Mulberry upbeat about full year
Mulberry said results for the year ending 31 March 2009 will now be ahead of market expectations after strong sales at Christmas.
In December the group had been cautius about the outlook for the Christmas period saying “At the time of announcing the interim results for the six months to 30 September 2008 the Group indicated that the financial performance for the year to 31 March 2009 was expected to fall short of market expectations due to the slowdown in consumer demand and, in particular, UK retail sales”. However, during the Christmas week ended 27 December and throughout January the UK retail business achieved significantly stronger sales than expected with sales of like-for-like stores more than 30% ahead of those achieved during the prior year. Margins were maintained during this period as the Group did not go into sale until Boxing Day and controlled the level of markdown during the January sale.
