Burberry’s growth slows in Q1 2018

Luxury fashion house Burberry has said it has recorded a “solid performance in retail during a period of transition”, despite seeing a slowdown in its sales growth for the first quarter of 2018.

For its first quarter ending 30 June Burberry reported a 3% rise in like-for-like sales a marginal drop from the 4% it recorded the previous year. During the period retail revenue remained relatively flat with slight growth from £478m in Q1 2017 to £479m in 2018.

Burberry saw improvement in its Asian market where Mainland China grew and Hong Kong, Korea and Japan all benefited from Chinese spend shifting more to Asian tourist destinations within the region. This helped to offset the slight decline it saw in the UK and mainland Europe with sales declining by a “single low digit percentage”.

Burberry also announced that its full-year guidance remains unchanged and that it is on  track to deliver cumulative cost savings of £100m.

CEO Marco Gobbetti, said: “We are pleased with our progress in the quarter. The team has embraced Riccardo’s creative vision and is working well together as we prepare for his debut collection in September, the next step in our journey.  While we know it will take time to achieve our ambitions, our progress to-date and the energy in and around the company give me confidence for the future.”