Business news - Burberry

The fashion house Burberry, is revealing new plans to boost the year’s profit hopes.

This 155-year-old maker of handbags and luxurious accessories, reported a surge in revenues to 455 million Euros in the three months to March, which it said would result in full-year profits being at the top end of expectations.

Main concerns being that the buyers in buyers in China, the Middle East, Russia and India, which have not been affected by the European sovereign debt crisis, are now facing a downfall. The last months, Burberry and other luxury brands were noticing a “boom” in profit grown coming from the Asian part of the market. Concerns that those stellar growthrates could be under threat has seen Burberry's shares lose 17% of their valuein the past three months. China is in the big game for the luxury goods industry and is expected to become its biggest single market by 2015. Burberry bought out its longstanding Chinese business partner for about 82 million Euros last year, as it plans to expand from 60 to 100 shops.

“Angela Ahrendts, Burberry chief executive, said: ‘Burberryhad a strong finish to the year, driven by our design, digital marketing andretail initiatives, as well as good early progress in China.’ ”