LVMH sales soar despite continued pandemic, conflict

The world’s top luxury group LVMH said Tuesday the war in Ukraine and Covid-19 lockdowns in China didn’t hold back its first-quarter performance as sales jumped 29 percent from the same period last year to 18 billion euros ($19.5 billion).

The performance by the group which contains brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, and Moet & Chandon, easily beat the 16.4-billion-euro analyst consensus established by Bloomberg the 17-billion-euro consensus of analysts surveyed by Factset.

“LVMH had a good start to the year against a backdrop of continued disruption from the health crisis and marked by the dramatic events in Ukraine,” the company said in a statement.

At the beginning of the month, the firm, which also has the Celine, Fendi, Givenchy, and Kenzo brands, said it was temporarily closing its 124 boutiques in Russia where it has 3,500 staff.

LVMH said all business segments posted double-digit growth in the first three months of the year except for its wine and spirits division, which was crimped by supply constraints.

It said sales growth reached the double digits in the United States and Europe, while Asia also posted growth despite the impact of a tightening of health restrictions in China last month.