Louis Vuitton, Hermès enjoy bumper pandemic year as Koreans lavish on luxuries

[Photo by Yonhap]

Luxury fashion houses Hermès, Chanel and Louis Vuitton enjoyed a bumper year in South Korea as rich Koreans bound at home amid pandemic went on a spending spree.

Louis Vuitton Korea Ltd., the Korean unit of French high-end luxury fashion brand, in its disclosure on Monday said its operating profit in 2020 reached 151.9 billion won ($135.1 million), surging 176.7 percent from a year earlier.

Sales jumped 33.4 percent on year to total 1.05 trillion won, hitting the 1 trillion won milestone in yearly sales for the first time. Compared to nine years ago, sales more than doubled.

Hermès also posted an operating profit of 133.3 billion won in 2020, up 15.9 percent from the previous year. Sales added 15.8 percent to 419 billion won during the same period.

Chanel is yet to disclose its financial statements for last year¡¯s business in Korea.

Their bottom line also rose after the fashion houses sharply raised their price tags.

Louis Vuitton raised the prices of its mainstay products such as Pochette Accessoires by up to 25 percent in January. Chanel also upped the prices of its best-selling classic bag lineup by 2 percent in November last year. Shoppers queued from dawn to grab the bags before the prices went up.

Major department stores in the country during the first-week spring sales festival on April 3-4 saw a sharp rise of sales by 40-70 percent thanks to luxury frenzy.

Hyundai Department Store reported a 121.5 percent on-year increase in luxury sales, and Shinsegae Department Store 62.5 percent.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]