Earnings look fabulous for Burberry

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Bob Moon: When the financial skies are darkening, you can always reach for a raincoat. The British fashion group Burberry has just produced some sparkling quarterly earnings.

But even in this case, for every silver lining, there’s a gray cloud.

Here’s Marketplace’s Stephen Beard in London.

Stephen Beard: Fears that the credit crunch would hit demand for luxury goods have so far proved unfounded, at least in Burberry’s case. Sales soared by 22 percent in the last quarter. The company shipped more than $420 million worth of trenchcoats and other fashionable clothing.

Analyst David Buik is with the BGC Group. He says Burberry has grown best of all in countries where conspicuous consumption is growing fast

Buik: They’ve been hugely reliant, of course, on the emerging world markets, particularly Russia and even places like Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and places like that where they’ve done significant business.

China, where the number of millionaires jumped by 23 percent last year, is another big market for Burberry but sales are holding up well even in the much less buoyant U.S.

As one analyst says, many consumers still regard luxuries as a necessity.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.