Leather goods are the engine that allows LVMH to hit a record. The French luxury conglomerate closed 2018 with 46.8 billion euro in revenue, which meant a 10% increaseon 2017’s numbers, while net revenue was up 21%, to a staggering 10 billion euro. Additionally, the group’s margins increased by 1.9%, bringing them to 21.4%. Net incomeincreased by 18%, equal to 6.3 billion euro. To be precise, as the group highlights, organic growth was of 11%, or 12% if the concessions at Hong Kong’s airport are accounted for in the percentage. In this context, fashion, but even more so, leather goods, played a big role in the group’s balance sheet, with recorded turnover of 18.4 billion euro, up 19%from the same period the previous year, or 15% if we consider organic growth. This category, in fact, also had the best operational results, equal to 5.943 billion euro, or 21% up.
On the other hand, Salvatore Ferragamo’ssales hit the brakes. Tuscany-based fashion house closed the 2018 balance sheet with revenue of 1.35 billion euro, down 3.4%in comparison to 2017. The greatestdown-performing periodwas that of the 4thquarter, when sales decreased 3.6%, due to fluctuations in the exchange rates (-1.8% with constant rates), playing a role on both end-of-year sales and poor performances by the wholesale segment. This last one, in fact, decreased by 3.8% during the year, while the retail segment lost 3%. And last, the like-for-like lost 1.4%.
