Oil price boost for Burberry

Apr 16 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

DEMAND for luxury goods from oil-rich customers helped Burberry defy wider retail woes and report a forecast-beating hike in sales.

The fashion house – famous for its check design – saw “double-digit” comparable second-half store sales growth in the US, as the soaring price of oil boosted business in oil-producing cities such as Houston and Dallas.

Petro-dollar regions such as the Middle East also buoyed trade in an otherwise difficult environment, with the group’s retail sales up 6% on a like-for-like basis.

Sales have declined since the first half of the financial year, when like-for-like revenues increased by 11%, but the performance was better than forecast by analysts.

Shares in Burberry rose 9% on the news, despite UK retail figures earlier showing high street sales fell in March for the first time in nearly two years.