Luxury market: Good results for Swiss brands in the Top 100

8 years ago - Published in Alternative investments, Finance

Emerging consumers markets continue to drive luxury market growth and Switzerland remains one of the world leaders in the luxury industry, due to the solidity of its watch brands. Two Swiss groups are in the top 10: Richemont is second, Swatch Group sixth. The French giant LVMH, including Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Bulgari and Tag Heuer brands, ranked first with a turnover of $ 22.4 billion (CHF 22.54 billion).

The Swiss country is one of the most solid luxury markets; in total there are ten Swiss companies in the top 100, according to the fourth annual Global Powers of Luxury Goods report issued by Deloitte Global.

The report examines and lists the 100 largest luxury goods companies globally, based on publicly available data for consolidated sales of luxury goods in FY2015.

In China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates the percentage of consumers claiming to have increased their spending in the last 5 years was 70 percent, compared to 53 percent in the more mature markets (EU, US and Japan). 

Luxury goods sales growth up-sales for the world's 100 largest luxury goods companies grew by more than 3 percentage points in FY2015. Most currencies weakened significantly against the US dollar, which benefited many multinational companies based in other regions who experienced favorable currency effects, driving up reported sales. In the Top 100, only six companies reported double-digit sales decline in FY2015; half of these were jewelers, the product sector which continued to experience volatile demand.

Italy is once again the leading luxury goods country in terms of number of companies, while France has the highest share of sales-with 26 companies in the Top 100, Italy has more than double the number based in France. However, the predominantly family-owned Italian companies are much smaller, with average luxury goods size of US$1.3 billion, which is around a quarter of the average US$5.1 billion luxury goods sales for the French companies.

“Travel and tourism is still a great growth opportunity for the luxury sector,” said Patrizia Arienti, EMEA Region Fashion & Luxury Leader, Deloitte Global. “Almost half of luxury purchases are made by consumers who are travelling, either in a foreign market (31 percent) or while at the airport (16 percent). This rises to 60 percent among consumers from emerging markets, who typically do not have access to the same range of products and brands that can be found in more mature markets.”

Based on publicly available data, the world’s 100 largest luxury goods companies generated sales of US$212 billion in FY2015. The average luxury goods annual sales for a Top 100 company is now US$2.1 billion.