Sales of luxury goods group Gucci increased by 15.6%, driving French retailer PPR’s total sales in the third quarter of 2006 to increase by 5.8%.
Gucci Group's luxury department sales increased to US$906.6 million, while sales in the retail sector, which was affected by the decline in the mail-order business of Redcats, only increased by 3.4% to 3.36 billion euros.
PPR chief financial officer Jean-Francois Palus said that luxury sales “continue to be driven by the strong economic situation outside of Japan.â€
Sales of the Gucci brand increased by 12.2% to reach 515.3 million euros, which is strong in most regions - Europe grew by 7%, North America 18%, Asia Pacific 14%, only Japan increased by 1.4%.
Within the group, the loss of Yves Saint Laurent also showed signs of improvement. Thanks to the good sales of the pre-autumn series and the autumn-winter series, as well as the double-digit growth in leather products, YSL’s sales for the quarter increased by 18.6%.