year and it paid off, CEO Gina Drosos told CNBC on Thursday.

“We predicted months ago that customers would be in the market earlier, and we turned up the dial in our marketing support. We got the right product to the right stores,” Drosos said on “Mad Money.”

It was a prescient move considering the supply chain disruptions that stranded many companies’ products in transit.

“Brick-and-mortar traffic was up considerably versus year-ago,” Drosos said, when there were still widespread Covid mitigation measures in place. However, she added it was down compared to two years ago prior to the pandemic.

Before the opening bell on Wall Street, Signet reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue. Same-store sales soared 18.9%, beating estimates.

“We lapped, almost doubling our [e-commerce] business in the last third quarter with 14% growth,” Drosos told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

Signet also hiked its full-year outlook, but shares dropped 5% on Thursday as profit-takers likely stepped in. The stock has soared more than 220% year to date.