British luxury brand Burberry today posted a 26% jump in profit as expected.
It said it would invest up to £200m in new outlets and expanding existing stores in London, Chicago and Hong Kong.
The 156-year-old seller of raincoats and leather goods, known for its camel, red and black check pattern, said today it made an underlying pretax profit of £376m in the year to March 31.
That compared to analysts' average forecast of £377m and £298m made in 2010/11.
Revenue rose 24% to almost £1.9 billion with underlying growth rates ranging from 15% in Europe and the Americas to 41% in Asia Pacific.
Luxury goods shares have wobbled in recent months over worries that Europe's long-running debt crisis could help trigger an economic slowdown in emerging markets such as China, where runaway demand for high-end goods has offset weaker trends in the US and Europe.
Last month Burberry reported a slowdown in quarterly sales growth, while Aquascutum, another upmarket British brand, fell into administration before being sold earlier this month.
Burberry said today that it planned to increase retail selling space by 12-14% in the coming year, shifting to larger format stores and opening about 15 new outlets focused on emerging markets and busy tourist centres.
The cost and timing of the investment will result in a lower operating margin from retail and wholesale during the first half of the year but for the full year the company said it expected a further modest margin improvement.
The company said total capital expenditure in the current year would be between £180-200m with about one third of it going towards larger format stores including on London's Regent Street, Pacific Place in Hong Kong and Chicago.
