LVMH says revenue has dropped as much as 20% due to coronavirus

LVMH said revenue for the last quarter dropped 10% to 20%, compared with the same period last year, as its luxury brands temporarily closed stores and shoppers tightened their wallets due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The French luxury-goods maker will disclose first-quarter results on April 16. The company said the outbreak’s full impact “cannot be accurately calculated at this time.”

“In a particularly uncertain environment, the group will maintain a strategy focused on the preservation of the value of its brands,” the company said in a statement Friday.

Several of LVMH’s peers may end up hit equally hard, or worse. Kering SA, which owns labels such as Gucci and Saint Laurent, said last Friday that its first-quarter comparable sales will fall about 15%. Burberry Group Plc. said on March 19 that its comparable retail sales were down between 40% and 50% over the prior six weeks.

Luxury goods struggled to find their footing even during the outbreak’s early days at the beginning of the year, when it spread across China. High-end labels like Louis Vuitton, Celine and Fendi rely on Chinese shoppers to spend both at home and as tourists abroad.

As the crisis grew into a pandemic, upscale boutiques shut thousands of stores around the world, though shopping is starting to pick up once more in certain markets.

Though retailers closed stores by the thousands in the U.S. this month, they’ve managed to reopen some locations in China as shutdown measures are lifted. — Bloomberg