…but global boom gives Mulberry lift
LUXURY handbag-maker Mulberry said it expected overseas sales to overtake those in the UK within two years yesterday, as it beat forecasts with a 358 per cent leap in pre-tax profit.
Revenues from sales of its sought-after handbags and purses jumped 69 per cent to £121.6m in the past year, while profits rose to £23.3m as it focused on international expansion.
Mulberry’s shares closed 8.6 per cent higher after it outlined its potential for growth in China and the US.
“Probably in the year after next the sales to the rest of the world will exceed the UK and that trend will continue,” chief executive Godfrey Davis said. “We have two shops in New York so there’s quite a lot of the United States to go at, we’ve got one shop in Beijing so there’s quite a lot of China to go at.”
Davis said he expected to open at least 12 new overseas stores in the 2011-12 year, including in the US, South Korea, China, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The results were ahead of the consensus forecast for £21.5m pre-tax profit. Shares in Mulberry have risen nearly sixfold over the past year and it now has a greater market capitalisation than the combined total of struggling British high street retailers Dixons, HMV and Game.
The global luxury goods market defied the gloom to hurt the rest of the retail sector.