Burberry has posted a smaller than expected 7% decline in third-quarter retail revenue, as it continues its strategic transformation to drive long-term growth.

Despite the challenges in key markets, the luxury retailer saw a 4% increase in sales across the Americas, helping offset declines in the Asia Pacific and EMEIA regions, where sales fell by 9% and 2%, respectively.

The brand’s core categories, particularly outerwear and scarves, continued to perform well globally, a key focus of its ongoing efforts to strengthen its product offering.

The fashion retailer also launched its “It’s Always Burberry Weather” and “Wrapped in Burberry” campaigns, which it said boosted brand desirability, particularly in outerwear.

CEO Joshua Schulman said: “Since launching Burberry Forward in November, we have moved at pace to advance our strategy to reignite brand desire, improve our performance and drive long-term value creation.

“We are encouraged by the response to our “It’s Always Burberry Weather” outerwear campaign and “Wrapped in Burberry” festive campaign.

“These activations resonated with a broad range of luxury customers leading to an improvement in brand desirability and strength in outerwear and scarves.”

Looking ahead, the British retailer said that it was now more likely that its second-half results will broadly offset its first-half adjusted operating loss.

Schulman added: “The acceleration of our core categories reinforces our belief that Burberry has the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity and that our strategic plan will deliver sustainable, profitable growth over time.

“However, we recognise that it is still very early in our transformation and there remains much to do.” 

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