Burberry moderates its growth and raises sales by only 1% in third quarter

Burberry grows shyly. The British luxury company has closed the third quarter of its fiscal year with a 1.1% increase in sales, up to 719 million pounds (936 million dollars). Like-for-like sales rose 3% compared to the same period of the previous year. The company has also revised its forecasts for the year end.

Burberry has attributed the increase in its comparable store sales growth to full price sales, “driven by new product availability,” said the group in a statement. However, growth was hampered by markdown inventory made available for sale and disruption in Hong Kong.

By market, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa (EMEIA) were the regions where sales grew by high single digit percentage, backed by tourist spend which influenced sales in Continental Europe. Diversely, Asia and the Pacific grew at low rate rescued by sales in mainland China, while those generated in Hong Kong were reduced in half. Sales in America, however, remain stable.

Burberry is working to regenerate the brand, align the distribution and reorder its product offering

The chief executive officer of Burberry, Marco Gobetti, has positively rated the results regarding the company’s works to revive the brand, align the distribution and renew its product offer. According to the executive, Burberry has “continued to shift consumer perceptions of our brand and align the network to our new creative vision.”

Accordingly, the new Burberry collections have represented around 75% of the offer available in stores. In addition, the company plans to open its first social retail store in partnership with Tencent to open in Shenzhen during the first half of 2021.

For the full year, Burberry expects its total revenue to grow by a low single digit percentage compared to the previous forecast, which was going through stable sales. The company rules out an impact of exchange rates on its forecasts for its full year outlook.