This luxury Armageddon leaves investors spoilt for choice

{"text":[[{"start":8.5,"text":"Luxury investors are a spoilt bunch. "},{"start":11.154,"text":"Listen to the mood music ahead of first-quarter figures and you would be forgiven for thinking that the sector was facing some kind of Armageddon. "},{"start":17.697,"text":"True, the discerning investor needs to be mindful of divergent performances, as spending slows after the post-pandemic frenzy. "},{"start":24.739,"text":"But the surprising thing about this crop of luxury sales is just how resilient many brands are proving to be. "}],[{"start":30.64,"text":"It is not hard to see why the market is minded to nitpick. "},{"start":34.069,"text":"A few names have posted ghastly results. "},{"start":36.574,"text":"Kering issued a double-whammy warning, flagging a 10 per cent decline in quarterly sales first, and then a 40 to 45 per cent fall in first-half operating income as its key Gucci brand stumbled in China. "},{"start":47.667,"text":"But Gucci is mired in a difficult turnaround, just as the market has become more selective. "},{"start":52.584,"text":"Those without homegrown problems have fared better. "}],[{"start":56.25,"text":"Take Hermès. "},{"start":57.742,"text":"The group has more customers for its £10,000 handbags than it actually produces. "},{"start":62.534,"text":"It can therefore increase revenues virtually at will, as exemplified by its 17 per cent increase in first-quarter organic sales. "},{"start":69.952,"text":"Perfumes and silks — products bought by the less-wealthy Hermès customer — only posted mid-single-digit growth. "},{"start":76.144,"text":"But the 20 per cent revenue growth in high-margin leather goods shows why the group leads the luxury sector on valuation, trading at more than 50 times this year’s earnings. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":85.83,"text":"Hermès’s strong performance underscores the fact that, in damped circumstances, super high-end customers feel the pinch less than so-called aspirational shoppers. "},{"start":94.759,"text":"That is borne out by the performance of Brunello Cucinelli, master of Italian understated luxury and of the $1,000 knit T-shirt, which posted an 18 per cent increase in quarterly sales. "}],[{"start":105.83,"text":"The resilience of the megarich is not the only reason for the luxury sector’s strength. "},{"start":110.39699999999999,"text":"Prada and Moncler, which both managed sales growth in the high teens, suggest that consumers are still flocking to trendy brands which are having a moment in the sun. "},{"start":118.80199999999999,"text":"And even behemoth LVMH managed to eke out a modicum of growth. "}],[{"start":123.6,"text":"None of this is meant to suggest that luxury can stretch out its post-pandemic boom — a period when many companies posted well beyond 20 per cent annual sales growth. "},{"start":132.72899999999998,"text":"But, in aggregate, the sector seems on track to return to long-term average growth rates of perhaps 6 to 8 per cent this year. "},{"start":139.709,"text":"Given how large luxury has become, that is a remarkable result in and of itself. "}],[{"start":144.38,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/152137-1714138776.mp3"}