Sales of luxury goods appear to be snapping back after an awful final quarter of 2001, but analysts and consultants who follow the sector warn that several factors cloud the outlook for growth in the coming months and years.
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Short-term worries include the recession in Japan and the coincident devaluation of the yen. Further out, concerns exist about the effectiveness of various distribution channels and the risk of brand saturation in the marketplace.
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The recession last year was difficult for many industries, yet sellers of luxury goods held up fairly well ¡X until September. The terrorism attacks and the immediate and severe depression of tourism and air travel proved to be one crisis too many.
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"The luxury goods sector tends to be quite recession proof because people who buy them have secure jobs or are wealthy anyway," Bryan Roberts, a senior retail analyst at the research firm Mintel International Group Ltd., explained. "But Sept. 11 had a massive impact on a......
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