Liberty outperforms West End rivals amid luxury slowdown

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Nov 1, 2017

Liberty, the famous high-end department store on Great Marlborough Street in central London, has revealed a strong set of results as it managed to beat the West End in terms of footfall.

According to its latest accounts, the company saw sales surge 5% to £74.46m in the year to 28 January, despite 2016 being a bumpy year for the global luxury goods industry due to terrorism threats in European markets and economic uncertainty in the UK following the EU vote.

The retailer achieved a 5% increase in gross profit to £38.9m, while operating profit increased 2% to £6.4m. And interestingly, footfall at the store increased by 1.7% year-on-year, outperforming London’s West End as a whole which recorded a 2.3% decline, despite the post-Brexit vote surge in the second half of the year.

During the year, the company invested in a new e-commerce platform as part of a strategy aimed at increasing its international exposure and improving the user experience.

£73m of its sales were generated in the UK, while Europe contributed £500,000 and the USA £425,000. An additional £475,000 came from the Rest of the World.

The luxury department store is also modernising the interior of its London site and has, since period-end, unveiled refurbished menswear and womenswear departments.