Following yesterday’s release of LVMH’s figures for FY2022; Louise Deglise-Favre, apparel analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view: “LVMH achieved another impressive set of results in FY2022, despite the mounting macroeconomic challenges, with total group sales rising 23.3% to €79.2bn. The luxury conglomerate delivered exceptional results in Europe, Japan and the US, with currency-adjusted sales rising 35%, 31% and 15% on the year respectively, clearly illustrating that luxury shoppers’ wallets remain unaffected by high inflation and mounting living costs. The only cloud in LVMH’s sky was its performance in Asia, which remained flat on the year, held back by persisting COVID-19 restrictions in China. However, it must be noted that part of the Asian spend would undoubtedly have been captured in other regions such as Europe and the US, as international travel and tourism resumed.
“LVMH’s Fashion & Leather Goods division remained its crown jewel, with sales rising 25.1% on the year and an impressive 73.8% in the past three years to €38.6bn, boosted by the desirability of its brands, especially Louis Vuitton which surpassed €20bn in revenue, accounting for over 50% of the division’s sales. Louis Vuitton continued to cement its impeccable brand image, reinforcing its association with art through the opening of the LV Dream exhibitions in Paris and New York, in which visitors are taken through an immersive experience where they can admire original artwork and the brand’s collaborations with renowned artists such as Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama. The conglomerate’s other brands also saw great momentum, especially Celine and Loewe, with their respective runway shows under Heidi Slimane and JW Anderson critically acclaimed and generating lots of excitement on social media.
“In LVMH’s other divisions, Wine and Spirits also performed well, with sales rising 15.7% despite champagne supply issues due to high demand and a catastrophic harvest in autumn 2021, as this was partially offset by the global rise in champagne prices. Within the conglomerate’s Selective Retailing division, Sephora enjoyed a “record performance in revenue and earnings”, which can partially be attributed to its expansion into Kohl’s stores in the US. Sephora also relaunched a website in the UK in October 2022, and is set to open a physical store in Westfield London in early 2023. While the online launch was so successful that the website was not able to cope with the number of visitors, Sephora must ensure it continues to invest in its website design in order to be able to compete with well-established UK online beauty retailers such as Beauty Bay and Cult Beauty, which look more modern and which have more visually appealing listing pages.”
