Hermès defies gloom and upgrades targets
French luxury group Hermès, whose products include crocodile leather jackets for 1 million, raised its full-year sales targets today after growth in the Americas and Asia drove an 18.2% rise in third-quarter revenue.
The group is the latest in the sector to report surging demand despite the economic crisis in Europe and the US.
Sales growth at constant exchange rates could reach 15%-16% this year, Hermès said in a statement. This compares with a previous forecast of 12%-14%.
"Meeting this target will be highly contingent on the business sectors' ability to meet stepped-up demand ahead of the year-end holiday season," Hermes added. Over the full year, the current operating margin is expected to be slightly higher than the record level achieved in 2010.
The upbeat outlook from Hermès comes after luxury peers such as Burberry , LVMH and PPR posted forecast-beating quarterly figures and said they saw no slowdown in spite of global economic concerns.
Analysts had expected Hermès to post third-quarter sales growth of 17%.
Hermès said that a "remarkable growth trend" seen in the Americas and Asia, excluding Japan, in the first half of the year had continued in the third quarter, with sales up 22% and 34% respectively.
