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(Alliance News) - Burberry Group PLC on Friday warned it anticipates its annual results to be below previous expectations following a weaker festive period, with luxury retail demand waning.
Shares in Burberry slumped 9.2% to 1,235.50 pence each in London on Friday morning, the worst FTSE 100 performer.
The London-based luxury fashion house said retail revenue fell 6.6% to GBP706 million in the 13 weeks to December 30, from GBP756 million the year before, or by 2% in constant currency.
Burberry cut its forecast for adjusted operating profit for the financial year ending March 30 to be in the range of GBP410 million to GBP460 million. The latest guidance would at worst represent a decrease of over a third from the GBP634 million achieved in financial 2023.
Back in November, it had guided for profit towards the lower end of the consensus range at that time of GBP552 million to GBP668 million.
The luxury fashion brand blamed the slowdown in demand within the luxury sector.
"We are continuing to deliver the transition to our new modern British luxury creative expression for Burberry which started appearing in our stores in early Autumn. We are still in the early stages of executing on this, which has become more challenging against the backdrop of slowing luxury demand. We experienced a further deceleration in our key December trading period and we now expect our full year results to be below our previous guidance," Chief Executive Jonathan Akeroyd said.
Burberry said it expects a currency headwind of around GBP120 million to revenue and around GBP60 million to adjusted operating profit.
"We remain confident in our strategy to realise Burberry's potential as the modern British luxury brand, and we are committed to achieving our GBP4 billion revenue ambition," Akeroyd added.
Burberry announces annual results on May 15.
By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter
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