Male shoppers help Burberry beat recession
BURBERRY yesterday said it had seen an outperformance in men’s clothing and tailoring as the luxury brand reported a 26 per cent jump in full-year profits.
The 156-year old British heritage brand reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £376m in the year to 31 March, on revenues up 24 per cent to almost £1.9bn.
Chief executive Angela Ahrendts said the success of its new London tailoring initiative helped drive menswear sales up by 26 per cent in the period, while sales of non-clothing products such as leather goods saw a 50 per cent increase in sales.
Ahrendts said Burberry would be opening its first menswear-only store in Knightsbridge in the fall, as it looks to benefit from a growing trend of men dressing smartly.
The launch is part of a wider expansion plan to increase store space by 12-14 per cent in the year, opening a net 15 new outlets in both flagship and emerging markets.
Burberry said it will spend around £180-200m, with about one third of it going towards larger format stores such as its new Regent Street store opening in the autumn.
“Sixty to seventy per cent of all the luxury goods sold around the world take place in just 25 cities. Burberry has been underpenetrated in these flagship markets versus our peers,” Ahrendts said.
Burberry said wealthy shoppers from Asia, the Middle East and emerging markets remained sheltered from the global economic downturn.
Its shares closed 1.2 per cent lower yesterday at 1,369p hit by profit taking.