Luxury fashion retailer Burberry has coped with the confidence-crushing Sars epidemic and war in Iraq to notch up a first quarter revenue rise of 18 per cent.
According to Burberry, its store-opening programme did most to help prop up sales after a tough start to the year. Price cuts and the end of the Sars epidemic encouraged consumers to return to its shops.
Contributions from nine outlets opened in the past year helped push retail sales up by about 21 per cent, on an underlying basis in the three months to June 30. Burberry now has 70 stores worldwide.
Brewin Dolphin portfolio manager Stuart Fraser was impressed by Burberry's performance. He said: 'Their like-for-like sales were very strong, bearing in mind they were down in the first seven weeks. What's more, they've got store expansion to come.'
Total retail sales increased by 33 per cent, boosted by the acquisition of the operations of Burberry's distributor in Korea, and accounted for about 53 per cent of total revenue in the quarter.
Comparable store sales, which dropped 5 per cent during the first seven weeks of the period, benefited from a strong summer promotional period and recorded a marginal gain for the quarter as a whole. However, the retailer believes UK retail sales will not shift fully into forward gear until the end of the year.
The company partially floated on the London Stock Exchange last July.
Its majority shareholder is Great Universal Stores.
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