The British fashion group Burberry Group Plc was able to achieve strong growth in its own retail business in the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year. According to an interim report, retail sales in the 13 weeks to July 1st reached 589 million British pounds (688 million euros), exceeding the level of the same period last year by 17 percent. Adjusted for exchange rate changes, they grew by 19 percent.
On a like-for-like basis, currency-adjusted retail sales increased 18 percent. CEO Jonathan Akeroyd cited strong growth in the outerwear (+36 percent) and leather goods (+13 percent) categories as well as the “ongoing recovery in mainland China” as the main reasons. Adjusted for area and currency effects, the growth rate there was 46 percent. In the same quarter of the previous year, demand in China had been impacted by tightened protective measures against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the other markets, the like-for-like and currency-adjusted plus amounted to a total of eleven percent. Japan (+44 percent) and the South Asia-Pacific region (+39 percent) developed particularly dynamically. In EMEIA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, retail revenue grew 17 percent on a like-for-like basis and currency-adjusted, and South Korea grew 6 percent. America, on the other hand, went down (-8 percent).