Difficult Hong Kong market
The group’s EMEA region (Africa, Europe, India and Middle East) experienced a double-digit, like-for-like growth in its first quarter, while the Americas experienced a “high, single-digit turnover growth”. Particular in France, Italy and Spain, Burberry performed well.
According to the company, it did even better digitally, although it has not released any figures to back up that claim. Mobile sales did triple, thanks to investments in its mobile platform last year. It did have to deal with a minor drop in the Asia-Pacific region, mainly because of weaker Hong Kong results.
In total, Burberry managed a 407 million pound (580 million euro) turnover in the first quarter. “We are pleased with our performance in this first quarter, with retail sales up 8% underlying and 6% comparable sales growth”, CEO Christopher Bailey said.
For its full fiscal year, Burberry expects a 20 million pound (28 million euro) profit increase compared to last year. That is twice what it had forecast back in May when it presented the preliminary results.
