The British leather goods specialist Mulberry Group Plc felt the effects of the adverse market conditions in the past Christmas business.
On Wednesday, the company announced that revenue in the 13 weeks ending December 30 was 8.4 percent below the corresponding level last year. Adjusted for exchange rate changes, sales fell by 6.6 percent.
The company attributed the decline to the “difficult macroeconomic environment” and “declining consumer spending in the luxury goods sector”. In the weeks before Christmas, the leather goods supplier stuck to its strategy of avoiding discounts.
In the company’s own retail sector, sales fell by 1.5 percent in the reporting period, although after adjusting for currency effects they were slightly above the previous year’s figure (+0.6 percent). A decline of 4.0 percent in Great Britain could not be fully compensated for by growth of 3.9 percent (currency-adjusted +10.8 percent) in international retail.
In the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year, which runs until the end of March, sales were 0.1 percent (currency-adjusted +1.3 percent) above the level of the same period last year. The company said the gross margin remained unchanged compared to the first half of the year.