The US fashion group Ralph Lauren Corporation was able to achieve a solid increase in sales in the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year, primarily thanks to continued strong growth in Asia. Profit also exceeded the previous year’s level.
According to an interim report published on Thursday, sales in the three months to December 30th amounted to 1.93 billion US dollars (1.80 billion euros). This corresponded to an increase of 5.6 percent (currency-adjusted +4.7 percent) compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
In North America, the clothing supplier felt the effects of the difficult market conditions. At $933.3 million, revenue there narrowly missed the previous year’s level (-0.5 percent). However, things went up in international business: In Europe, sales rose by 11.1 percent (currency-adjusted +6.4 percent) to 521.5 million US dollars, in Asia they even increased by 15.6 percent (currency-adjusted +17, 5 percent) to 446.4 million US dollars.
The group was able to increase its earnings even more significantly than its sales: operating profit grew by 12.6 percent to $317.7 million. Thanks to lower tax burdens, the net result even improved by 27.8 percent to 276.6 million US dollars (257.2 million euros).