Tiffany & Co's net sales for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011 totaled $3.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14%, the diamond jewelry company reported Monday.

For the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2010, the company saw its net sales increase by 12% to $1.1 billion.

The Asia-Pacific region saw net sales for Q4 increase 25% to $188.3 million. For the full year, the region's sales jumped 29% to $549.2 million.

Japan saw a more modest increase in sales, with numbers rising 11% in the fourth quarter to 182.6 million and 7% for 2010 as a whole, totaling $546.5 million – a number that comprises 18% of the company's worldwide sales.

European sales rose 14% to $137.9 million in Q4 and 18% for the whole year, reaching $360.8 million or 12% of Tiffany's global sales.

Tiffany's sales in the US, Canada, and South America increased 10% in Q4 to $577.1 million. For the full year, the diamond company's net sales in the Americas stood at $1.575 billion, an increase of 12%. Tiffany & Co opened 15 new jewelry boutiques during 2010 – five in the US, two in Europe, seven in the Asia-Pacific region, and one in Japan.

Tiffany Chairman and CEO Michael J. Kowalski said the firm was "saddened" by the destruction wreaked by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11. "Our thoughts are with our more than 700 Tiffany colleagues and with all the people of Japan," Kowalski said, noting that the Tiffany jewelry boutiques in Kanto and Tohoku, which accounted for over half the company's Japan sales, were operating on reduced hours.

Kowalski added that a few stores in Japan had been damaged but that most had reopened for business.