LVMH, the world's biggest luxury group, beat forecasts with a 14 per cent rise in comparable third-quarter sales, driven by the solid recovery of its fashion, wines and champagne businesses.
Analysts had forecast like-for-like sales growth of 11 per cent, compared with a 3 per cent drop in 2009, the worst year for the luxury goods industry in more than two decades.
"As restocking effects are now over across most luxury product categories, Q3 sales trends at LVMH and the broader sector are more closely aligned with underlying consumer demand, a positive in the run-up to Christmas," Citi said in a note.
LVMH's strong results come as German fashion house Hugo Boss , known for its sharply cut men's suits, raised its 2010 profit forecast and posted better-than-expected third-quarter figures.
LVMH did not give an outlook for the year. It simply reiterated its "confidence for 2010".
LVMH, which owns fashion brands Celine and Louis Vuitton as well as Moet & Chandon, the world's biggest champagne maker, said sales in the three months to September 30th reached €5.1 billion.
On a nine-month basis, revenue hit 14.2 billion euros against a forecast for 14.0 billion in the Reuters poll.
LVMH said consumer demand for wines and spirits had returned, particularly for Hennessy cognac in Asia - one of its biggest businesses - which helped push up the unit's overall sales 17 per cent on a comparable basis in the third quarter.
Leather goods maker Louis Vuitton, which contributes more than half of LVMH's total operating profits, continued to enjoy double-digit growth and said it planned to launch a new line in the third quarter.
Louis Vuitton last month raised the prices of some of its bags by up to 9 per cent and closed its Parisian shops an hour earlier to preserve stocks ahead of Christmas.
Some analysts and fund managers said they saw the move as more as a marketing tool than a necessary measure as the total sales of Louis Vuitton Paris shops represented only a small fraction of the group's world sales.
Reuters