Luxury fashion brand Burberry like-for-likes up 6% in third quarter to December 31 driven by outerwear

For the three months, which included Christmas, Burberry posted retail sales up 13% to £464m.

Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts said: “In an otherwise difficult quarter, core outerwear, mens and digital all outperformed. We expect the external global environment to remain challenging, but see continued opportunities to drive productivity in our existing business, while investing for growth in under-penetrated regions, product categories, channels and mediums.”

Burberry said sales were driven by customers’ preference for more expensive items with “strong” sales in outerwear contributing to about half of the growth. Penetration of Prorsum and London increased by five percentage points year on year.

The retailer said footfall stayed “soft” but this was offset by improved customer conversion rates.

Burberry’s online business “outperformed”, following the retailer’s investment in the channel to enhance its content, marketing and its platform to ensure it is “keeping pace” with changing consumer behaviour.

Mens tailoring performed well, as sales surged 50% and mens accessories soared almost 40%. In addition, soft accessories sold well over the Christmas period.

During the quarter, Burberry opened seven stores and four conecessions, including the rebuilt flagship store in Chicago, the standalone menswear store in Knightsbridge, the first concession in the US and two more stores in Brazil, totaling six in the country. Meanwhile, Burberry closed two stores and five concessions in the period.

Burberry plans to increase retail selling space by 14% in the second half of the financial year, targeting sites in Asia and Europe.