Luxury fashion retailer Balenciaga has become Kering’s fastest growing asset thanks to increasing interest from millennials.
Speaking to the Financial Times’ luxury goods conference in Venice yesterday, Balenciaga chief executive Cedric Charbit said the brand was growing a break neck speed.
He added that growth was spread across all areas, including its popular footwear range alongside handbags and clothing, at a rate of more than 100 per cent in some cases.
“There’s not a dinner I go to where a father or someone (doesn’t) say ‘stop releasing these shoes, it’s out of control, we spend too much money at Balenciaga’, which I’m very happy with,” Charbit said.
Though the 101 year old brand doesn’t reveal its earnings, Kering’s chief executive Francois-Henri Pinault suggested it would top €1 billion (£880 million) in the medium-term.
Kering, which owns luxury powerhouses like Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, said the retailer was its fastest growing brand over the previous two quarters, outpacing Gucci’s 49 per cent increase.
“Millennials represent 60 per cent of what we sell. Together with men, these are growing faster than any other (category),” Charbit said.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
