Prada sees 10%+ sales rise in China, but Europe will stay slow

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 29, 2020

Prada has seen a double-digit increase in comparable sales in China this month, although there's still some way to go before the company can say that its business in the country is back to full health following coronavirus-linked lockdowns.

In fact, co-CEO Patrizio Bertelli said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that the company's sales had risen “significantly" more than 10% during May.

He added that this rise is far from being enough to be able to call out a complete recovery and that Europe remains an issue. That's partly because Europe’s luxury sector is driven by tourist sales and even after lockdowns are lifted, tourism across the continent is expected to remain muted. And it looks like Bertelli is expecting it to stay that way for some time.

“The European market is heavily dependent on tourism,” he told Bloomberg. “Tourism will pick up again when a vaccine will be developed.” With a vaccine unlikely to be available until the autumn at the very earliest and possibly much, much longer (if an effective one is ever actually developed), that's a fairly depressing assessment of the situation.

But the executive remains upbeat and said he’s looking forward to demand recovering more consistently worldwide with no plans to take extreme measures such as taking the company private again. 

“Our job is focused on brand development, we are not at all thinking about delisting the company,” he said. “We are working on new products, on expanding our sale network, on making the most of digital technology.”