Chanel, the world’s second largest luxury brand, said on Monday its efforts to curb the grey market have been successful and are helping boost revenue in China despite weaker overall demand for luxury goods.
Chanel logo is seen in a shop in downtown Rome, Italy March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The company narrowed its price gaps between the United States, Europe and Asia last year to prevent smugglers buying goods in one region to re-sell to another in the grey market.
“We reduced quite a lot the parallel market, mainly in Asia, and we have double-digit growth in our boutiques in mainland China,” Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, said in an interview in Havana.
Chanel will unveil its latest Cruise collection in Havana on Tuesday, in Cuba’s first major fashion show since the 1959 revolution and another sign of warming relations between the Communist-ruled island and the West. The United States and Cuba formally agreed to restore diplomatic relations last July. Despite the success in curbing grey market sales, the privately owned company expects slower sales growth this year, Pavlovsky told Reuters in Havana’s landmark Teatro Marti. He declined to disclose figures.
He noted that Chanel has an entire team, including external lawyers, that monitors the secondary market.
The luxury goods industry been plagued in the last few months as a drop in global tourist traffic due to recent terrorist attacks, slower economic growth in Chin...