London: Britain's Burberry missed forecasts for first-half sales growth and highlighted an increasingly challenging environment for luxury sales, hit particularly by greater caution amongst Chinese customers.
The 159-year-old firm, famous for its British-made trench coats and cashmere scarves, said on Thursday retail revenue rose 2 per cent to 774 million pounds ($1.20 billion) in the six months to Sept. 30.
That compared to first quarter growth of 8 per cent and was below analysts' average forecast of 818 million pounds.
First half comparable store sales growth was 1 per cent versus analysts' consensus of 5 per cent and growth of 6 per cent in the first quarter.
The firm saw a mid single-digit percentage decline in comparable store sales in the Asia Pacific region, which includes Hong Kong and China.
Burberry said it expected 2015-16 adjusted pretax profit to be broadly in line with the average of those analysts who have recently updated forecasts, which is 445 million pounds.