Fashion Wire Daily - Paris - Hermes Sales Up 13 Percent in First Quarter
Godfrey Deeny
May 07th, 2008 @ 00:15 AM - Paris
Sales at French luxury goods house Hermes grew by 13.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, as its perfume and silk and textiles businesses boomed, and turnover in the US grew mightily.
Shrugging off the current economic blues, sales in the Americas surged 9.4 percent to 61 million euros, or $94.5 million, over the first three months of this year, as “the new store on Wall Street in New York opened in mid-2007 contributed to this performance,” Hermes said in a release. Hermes was careful to add that using constant exchange rates - to take account of the declining greenback - sales in the Americas had actually grown by 23 percent.
Total sales grew to 415.1 million euros, or $643 million, even as the “depreciation of the dollar and currencies related to the dollar, again produced a severe negative impact on the Group's sales, cutting them by 18 million euros over the first three months,” Hermes stressed. The house does not break out a profit or loss figure for each quarter, like many quoted French businesses.
Hermes was also keen to stress that it is continuing its share buyback program, buying a total of 627,896 shares at an average price of 74.3 euros, or $115, each, for a total of 47 million euros, or $73 million.
Hermes added that sales in France had advanced 18 percent to 82.4 million euros, or $128 million, powered on by the expansion of the label’s famed flagship at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honore store, inaugurated in October 2007.
Business in the other European countries, excluding France, was up 12 percent to 88.5 million euros, or $137 million.
Turnover in Japan, however, was a tepid 92.6 million euros, or $143 million, up just 4 percent. But elsewhere in Asia, the French luxe label enjoyed 10.5 percent growth to 79 million euros, or $122 million.
Besides the strong performance in silks and textiles, Hermes added that its leather goods and saddlery division “turned in a handsome performance, with growth of 16 percent sparked by sales of leather bags, which surged by 25 percent.”
Finally, perfumes notched a 16 percent increase in sales benefiting from the launch of Kelly Caleche in the summer of 2007 and by the continuing success of Terre d’Hermes, both the brainchild of the label’s famed “nose” Jean-Claude Ellena.
