Thanks primarily to strong growth in Asia, the US fashion group Ralph Lauren Corporation was able to close the second quarter of the 2023/24 financial year with a surprisingly significant increase in sales. However, profits were weighed down by higher costs and investments. This emerges from an interim report that the company published on Wednesday.
Accordingly, group sales in the period from July to September reached 1.63 billion US dollars (1.53 billion euros), which corresponded to an increase of 3.4 percent (currency-adjusted +1.7 percent) compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Revenues developed particularly dynamically in Asia, where they increased by 10.1 percent (currency-adjusted +12.6 percent) to $348.4 million. In Europe, sales rose by 6.8 percent (-0.5 percent at constant currency) to $526.8 million.
In North America, however, Ralph Lauren also felt the effects of the current weak consumer sentiment. Revenue there fell by 1.2 percent (-1.1 percent adjusted for currency effects) to $717.8 million.
Cost increases and higher investments in digital business and marketing measures caused operating profit to slip by 20.4 percent to $164.5 million. The quarterly profit fell by 2.4 percent to 146.9 million US dollars (137.7 million euros).