China luxury sales fuel Burberry optimism

Burberry sees “very promising” signs of recovery in China as disruption from Covid lockdowns and a Christmas wave of infections begins to recede. The British Luxury brand’s like-forlike sales grew 1 per cent in the three months to end-December, after a 23 per cent fall in mainland China largely offset higher spending by US tourists and locals in Europe. The growth was half the 2 per cent expected by analysts, and a slowdown from the 11 per cent Burberry had reported for the previous quarter. “In January, we’ve seen a change in traffic, we’ve seen some strong trade coming through,” said CFO Julie Brown. Chinese consumers accounted for about 25 per cent of Burberry’s revenue, down from 40 per cent pre-pandemic, she said.