The French luxury goods group Kering SA left the corona crisis behind in the 2021 financial year and set new records for sales and profits. As the company announced on Thursday, the results not only significantly exceeded the previous year’s level, but also the pre-crisis level.
Group CEO François-Henri Pinault was correspondingly satisfied: in a statement he praised the “excellent performance” in the past year and looked to the future with optimism: “All of our houses are stronger than ever before and we are confident that we can keep up the momentum last year will also be maintained in 2022 and in the years to come.”
Group sales in 2021 amounted to around 17.6 billion euros, which corresponds to an increase of 34.7 percent compared to the previous year, which was affected by the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic. Adjusted for currency effects and acquisitions and sales, revenues grew by 35.2 percent. Compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, sales increased by 11.1 percent.
All luxury fashion brands are making strong gains
The group of companies generated most of its sales with its luxury brands. Their total sales grew by 34.3 percent (currency-adjusted +34.9 percent) compared to the previous year to 17.0 billion euros. All major fashion houses contributed to the significant increase: Gucci’s sales rose by 30.8 percent (currency-adjusted +31.2 percent) to 9.73 billion euros, at Yves Saint Laurent by 44.5 percent (currency-adjusted +45.6 percent ) to 2.52 billion euros and at Bottega Veneta by 24.2 percent (currency-adjusted +25.1 percent) to 1.50 billion euros.
The group’s smaller luxury brands, which include Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Boucheron, together generated sales of 3.26 billion euros, exceeding the previous year’s level by 43.1 percent (currency-adjusted +43.8 percent). The revenues of the other business areas, which include the glasses segment Kering Eyewear, grew by 47.7 percent to 625.8 million euros. Adjusted for exchange rate changes and acquisitions, they increased by 43.0 percent.
Consolidated profit exceeds the previous year’s level by almost 48 percent
Kering also set new records for profits. At EUR 5.02 billion, the operating result adjusted for special effects was 60.0 percent above the previous year’s level. Net income attributable to shareholders was €3.18 billion, up 47.7 percent from 2020 and 37.6 percent from 2019. Adjusted for non-recurring factors, net income from continued operations grew by 70.4 percent year-on-year to EUR 3.36 billion. This was 4.7 percent above the level of 2019. In view of the strong results, the group decided to increase its annual dividend from eight to twelve euros per share.