Burberry Sales In Mainland China And Korea?

British luxury group Burberry (Bo Baili) released key financial data for the 2019/2020 fiscal year ending March 28th on Friday, and said that the existing strategy has "made favorable progress" and is ready for the current epidemic period.

In 2019/2020 fiscal year, the key financial data of Burberry are as follows:

Sales amounted to 2 billion 633 million, down 3% from the same period last year, down 4% at the constant exchange rate.

Comparable store sales fell by 3% over the same period last year, of which the first three quarters increased by 4% over the same period, but the comparable store sales in the fourth quarter fell by 27% compared with the same period last year.

Operating profit of 189 million pounds, down 57% compared with the same period last year, adjusted operating profit of 433 million pounds, down 1% compared with the same period last year.

Pre tax profit was 168 million, down 62% compared to the same period last year, adjusted pre tax profit of 414 million pounds, down 7% compared to the same period last year.

Operating profit and pre tax profit adjustment are mainly due to the additional costs caused by the closure of stores and the backlog of inventory caused by the epidemic. Due to the outbreak of the epidemic, most stores in the fourth quarter of Burberry in China were forced to close or reduce their business hours, thus seriously affecting the overall sales in February. By the end of March, most of the stores in mainland China began to reopen as the epidemic subsided, and sales began to pick up. But because of the spread of the epidemic, sales in other Asian countries and regions have been badly hit.

EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa) and America suffered "very serious losses" in the last three weeks of the fiscal year. By the end of March, all the stores in the two markets had been closed down according to the local government regulations, and only online channels were still trading. By the end of March, about 60% of Burberry's stores were closed.

The epidemic has also had a great impact on the supply chain of the group, and many production facilities and distribution centers have been forced to shut down or reduce their working hours.

However, since the end of March, sales of Burberry in mainland China and Korea have increased year by year. Burberry said that the performance of 2020/2021 in the first quarter of fiscal year will still be affected by the epidemic. Most stores will be closed in most of the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

Marco Gobbetti, chief executive of the group, said: "all our brands and products have shown a good trend and sales are better than we expected. Our liquidity is also very good, there is ample room for investment after market recovery. "

He added that he would strengthen the links with consumers through digital channels, and would take measures to reduce costs and enhance liquidity so as to ensure that the market could respond to changes in the market when the epidemic began to recover.

Burberry stressed that the future high-end brand positioning strategy will continue in the future, so that the positioning of Burberry brand will shift to the "high-end luxury sector with faster growth and stronger anti-interference capability". Burberry said: "in the past two years, we have laid a strong foundation for the future development of the brand, including more attractive commodity mix, better distribution network and higher brand positioning. Ensuring brand positioning is the key to our current development.

Burberry is also strengthening social media marketing. After the epidemic slowed down in March, they co operated with Tmall to broadcast the activities of the opinion leader Yvonne Ching visiting the flagship store in Shanghai, attracting more than 1 million 400 thousand people to watch. During the epidemic period, the number of fans and interaction frequency of Burberry on social networking platform increased by two digits compared to the same period last year.

In the 2019/2020 fiscal year, Burberry opened flagship stores in Ginza, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, renovated 64 stores, and closed 23 smaller and smaller stores. In addition, Burberry also increased the proportion of new products in the main store from 10% to 15% in April 2019 to 85%.

Because the impact of the epidemic is still difficult to estimate, Burberry has not given specific predictions for the 2020/2021 fiscal year.

In the fiscal year 2019/2020, the performance of Burberry in various channels is as follows:

Retail channel sales amounted to 2 billion 110 million, down 3% from the same period last year, down 4% at the constant exchange rate.

Wholesale channel sales amounted to 476 million, down 2% from the same period last year, down 3% at the constant exchange rate.

Authorized channel sales amounted to 47 million, an increase of 1% over the same period, a 1% increase at constant exchange rate.

In the fiscal year 2019/2020, the performance of Burberry in various markets is as follows:

Sales in the Asia Pacific region dropped by a median figure, and the median growth rate was achieved in the first three quarters. Despite the impact of the epidemic in the fourth quarter, the Chinese mainland continued to achieve low single digit growth throughout the year.

EMEIA sales were flat compared with the same period last year, and the median growth rate was achieved in the first three quarters.

Sales in the Americas fell by a low figure, and the first three quarters achieved a low single digit growth.