Fashion company Burberry Group has reported a rise in total revenue of 19 per cent for the half year to 31 March 2008.

Burberry said that its operations in Europe (excluding Spain) had seen revenue go up 35 per cent to £194 million compared with the same period in 2006/07. Spanish revenue in the period increased only marginally by four per cent to £91 million.

The company said that in North America it had seen revenue growth of 20 per cent from £113 million to £135 million, in the period. In Asia Pacific, Burberry reported revenue growth of 10 per cent to £126 million.

In total revenue was up 19 per cent from £458 million to £546 million.

Angela Ahrendts, chief executive officer of Burberry, said, Burberry had a good finish to the year, against the background of an increasingly challenging external environment. Looking forward, we are thrilled with the momentum of our brand as our core luxury, retail and non-apparel strategies continue to gain traction, while our seasoned management team focuses on improving the operational aspects of our business.

Carphone Warehouse predict £220m profits for 2008

By Henry Tyler

15 April 2008

London

The Carphone Warehouse Group has reported an increase in the number of people who have signed up to its telecoms subscriptions by 16 per cent year-on year. The company also said it had increased mobile connections by 12 per cent to 2.7 million.

Carphone Warehouse said that mobile subscription connections were up nine per cent to 1.1 million and that it had 109,000 broadband net adds, taking its base to over 2.7 million.

The company also reported higher net debt due to increased investment in capex and SAC and also because of adverse currency movements since the end of 2007.

Carphone Warehouse said it expected its pre-tax profit to be £215-220 million before write-off on disposal of its Swiss retail business.

Charles Dunstone, chief executive officer of the company, said, Our performance over the last three months has been good in a slower consumer environment. In our Distribution business, continuing network competition and growing demand for mobile broadband have been key drivers. In Fixed Line, we have made further good progress on customer recruitment and continued migration to our own network, and we now have only 8,000 loss-making free broadband customers left to migrate.

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