LVMH Farm 3% Down in sales as core business interruptions

(Repeat the story to add Ric’s company) Paris, April 14 (Reuters) – LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, said Monday that sales fell by 3% in the first quarter, and the expectations were missing and confirming a delay in the sector, while buyers withheld the purchases of designer fashion in a short economic environment. The French company behind high labels, including fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Dior, the jewelry brand Bulgari and Hennessy Cognac, reported sales for the three months to the end of March of 20.3 billion euros ($ 23.08 billion). The result compares with 1% growth in the fourth quarter and the expectations of the analysts for 2% growth in the first quarter of 2025, according to a Visiblealpha consensus estimates. The fashion and learning goods division, home to Louis Vuitton and Dior and is responsible for almost half of the group sales and more than three-quarters of the operating profit, has achieved a 5% drop in sales, far below expectations for a fixed performance. LVMH said that fashion and leather goods sales saw a ‘slight decline’ in the US, while Japan was weaker than the comparable quarter a year ago when Chinese led the growth in spending there. The luxury players from Europe relied on wealthy Americans at the beginning of this year to regain growth for the sector, as the prospects for China, another important market, remained gloomy. But as the fear of a US recession is on the rise after President Donald Trump’s recent tariff announcements declined stock markets and the dollar, the sector is the longest slump in years. The luxury sector, which sells valued items to rich buyers with high margins, is better than other industries to use its price power to protect profits from Trump’s rates, which would include a 20% cost on European fashion and leather and 31% for Swiss manufactured watches if they are fully applied. Last week, Trump interrupted most of his rates for 90 days and set a general rate of 10%. ($ 1 = 0.8797 euros) (Reporting by Mimosa Spencer and Tassilo Hummel) first published: 14 Apr 2025, 09:33 IST