Luxury retailer Karen Millen has reported a 12 per cent rise in the UK and Ireland as the premium market continues to show growth.
Its strongest performance was in Spain, where there was a like-for-like increase of 25 per cent and France where sales rose 22 per cent on a l-f-l basis. International sales now account for 65 per cent of Karen Millen‘s business.
It said sales growth was driven by a focus on higher full price sales with an improvement on margin.
Karen Millen CEO Mike Shearwood said it was making good progress of operating from at least 400 stores in 2014 and adding new countries to its current list of 58.
He added that he was “delighted” with the Christmas trading results. “It is a great endorsement of the desirability of our products and our strategy to maintain full price sales by offering a higher level of product exclusivity right through to Christmas,” he said.
The UK luxury industry is forecast to almost double in size over the next five years to £12.2bn in 2017.
