Financial results

Luxury CEOs get even more pessimistic

October 11, 2012 4:09 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Today Ledbury research is publishing their “CEO Sentiment Indicator,” an exciting document in which they chart the words of luxury execs as they reveal the thoughts of said execs about how things are shaping up for the future. They gave us an exclusive peek at it before release. And guess what? They are not feeling the love.

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Posted in China, Fashion, Financial results, Luxury goods, Recession |

Richemont gets into the sports lifestyle game

September 24, 2012 2:53 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Take that, PPR! You’re not the only luxury player on the block that’s recognised the potential of “sports lifestyle” brands (though you may be the only one with an entire division, and strategy, dedicated to the sector). Compagnie Financiere Richemont, the Swiss luxury group that is normally known for its watch and jewellery expertise – they own Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Jaeger LeCoutre, and so on – just announced it has acquired US-based high-end casual clothing/golf brand Peter Millar. The move raises so many interesting questions! Read more

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Posted in Financial results, Luxury goods, Ready-to-wear, Shows |

Luxury industry Chicken Littles

September 12, 2012 1:11 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! This tends to be the reaction lately every time a luxury brand reports worse-than-expected earnings. It happened last June with Mulberry, and now it is happening with Burberry. Yet I am not convinced it’s time to call the end of luxury. Read more

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Posted in China, Financial results, Luxury goods, Recession |

Google and Microsoft follow fashion

August 10, 2012 2:09 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Reading my newspaper over coffee this morning, I almost fell out of my chair while perusing a tech story on Google, Amazon et al, which ended with the following observation: “Google, Microsoft and Amazon all have the potential to adopt Apple’s vertical model of combining software, services and hardware to gain complete control over the design and function of future mobile devices.” Because the thing is, dear reader, it’s not “Apple’s approach” exactly – or it is, but Apple got it from somewhere else first. And where would that be? Fashion, of course.
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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Internet, Luxury goods, Marketing |

When is China going to blow?

August 9, 2012 3:58 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Last May, Johan Rupert, Richemont’s chairman, issued what is still my favourite quote on the subject of China and luxury, the implication of which was: China is a volcano, and it’s gonna blow. But when? This is, numerous luxury brand H1 results now in, the question bedevilling analysts, investors, and the brands themselves. Read more

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Posted in China, Financial results, Luxury goods |

What should PPR do with its windfall?

July 26, 2012 1:53 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Even before its results announcement today, PPR had made some news: it was proceeding apace with its plan to dispose of no-longer-core assets (ie, non-luxury/sports lifestyle rbands), and had agreed to sell 29.8% of its stake in CFAO, an African automotive and pharmaceutical distribution company, to Toyota Tsusho Corporation. This should net the PPR guys about €980 million.The stated plan is to use the money to pay down debt, but in that impossible-to-control way of things, already there is speculation among some watchers about what they might buy, if they were going to use the money to buy something. I love a nice round of speculation. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Luxury goods, Menswear |

It’s the outlets, stupid

June 15, 2012 1:21 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Buried amid all the Mulberry hoo-ha over the last day since shares tumbled one comment stood out to me. It was from Godfrey Davis, Mulberry’s chairman, who blamed the fall in profits, which led to the fall in shares, on a bad performance in his outlets. Outlets? In luxury goods-land? Well, yes – of course. We all know about them. But who knew they could have that much of an effect on a brand’s bottom line?
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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Luxury goods |

Luxury CEOs reveal fears for future

April 30, 2012 3:40 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Luxury brands from PPR to LVMH may be announcing more banner results this month, but according to a new report from UK luxury consultancy Ledbury Research, their CEOs are probably a lot more worried about the industry’s prospects in 2012 than they are letting on. Read more

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Posted in China, Financial results, Luxury goods, Recession |

Has LVMH been good for Hermès?

March 23, 2012 2:45 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Looking at the yesterday’s impressive Hermès results, it’s hard not to wonder if the much-bemoaned 22% stake that luxury conglomerate LVMH built up in the group has actually been good for it – as opposed to the end-of-the-world/ barbarians-at-the-gate scenario the Hermès folks were painting. Why has to do with pretty basic psychology.
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Posted in Financial results, Luxury goods |

The increasingly abstract economics of fashion

March 12, 2012 2:19 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Don’t know about you, but it seems to me the economics of fashion are becoming increasingly abstract — and I’m not talking about the highly subjective concept of “brand value” (yes, I know there are equations to convert this into numbers, but boiled down to its essence it’s in the eye of the beholder, no?). I’m talking about celebrity endorsement investment, and a new concept I discovered last week: retail endorsement investment.

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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Marketing |
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