In the third quarter of 2022, the French luxury goods group Kering SA was able to maintain the growth rate of the first half of the year. However, the main brand Gucci again developed less dynamically than the other large fashion houses of the corporate group. This emerges from an interim report published on Thursday evening.
Accordingly, group sales in the months of July to September reached a level of 5.14 billion euros and thus exceeded the level of the same quarter of the previous year by 23 percent. On a comparable basis – i.e. adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations, acquisitions and divested businesses – revenues increased by 14 percent.
The strongest growth driver was the Yves Saint Laurent label, whose sales increased by 40 percent (currency-adjusted +30 percent) to 916 million euros. The Bottega Veneta brand increased its sales by 20 percent (currency-adjusted +14 percent) to 437 million euros. Growth at the Gucci fashion house was lower: at 2.58 billion euros, its sales were 18 percent (currency-adjusted +9 percent) above the corresponding level of the previous year.
The smaller group brands, which include Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Brioni, together came to 995 million euros, which corresponded to an increase of 17 percent compared to the same period last year (on a comparable basis +14 percent). The Kering Eyewear division, whose portfolio was recently expanded through the acquisition of the eyewear manufacturers Lindberg and Maui Jim, increased its sales by 47 percent to 253 million euros. On a comparable basis, the growth rate was 21 percent.
The group justified the “very solid sales growth” in the past quarter with above-average increases in retail sales in Western Europe and Japan. In the first nine months of the current financial year, Kering generated sales of 15.1 billion euros. This corresponded to an improvement of 23 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. On a like-for-like basis, revenue grew 15 percent.