BEATRICE ISOLA
Luxury brands Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors have recorded weak sales due to low turnout of customers at their stores.
A BBC report attributed the drop in sales to “strong dollar hitting tourists.”
In its first quarter net revenues, Ralph Lauren experienced a drop of 4% to $1.6bn, leading to a revenue loss of $22m.
However, Michael Kors’ quarterly revenues moved up by 0.2% to $987.9m, but sales at stores a year fell by 7.4%. Thereby its profits for the quarter dropped by 15.7% to $146.3m.
Hakon Helgesen, retail analyst at Conlumino told the BBC that luxury brands were not being helped by what he called “the car-crash that is the American department store channel”.
He says Ralph Lauren has become “muddled and confused” and should be focusing on more upmarket stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.
However, Ralph Lauren chief executive, Stefan Larsson, explained the company was moving on with its reform plan.
Earlier this year, Larsson announced Ralph Lauren would streamline its business by closing stores and cutting 8% of its workforce with the aim of producing annual savings of between $180m-$220m.
On his part, Michael Kors chief executive, John Idol said progress in the quarter has been quiet due to a drop in customers shopping habit and fall in tourists’ visit to cities in America.
About The Author
