Yves Saint Laurent runs faster than Gucci, which itself continues to maintain a “good” pace. Bottega Veneta is growing once again. Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen show “a promising rush”. Kering almost reaches 16 billion revenue in 2019. And more. Net profits of non-core activities went up by 15.2%, reaching 3.2 billion euro. Meanwhile, the same result from core business loses 37% (2.3 billion) due to new accounting matters and the sanction agreed upon with Italy’s tax authorities (1.25 billion). We must point out: Hong Kong’s protests did not have any effect on the multinational’s income statement. Quite the opposite: growth in the 4th quarter was above expectations. The point is: Kering continues booming.
2019
Kering closes 2019 with sales at 15.883 billion euro: +16.1% at current rates, +13.2% at constant rates. Retail sales from own stores increased by 14%. Online sales grew, overall, by 22.6%. The markets with the best performances were Asia-Pacific (+20.4%) and Europe (+13.7%).
Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent
Gucci sold 9.628 billion euro worth of products in 2019: +16.2% at current rates, +13.3% at constant rates. “The brand – highlighted Kering in a press release -, has more than doubled its sales between 2016 and 2019. Additionally, growth in the 4th quarter was very stable, in comparison to the previous one: +10.5%. Yves Saint Laurent’s revenue was of 2.049 billion euro (+17.5% at current rates, +14.4% at constant rates).
Bottega Veneta and the rest
Bottega Veneta generated 1.168 billion euro in sales, equal to a +5.3% performance at current rates and +2.2% at constant rates. After an up-and-down first semester, sales grew in the second half of year (+8.2% as far as the comparable ones go), thanks to the collections by Daniel Lee. The increment in the fourth quarter was of 9.4 percentage points. Other Kering brands also gave good results in 2019, as shown by the “rush by Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen”.
The 4th quarter
Kering’s fiscal quarter going from October to December 2019, registered turnover up by 13.8%, for a value of 4.36 billion euro, “equal to an increment of 11.4%, after acquisitions and currency fluctuations are taken off the table”. Reuters writes that this result “is inline with the performance of the third quarter”. But more importantly that “it surpassed the analysts’ forecast”, even while Hong Kong’s sales dropped by 50%. In conclusion, Kering continues booming and proving its extraordinary resilience. “The group – comments Jean-Marc Duplaix, financial director of Kering, to Reuters -, trusted its course and its growth potential in the medium and long term”, even with the current uncertainty.
Image taken from the websites of Gucci (on the left) and Bottega Veneta (on the right)
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