And with the house’s plans to push into cosmetics this year, they’ll probably buy a lot more.
It’s only Tuesday, but it’s already been a very long week for execs at Gucci. In the midst of dealing with a scandal with the potential to alienate much of its customer base, Gucci’s parent company Kering released its annual earnings report for 2018. Fortunately for them, things were pretty positive and strong on the financial front, and Gucci, as usual, had a lot to do with that.
Overall, Kering saw comparable sales increase 29.4 percent over last year to about €13.7 billion or $15.5 billion. “Once again, we significantly outperformed our sector,” said CEO François-Henri Pinault in a statement.
The majority of that came from Gucci, whose sales topped €8 billion for the first time (meaning it’s catching up to Chanel) at a growth of 36.9 percent. That growth came from all product categories (with leather goods, i.e. handbags, making up the greatest portion), all regions (primarily China — defying industry-wide fears of a slowdown in this market) and even all age ranges. In fact, millennials (defined as those under 35) made up the majority — 62 percent — of Gucci’s sales last year. Pinault emphasized during the earnings webcast that this group has the same retention rates (meaning they repeatedly make purchases) and ticket prices (the amount they spend per shopping trip) as older groups. Clearly, its status as the hottest fashion brand in the world did translate into sales.
