Polo and Burberry Profits On The Rise
This story isn't terribly surprising as it seems global luxury lines are faring much better in this difficult market and economy than the less-than-high-end brands. Case and point, Burberry and Polo soar while Chico's and American Eagle plunge. The first quarter earnings are in showing Burberry and Polo with increases of 17% and 21.6% respectively over last year's marks which is a good sign seeing as how Chico's posted a quarterly decrease in sales of 9.6% and American Eagle saw a meager 4.6% increase in sales. I guess that just goes to show, if you were able to afford the more luxurious and expensive brands before gas became $4 per gallon, you are most likely still finding a way to spend your dime at that level.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brad May 30th 2008 5:29AM
I can sort of see high-end luxury brands being immune to economic downturns because of who their general clientele is, with Polo and Burberry I would have expected less-than-stellar results. I almost feel like in the last few years, brands like Burberry in particular have found new customers in people who generally find a $400 windshirt ridiculous, but might decide to splurge and buy a $90 polo. Over the last few years there has been an upward trend in men caring more and more about their appearance, spending more than usual on everthing from shaving cream to premium denim. Brands like Lacoste are super-popular, and when you're spending close to $80 for a polo from a brand that had previously been whored out to Izod for quite some time, I could see many people just saying "What the hell?" and just spending a little more for Burberry or Polo. However, these are the same people that I would think over the last year would have scaled back their spending on luxury items like these.
I don't know, it just surprises me that these two brands are doing so well...I guess at one point the price of things doesn't really matter to some people, and somehow these brands were able to convince their markets that their clothes are what you should be wearing.