The British luxury brand said "weak" growth in shops compared with online traffic reflected changing consumer behaviour
Burberry has unveiled a healthy set of Christmas results, although it said that growth in its shops was "weak" compared with online traffic.
The luxury British brand posted revenues of £528m for the three months to the end of 2013, up 14% on the previous year. These are the final set of Christmas results for outgoing chief executive Angela Ahrendts, who leaves the raincoat maker in mid 2014 for a job at Apple. She is being replaced as CEO by Burberry's lead designer Christopher Bailey, who was a surprising choice for the City because of his lack of business experience. The announcement in October saw half a billion pounds wiped off the company's share price.
Investors were in a more buoyant mood on Wednesday, driving Burberry shares up 6% to £15.57 in early trading. David Buik, a market commentator for Panmure Gordon, wrote in a tweet: "revenues up 14%, sales up 12% last q to end December – Ahrendts & Bailey have delivered!"
Burberry said sales growth was strongest in China, with the Asia Pacific region producing double digit growth for the company. Burberry, whose most lucrative products are coats and handbags, is expanding in the region and has recently bought three stores in Thailand.
Last week Swatch, the world's largest watchmaker, said it was expecting double-digit growth on the back of strong demand from China.
Burberry said sales in Europe and the Americas were in the mid to high single digits. In Europe, performance in the UK, France and Germany was "robust" while Italy remained weak.
Growth continued to be stronger online rather than in shops: "traffic remained weak offline but grew online, reflecting evolving consumer behaviour," the company said in a statement.
Ahrendts said sales growth was in line with the company's expectations. "This performance reflects continuing strong brand momentum and our team's intense focus on retail execution, supported by a planned increase in investment in marketing, customer service offline and online and our retail portfolio."
But she warned that fluctuating exchange rates would be "a significant headwind" from the second half of the year, while the "macro environment" remained uncertain.
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