British luxury brand Burberry said its outlook for the year ahead depended on how quickly China, its biggest market, recovered from COVID-19 lockdowns, after meeting expectations for sales and operating profit for its 2022 financial year.
The company reported a 23% rise in revenue to 2.83 billion pounds ($3.52 billion) and a 38% rise in adjusted operating profit to 523 million pounds, with comparable store sales in its final quarter growing 7% after lockdowns in mainland China weighed on its performance in March.
Burberry, known for its camel, red and black check and TB monogram, lost its chief executive Marco Gobbetti to Ferragamo in January. His replacement, Jonathan Akeroyd, joined in March, a couple of weeks before the end of its financial year.
Gobbetti sought to elevate Burberry's brand into the luxury space under a multi-year transformation plan for the 166-year-old group.
Akeroyd said he would set out his plans to build on Gobbetti's foundations and accelerate growth at the interim results in November.
Burberry said it maintained its medium-term guidance of high single-digit revenue growth and meaningful margin accretion at constant exchange rates.
"Our outlook is dependent on the impact of COVID-19 and rate of recovery in consumer spending in Mainland China," it said.
"While the current macro-economic environment creates some near term uncertainty, we are actively managing the headwind from inflation."
