Ralph Lauren has a successful fiscal 2019, which ended on March 31. The company's revenues have increased 2% for a $6.3 billion profit thanks to revenue growth in the Asian and European sectors. There was also an uptick in AUR (Average Unit Retail) on a global scale.
The top line of the company grew, thanks to another strong push from the company's Asian segment, according to Forbes. Digital sales were also an area of growth that added to the company's strong fiscal year. Asia accounted for fast growth and for 17% of the total revenues of the company.
The importance of the Asian segment of Ralph Lauren is highlighted in an interactive dashboard, where key drivers are also measured. The Asia segment accounted for about $150 million in total revenues and an average annual rate of 5.3% over the last 3 years. Revenues of $1 billion were also in the segment for the fiscal year 2019, which reflected an 11.5% year-on-year improvement.
The Asian segment wouldn't have helped the company's revenues grow without a robust push, which helped the top-line increase to 16.5% in 2019 from around 12% way back in 2016.
The American fashion house has managed to realize its expectations in the area after having some doubts about its North American market. Asia Times reported that the Asian segment was led by China, specifically the Chinese mainland.
The company's quarterly report revealed that global revenues were helped to 3% by the Asian segment, with $1.4 billion pumped into company revenues after positive results across different regions came back.
Patrice Louvet, the president and chief executive officer of Ralph Lauren, said that the performance was driven by continued momentum from different international markets. Expense discipline across the organization also helped while the company continued to elevate its brands, stabilizing the North American business even against a "volatile backdrop."
30% of the revenue was courtesy of China. Currency revenue revealed that Asian and European markets were good for 8% and 7% of the growth, respectively, while the company continued to expand its stores with 25 stores that were either new or owned.
The Asia segment also continued to perform the strongest, compared to other sales segments within the company. Fiscal 2019 showed that Asia's comparable sales growth was at 5%. In contrast, other Ralph Lauren branches aside from the Asian ones combined for just 1%.
China also contributed heavily to the largest growth driver for the company during this fiscal year, accounting for almost 1/3 of all sales revenues.
