The British fashion house Burberry Group Plc was able to achieve strong growth in sales and earnings in the 2022/23 financial year. The group benefited above all from strong business in Europe and a recovery in demand in China during the final quarter. This emerges from preliminary figures presented by Burberry on Thursday.
In the most recent financial year, which ended on April 1, the group’s sales amounted to 3.09 billion British pounds (3.56 billion euros). Compared to the previous year, which included one more sales week, this meant an increase of ten percent. Adjusted for changes in exchange rates and on a comparable 52-week basis, revenue increased 5 percent.
The engine of growth was the EMEIA region, which includes Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. There, wholesale and retail sales totaled 1.00 billion pounds sterling, exceeding the previous year’s level by 23 percent (currency- and calendar-adjusted +22 percent).
In the final quarter, Burberry was able to grow strongly again in China
In the Asia-Pacific region, the fashion house suffered at times from the effects of tightened Covid-19 protective measures in China. However, after the corresponding restrictions were lifted, the development there recovered significantly in the fourth quarter: Like-for-like sales in Chinese retail rose by 13 percent. Overall, annual wholesale and retail sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased by two percent to £1.30 billion. Adjusted for currency and calendar effects, it was one percent below the 2021/22 level.
In the Americas, corresponding sales amounted to 743 million pounds sterling, an increase of 7 percent over the previous year (currency and calendar adjusted -4 percent). Global license revenue grew 23 percent to £50 million.
Because the company was able to offset increased costs with higher selling prices and improvements in efficiency, earnings also rose sharply. Operating profit grew 21 percent year-on-year to £657 million, while net income attributable to shareholders was £490 million (EUR 563 million), up 24 percent year-on-year.