Christian Dior hails ‘great strength’ despite luxury slowdown hitting UK profit

The UK arm of Christian Dior has said it showed “great strength” in the face of “continued economic and political volatility” which saw its profit dip during 2023.

The luxury brand has reported a revenue of £332.4m for the year, down from £334.8m, while its pre-tax profit was cut from £60m to £46.6m, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House.

During the year the average number of people employed by Christian Dior in the UK increased from 434 to 512.

Christian Dior ‘confident for the future’ amid economic woes

A statement signed off by the board said: “The company’s performance shows good results for 2023, bearing in mind that 2022 was an exceptional year following the return of tourism post Covid-19 and the takeover of Harrods in November-December 2022.

“In the final quarter of the year 2023, the UK economy slipped into a technical recession which has impacted most sectors, hence why luxury brands had lower results than forecasted.”

It added: “The level of business and the year-end position remain satisfactory for the company and the directors are confident of being able to develop the business further in the future.”

The UK arm of Christian Dior paid a dividend of £40m in the year.

Christian Dior said: “2023 was a year of continued economic and political volatility.

“The economic environment is suffering from on-going inflation and interest rates impacting consumer spending.

“Despite this challenging macro-economic environment, Christian Dior continues showing great strength.”

The wider group is headquartered in Paris and is controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads up LVMH.

The group reported a revenue of €86.1bn (£72.3bn) for 2023, up from €79.1bn (£66.4bn) in 2022.

It also made a net profit of €15.9bn (£13.3bn), up from €14.7bn (£12.3bn) in 2022.