国际英语新闻：Burberry to boost market presence in China

LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The British luxury group Burberry is planning to further boost its presence in China by expanding the number of franchised stores to 100 in the country in the next couple years, said Chief Executive Angela Ahrendts here on Tuesday.

    She told Xinhua in a foreign journalist press conference that Burberry would increase its investment in emerging markets, especially in China, because the country has a huge purchasing potential.

    So far, the company has operated 90 stores in emerging markets, the majority of which are currently under franchise. In China, the company has 44 franchise stores now, following seven openings in the first half of the financial year.

    Ahrendts said that Burberry is continuing to perform well in China, with strong double-digit comparable store sales growth in the first half.

    In addition, the company is also planning to increase its presence in the Americas.

    Burberry reported a fall of 19.6 percent in pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of September from 97 million pounds (about 163 million U.S. dollars) to 78 million pounds (about 131 million U.S. dollars).

    But its total revenues were up by 6 percent to 572 million pounds (about 961 million U.S. dollars) in the first financial half year, about 10 percent of which was from emerging markets. During the period, retail sales accounted for 54 percent of total revenue, while the proportion of the wholesale revenues was 38 percent.

    The 153-year-old group Burberry, which now has 122 mainline stores, 255 concessions and 90 franchised stores across the world, is planning to increase retail selling space by 10 percent a year.