Business1 min read

Burberry returns to profit as sales soar, from £85 socks to £9,000 bags

By · Via The Guardian Business · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Chief executive Joshua Schulman steered the luxury fashion house through a challenging consumer climate by rolling out the "Burberry Forward" strategy. A wide pricing ladder spanning accessible entry-level accessories to high-end leather goods helped capture sustained domestic demand across flagship markets. The strategic pivot particularly bore fruit through tailored regional marketing, which included dedicated campaigns for China's Valentine’s Day and the upcoming lunar new year. Reduced international leisure travel continues to challenge discount outlet footfall, but domestic spenders in local flagship stores successfully counterbalanced those losses.

Key points

  • A structured pricing model ranging from £85 cotton-cashmere socks to £9,000 bags helped o…: A structured pricing model ranging from £85 cotton-cashmere socks to £9,000 bags helped overcome widespread luxury price fatigue.
  • Domestic spending at core flagship locations effectively compensated for revenue lost fro…: Domestic spending at core flagship locations effectively compensated for revenue lost from a decline in global travel and tourism.
  • Targeted localized marketing and cultural product drops proved instrumental in driving sa…: Targeted localized marketing and cultural product drops proved instrumental in driving sales growth across major international markets like China.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Burberry has returned to profit as its back to basics strategy drove strong sales of the British brand’s coats, jackets and handbags over the summer.

Joshua Schulman, the chief executive, said the luxury brand had outperformed a “challenging luxury market” to achieve sales growth of 6%, helped by strong online and wholesale sales particularly in China and the US. “Our strategy is working,” he said.

Burberry said it made a pre-tax profit of £19m in the six months to 26 September after a loss of £48m a year before, as sales rose to £1.1bn. Sales rose 15% in China and 14% in the Americas but fell 1% in the Europe and Middle East region, partly due to the Iran war.

Schulman said Burberry’s focus on a “pyramid of pricing” ranging from more “affordable” scarves, starting from £195, and cotton-cashmere socks from £85, to its top-tier bags and coats, which can cost more than £9,000 for a leather version, had helped it achieve growth despite a tough market. Wealthy shoppers around the world are travelling less and being more cautious about…

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