Gloom Descends on Luxury-Goods Industry
- Hermes abandons mid-term target of 8% annual revenue growth
- Richemont says first-half earnings will probably drop 45%
FRANCE-LUXURY-INDUSTRY-BUSINESS-LEATHER
The crisis in the global luxury-goods industry deepened after Hermes International SCA abandoned a long-standing forecast and Richemont predicted a profit plunge that Chairman Johann Rupert deemed unacceptable.
Richemont, the maker of Cartier jewelry, said first-half operating profit will probably decline about 45 percent and warned it may have to deepen cost cuts. Kelly bag maker Hermes, traditionally among the industry’s most resilient companies, scrapped a target for 8 percent annual sales growth, replacing it with what it described as “an ambitious goal.”