The world’s largest luxury goods company LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) reported a 12 percent increase in like-for-like sales for the third quarter of 2017 in October- a higher-than-expected figure. It surpassed analysts’ expectations of a 9 percent increase in the three months leading up to 30 September.
The group, which owns Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior as well as Moët & Chandon champagne and Hennessy cognac, saw revenues hit €30.1 billion ($35.8 billion). The perfumes and cosmetics division outperformed, with organic sales growth up 17 percent in the third quarter for that division. The sales boost can partly be credited to the launch of Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty range at LVMH’s Sephora, and partly to a pick-up in demand from Chinese consumers.
High-margin fashion and leather goods also did well, generating organic growth of 13 percent.
The market will do “a bit better” next year than it did in 2017, Antonio Belloni, the luxury group’s managing director told Reuters earlier this week.
“I think that in 2018 (the market) will do a bit better than in 2017,” said Belloni at the opening of the company’s first vocational training programme in Florence.
Belloni also said the luxury group, which has invested €150 million in Italy in 2017, would “continue with this trend.” He continued telling the news service that it had just bought a former furnace just outside Florence, close to where the group already produces high-end accessories.
Only wines and spirits undershot the projected expectations, due to supply constraints. News broke yesterday that Margareth Henriquez, the president of Champagne Krug, has been named as the new CEO of LVMH’s Estates & Wines, succeeding Jean-Guillaume Prats.
Even though LVMH experiences some smooth sailing right now, it has been said that European luxury groups will face obstacles due to the strong euro. LVMH reported it experienced a negative currency impact of 5 percent in the third quarter.
