LVMH Sees No Slowdown in Luxury Goods Demand, Expands in Asia
Bloomberg News, September 17, 2011
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the maker of Celine handbags and TAG Heuer watches, sees no signs of slowing demand for luxury products in Europe or America, said Yves Carcelle, who runs the fashion and leather goods unit.
“Even in period of crisis, people want to treat themselves,” Carcelle, 63, said at the opening of a Louis Vuitton shop at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore today. “We don’t see any signs of slowing down whether it’s in Europe or in America. The world of luxury doesn’t obey the same rule.”
Carcelle said there will be less net opening of stores and more investment into improving the size of stores, because “luxury retail has to be a luxurious experience.”
(...) The brand is opening stores in Asia to tap demand from growing numbers of wealthy Asians.
The company is expanding its store in Manila and adding one level to its Lee Gardens store in Hong Kong to double its floor space, Jean-Baptiste Debains, president of Louis Vuitton Asia- Pacific, said at the Singapore opening. It’s also making its Sydney outlet “two or three times bigger” and expanding its store in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, he said.
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Asian Market
The biggest market in the world is still Japan, while the No. 1 clientele is mainland Chinese, who shop “a lot” when they travel to places such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Paris, Carcelle said.
Luxury goods sales in China are set to rise 18 percent a year to 180 billion yuan ($28.2 billion) between 2010 and 2015, consultant McKinsey & Co. has estimated. Cie. Financiere Richemont SA said this month it sees no signs that demand is weakening in the country, after posting a 46 percent increase in Asia-Pacific sales in the five months through August.
