14th Jan 2015 07:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - British luxury fashion retailer Burberry Group PLC Wednesday said retail sales rose 14% year-on-year during the third quarter, with the growth driven by mainland China, Korea and the Americas, although it warned about weaker trading in Hong Kong.
Burberry said retail revenue came in at GBP604 million for the three months to end-December.
The retailer said comparable sales were up 8% in the quarter on the year before, with the balance from new space, which is a slowdown from growth of 12% in the first half of the year. Analysts were expecting growth of around 7% for the quarter.
"Looking ahead, we will bring equal focus to maximising the opportunities of the final quarter - including Lunar New Year - while being mindful of what remains a challenging external environment," said Chief Executive Christopher Bailey in a statement.
Burberry warned in November that it was expecting some downward pressure on its full-year retail/wholesale margin, reflecting the negative impact of exchange rates, a more difficult external environment and continued investments its making.
"Since November, there has been a modest improvement from exchange rate movements, but this has been more than offset by, primarily, the slowdown in Hong Kong and the change in the regional sales mix," Burberry said on Wednesday.
The slowdown echoes comments from other luxury goods companies, who are facing increased worries about demand from China in the wake of the political issues in Hong Kong late last year as well as weaker demand in Russia.
Burberry said Wednesday that it saw double-digit percentage growth in the Americas in the third quarter, and only low-single digit growth in Asia due to the disruptions in Hong Kong, a high-margin market for the company.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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