Luxury brands optimistic
22/01/2009
French fashion and leathergoods company Louis Vuitton said on January22 that it had suffered no unpleasant surprises in Christmas trading, and that sales figures from the US were encouraging.
"On the whole, Christmas trading went rather well; there were no new surprises," said chief executive, Yves Carcelle, in comments to Reuters at the Mode à Paris fashion show in the French capital. "In the United States, things held up well."
At the same event, Hugo Boss said its Christmas trading had gone well in the light of the mood among consumers.
"Christmas was better than expected, especially in key places like New York and in Europe," said chief executive, Claus-Dietrich Lahrs. "We feel comfortable with the (2008 sales growth) outlook we gave in October, and all this, taken together, is making me cautiously optimistic."
He said Hugo Boss was not planning to look for acquisitions and would focus instead on expanding outside Europe, especially in North America and Asia. Mr Lahrs said he aimed to lift the ratio of sales made outside Europe to 50% from its current level of 30%. "The Hugo Boss brand is still so untapped," he said.
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