Valentino: Clothes swap campaign leads to UK sales success for luxury brand
A campaign by global luxury fashion brand Valentino for shoppers to trade in their clothes in exchange for vouchers helped sales jump at its UK arm during 2023, it has been revealed.
Valentino’s UK arm has reported a turnover of £38.9m for the year, up from £34.3m, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House.
The brand ran its Valentino Vintage campaign from April to December 2023 which encouraged its customers to exchange their garments in exchange for vouchers to buy new Valentino items.
The latest results also show its pre-tax profit dipped from £801,003 to £508,566 over the same period.
Sales through its directly operated stores increased by 41 per cent while its outlets rose by 17.1 per cent compared to the previous year.
A statement signed off by the board said: “Despite the company suffering effects from macroeconomic uncertainties such as Brexit, conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and strained international relations elsewhere, Valentino England’s performance shows that it has come through the crisis better than before.”
Valentino added that its performance during the ‘first semester’ of 2024 is “in line with the previous year with a high degree of uncertainty, even if as of today the sales are 13.6 per cent higher than budget”.
The business said that its parent company plans to focus on “driving the existing store network” and identifying new opportunities for shop locations to increase its market share, sales and profitability.
Valentino’s UK turnover increased from £31.9m to £34.3m in the year while its sales went from £2.4m to £4.5m in Europe.
During the year the average number of people employed by the brand in the UK rose from 83 to 97.
The wider Valentino group reported a three per cent decline year on year in its sales to €1.35bn (£1.1bn) for 2023 amid “a challenging global context for the luxury industry”.