Why Burberry destroyed for 83 million euros of luxury goods in three years



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This is a figure that the British luxury society would like to keep secret. And yet, she is required to publish it annually in her annual report. This is the number of destroyed products. And, since a few years. it is growing strongly. In 2016, the London-based firm, known for its plaid-lined trench coats, destroyed 18.8 million pounds of products. The following year, the amount had risen to 26.9 million pounds (+ 43%). And in the annual accounts it unveiled last May, these discarded unsold products reached a record 28.6 million pounds. In total, over three years, this represents a little more than 83 million euros!

This bad way made products which, in store, are very expensive dislikes some of the shareholders of the company who did know the management at their annual general meeting. Some even asked why these products could not be sold to them rather than being destroyed. But the management did not give them any explanation. "We take this situation very seriously," commented Julie Brown, the group's chief financial officer, as reported in the newspaper The Times . Still explaining that this year, a large number of cosmetics had to be destroyed with the purchase of the Burberry Beauty franchise by the American Coty. Indeed, of the 28.6 million pounds of destroyed products, 10.4 million are inventories of cosmetics.

Nevertheless, this is still nearly 20 million pounds of clothing and fashion accessories destroy. And if some of the leather has been donated, says Marco Gobetti, the new general manager of Burberry, a recycling company to make new, there is still a lot of textile that have been permanently destroyed.

Richemont destroyed for 480 million euros of products

And Burberry is not the only company to destroy products in the luxury sector. The Swiss luxury group Richemont, which owns the Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre watch brands, would have definitively put out of use for more than 480 million euros of products last May. A practice that seems inconsistent with the commitments of these various brands in terms of sustainable development and they are struggling to badume.

Because, according to industry experts, these practices are primarily a marketing strategy . Destroying rather than selling off these products allows brands to better control distribution channels and branding. In other words, rather than destocking their unsold at very low prices at discounters or in their shops, luxury brands prefer to destroy them. It is for them a shortfall in the short term but they are found in the long term. "This allows brands to not find their products in secondary reseller markets, which in the long run ensures exclusive brand exclusivity," says Mark Ritson, professor of marketing in Melbourne in the magazine Industry Week Marketing .

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