Space Industry and Business News
TRADE WARS
Luxury sector eyes reopening of China
Luxury sector eyes reopening of China
By Katell PRIGENT
Paris (AFP) Feb 19, 2023

After a year of record sales and profits despite slowing global growth the luxury sector is looking to the reopening of China to deliver further expansion in 2023.

The world's largest luxury group LVMH posted a 23-percent jump in sales to a record of 79 billion euros ($86 billion) in 2022 and saw profits climb 17 percent to 14 billion.

The company's chief executive, Bernard Arnault, wants to continue along that path in 2023, "at the risk of becoming boring".

LVMH's rivals also managed blistering growth in sales and profits last year.

Sales at Hermes jumped 29 percent to 11.6 billion euros and profits soared 38 percent to a record 3.4 billion.

Kering, despite a tough time for its flagship brand Gucci, still managed a 15-percent increase in sales to 20 billion euros, while profits rose 14 percent to 3.6 billion.

Ferrari also saw sales race to a new record of five billion euros, delivering 13,221 vehicles last year.

The 2022 results were barely dented by the disruption in China linked to end of its coronavirus-related travel restrictions and their progressive lifting at the end of the year, with LVMH calling the month of December an "air pocket".

Only Hermes escaped unscathed.

"There was no drop in traffic in our stores," said Hermes chief executive Axel Dumas.

The company's sales rose 30.7 percent in its Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan.

The gradual reopening of China -- which abandoned the last of the draconian travel restrictions of its zero-Covid policy on January 8 -- should help its economy expand by 5.2 percent in 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund's latest forecast.

With the restrictions having restrained consumption, the reopening of the Chinese economy is being looked at as a growth opportunity for 2023.

Analysts at UBS say 2023 will be the "year of the Chinese consumer", noting that the pandemic restrictions pushed down the share of Chinese consumers in global luxury spending to 17 percent last year, compared with 33 percent before the pandemic.

- 'Volcano ready to explode' -

"The Chinese clientele is much more important than it was in 2019," LVMH's financial director Jean-Jacques Guiony told journalists.

Guiony does not expect Chinese tourists to return to Europe, where they traditionally spent heavily on luxury goods, before next year.

Instead, luxury groups are focusing on Chinese consumers at home.

LVMH's Arnault said it was no secret that China needs growth and that the government would likely take steps to facilitate economic expansion as the country reopens.

"If that is indeed the case -- and it began in the month of January -- we have every reason to be confident, even optimistic about the Chinese market," he said at the presentation of LVMH's 2022 results.

China is a "volcano ready to explode", said Arnaud Cadart at asset manager Flornoy Ferri.

"There is an incredible amount of savings that has been built up, an incredible reserve in the hands of the well-off class which wants to purchase luxury goods," he added.

Cadart estimated the luxury market in China could jump by 30 percent this year.

Kering's chief executive Francois-Henri Pinault visited China at the end of January and said he was amazed by the people thronging stores "like the virus had never been in China".

"This is a good sign," said Pinault, who also welcomed moves by Chinese authorities to boost domestic consumption.

kap/rl/jj/leg

UBS GROUP AG

HERMES INTERNATIONAL

FERRARI N.V.

LVMH - MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON

KERING

Related Links
Global Trade News

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
TRADE WARS
World Bank chief David Malpass to step down early
Washington (AFP) Feb 16, 2023
World Bank chief David Malpass announced Wednesday he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure at the head of the development lender that was clouded by questions over his climate stance. The veteran of Republican administrations in the United States was appointed to the role in 2019 when Donald Trump was president and previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for international affairs. His tenure at the World Bank saw the organization grapple with global crises such as th ... read more

TRADE WARS
Astroscale wins Dstl funding for exploration of future Space-Based Space Domain Awareness missions

Space Station research announcement for advanced materials and manufacturing open now

Sidius Space reaches an agreement with a Dutch organization to Deploy Lasercom Mission

'Magic' solvent creates stronger thin films

TRADE WARS
Multi aircraft and naval ships showcase interoperability

SES, ThinKom and Hughes enable multi-orbit resilient connectivity for critical airborne missions

Comtech receives additional funding for US Army Communications

GIT becomes Iridium Certus Service Provider to DoD and other Government customers

TRADE WARS
TRADE WARS
China to employ BeiDou satellite-based augmentation system in railway survey

GEODNET offers centimeter precision and GNSS corrections for OEMS and Ag Sector

New Galileo service set to deliver 20 cm accuracy

HawkEye 360 to monitor GPS interference in support of the US Space Force

TRADE WARS
US reaffirms pledge to deliver jets to Turkey

Ukraine says it shot down Russian balloons

Lufthansa hit by major IT outage, flights cancelled

Beijing tells US to investigate balloons allegedly flown over China

TRADE WARS
Engineers discover a new way to control atomic nuclei as "qubits"

Quantum Australia: Hear global insiders map out next phase of the boom

Encoding breakthrough allows for solving wider set of applications using neutral-atom quantum computers

Tech firm ASML probes info leak in China

TRADE WARS
Umbra agrees to provide Maxar direct access to SAR Constellation

Ozone depletion leads to Antarctic upper-stratospheric warming in winter

New land creation on waterfronts increasing, study finds

Upsurge in rocket launches could impact the ozone layer

TRADE WARS
Kenya's Ruto urges accountability for world polluters

Donated clothing worsening Kenya's plastic pollution: report

Sinkholes sow fear in former Polish mining town

Sri Lanka bans single-use plastics to save elephants

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.