Good evening.
[Foreign language]Une fois de plus, je suis ravi.
Once again, I'm delighted to be with you today to announce record results in 2023 for the LVMH Group. Indeed, you've no doubt seen the press release that has just come out. You've seen the figures. We delivered over EUR 86 billion in revenue, up 9%. We achieved a profit from recurring operations of EUR 22.8 billion, up 8%. And.
Cash flow.
Cash flow from.
[Foreigh language] Là, le cash flow disponible est un peu négatif.
Free cash flow is slightly negative because we made a number of investments, but cash flow from operations is, of course.
[Foreign language] D'abord, il faudrait que je vous dise que la.
Firstly, I need to tell you that the end of the year was rather good. The fourth quarter was.
[Foreign Language] De nouvelles.
Delivered higher growth than the third. That's good news.
We know that there were some uncertainties in the market, but that went well. And yet, in 2023, the.
[Foreign language] Surtout géopolitique.
Economic and especially geopolitical context was rather uncertain, with the various conflicts throughout the world, with inflation, rising interest rates. Things seem to be calming a bit. We'll see what the situation is in 2024, but a year marked by those two major global difficulties. Organic growth was sustained across all our activities, except in Wines & Spirits , and I'll tell you why later.
Very good increase in Fashion & Leather Goods in Wines & Spirits. Mixed Champagne is up, and Cognac. Both because of the difficulty in the United States and the minor restrictions in China. The market was less buoyant. Good dynamic for all our Watches & Jewelry Maisons, excellent results by perfumes. Dior is still leading the way worldwide. [Foreign language] Eau Sauvage is number one for the second or third consecutive year. Most widely sold fragrance, both in the men's category and across all categories.
It's the first fragrance launched about 10 years ago. That's very good performance. Selective Retailing. Remarkable performance of Sephora that has managed to exceed all our forecasts. In fact, this morning, there was an interesting article in the Financial Times. There are often interesting pieces in the FT. I don't know if we have anyone for the FT with us, but like [Foreign language] Les Échos, that's an excellent newspaper that I recommend to you that was actually saying in the FT that in LVMH, in the soft luxury segment, we have the two strongest brands in the world with Vuitton and Dior. And we have actually good competitors, without mentioning two remarkable, like the Chanel and Hermès. And in the hard luxury category, that is Watches and especially Jewelry, we also have two outstanding brands, Tiffany and Bulgari.
In the competition, there's a very good group that is the Richemont Group, announced its. Two great brands, Cartier and Van Cleef. So among the eight brands considered the best of the world, we have half. It's pretty good. We'll see how things develop if we can grow the scope or push some other brands to join the top four. If we review rapidly the various business areas, leading brand of the group, Louis Vuitton, with many changes, new CEO. Well, not for us because we've been working together for what? For some 20 years now, and who joined Vuitton in February last year. A new men's designer. You saw the photograph for the first fashion show, Pharrell Williams. Very successful of the first collection designed by Pharrell Williams.
The previous week, we had that great show at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and that of Nicolas Ghesquière, who goes from strength to strength with remarkable success. Vuitton is a very special business, the leading global luxury brand, and it's really not just about fashion, as we say with Pietro. We've invested quite a lot in a bit of fashion injected back in 1995 in order to boost the creativity. It worked well. It's still working, but the products are high-quality products, essentially. They're really historical products that we're developing with him, the designers, and others that are truly the core of this French historical brand, making many workshops work in France, giving a lot of work where we recruit a great many craftsmen every year, and is driving this brand to success.
When Michael Burke was in charge of Vuitton, we launched the watches, and we've just launched a new watch that I have here, which is the Tambour watch, an evolution of the historical Tambour watch that was launched 20 years ago and that is also encountering great success. That's a new step in the going up range of the brand to what is done best in terms of technology or craftsmanship in the world. Perfumes, Vuitton Perfumes, launched not so long ago and are delivering outstanding growth with something specific, which is these perfumes are only sold in the Vuitton network. The Vuitton network is the only one in the world that never organizes sales. It's unique. You'll never be able to find a Vuitton product available in the sales. Second brand I want to tell you about here is Dior.
Number of changes with the arrival of Delphine, who was at the side of Michael Burke for 10 years at Vuitton. With Michael, that really does account for the success of Vuitton. Worked previously for 15 years at Dior. So has good experience of the matter. Now heads up with Mr. Charles Delapalme, the Christian Dior brand that, to my mind, is the finest haute couture brand in the world. Christian Dior remains the most widely known French name worldwide. It's an outstanding success of Maria Grazia's collections with the haute couture fashion show this week. Absolutely amazing. Haute couture is a very small market, but it's developing because the most high-end products are those that are most widely sought after in the world. So couture with Dior, we can't meet demand. We can't deliver to all customers. I mean, the workshops are what they are.
It requires a huge amount of work to train the seamstresses to produce haute couture dresses. It takes an inordinate amount of time, and we have to restrict the orders. Great success with high jewelry. We saw the collection of the Victoire de Castellane last year that met with wide acclaim in the year, ended with fireworks display in the U.S. Great sales results in December with the Saks animation. I don't know if any of you were in the U.S. in New York for the opening of Saks and Dior. For the first time, I think they blocked Fifth Avenue. We did a spectacle. Can you imagine blocking Fifth Avenue in New York? I mean, here, when we block the Pont Neuf for Vuitton, it creates a whole [Foreign language] hoohah. We managed to do it. It was easier in New York, and it boosted Dior sales hugely across the U.S.
I'm not going to dwell too long on all the brands because there are so many that are successful. Great success for Céline, driven by Hedi Slimane, that is now topping EUR 2 billion in sales. Also for Loewe Fendi's continuing growing from strength to strength. And Loro Piana, widely sought after quiet luxury as it's known, is posting very high growth rates. To my mind, overly high. We need to put the brakes on a bit because I'm often told that growth rates, why are you only delivering 8% or 9%? Well, I find that's pretty good, and I hope that we won't exceed that. I'd rather slow than push. And in this group, I'm fortunate in having people that I need to slow down. I mean, Pietro, I spend my time slowing him. Ditto for Delphine.
Michael, I spent 10 years trying to put the brakes on it, but it's easy to develop this business. We have so many successful products. All we have to do is produce more, but we have to resist that. It's no point. They must be of flawless quality, and you mustn't be in a hurry. When you're achieving 8% or 9%, maximum 10%, that suits me fine. I don't know if for the analysts it's enough. Well, it's never enough. They're never happy, so that's really not a problem. But at least for the brand, for the desirability of the brand, our main asset, really, midterm, it's perfectly adequate. It's just one brand that we can't slow that. By Chris de Lapuente, Sephora, it's a bit different because that's retailing. But there again, the success achieved in the year was quite extraordinary.
Watches & J ewelry, just to say briefly that at Tiffany, it's going pretty well. There again, we're not really in too much of a hurry, but since we acquired it, we arrived in that company back in 2021. Well, last year, operating income tripled as compared to the year preceding our acquisition. It's not too bad. I'm not saying we're going to triple it in the next two years, but it's a pretty outstanding success. There again, we didn't want to go too fast. We incredibly inaugurated in 2023, we redid the New York flagship store. That's quite extraordinary that is not delivering quite surprising results. As it's working well, we're rather limited, and that's good. You need more gems, precious stones. The workshops have to deliver. Bulgari, that's an extraordinary brand. It's the two strongest brands in our jewelry portfolio. Bulgari, very tremendous success achieved in 2023.
I'm not going to dwell on all the strong points of our two jewelry brands. You're familiar with them. And on the watches that were also achieved good successes, the watches headed up by Stéphane Bianchi, who will soon be assuming other responsibilities. And we'll discuss that in due course. But these watches, TAG Heuer, that's a historic brand, has come a long way. We've doubled sales over the past four/five years. We launched new products that are very good. It's not the same category as the Vuitton watches. The Vuitton watches are truly high-end watches with the brand, the know-how, the [Foreign language] Atelier du Temps in Geneva, and TAG Heuer sports brands, more "accessible" but growing quite well. And in the same business group, we have Hublot that you all know that's doing well, Fred, Zenith, and Chaumet. I hope I haven't forgotten anything.
Now, for 2024, what we can say for 2024 is that I am personally very confident. I expect to continue the growth that was achieved in 2023. The market went through a period, and we'll see during the course of the year the effects of the interest rates decline that will kick in. The positive impact in the U.S. of the coming election, every time there's an election in the U.S., the market is more dynamic. So we expect the U.S. market to be more dynamic in 2024 than it was in 2023. But if we also want to look at the potential problems, it's true that the geopolitical situation on which we have no impact with crises both in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East, we're all hoping that they're not going to degenerate. I don't believe so.
I'm pretty confident to achieve a solution in spite of the tragic situation in both cases. But we must expect for things to veer out of control, in which case the global economy would suffer. Those are the two points of concern that I see in 2024. Otherwise, I think the economy will be more favorable for our products. And of course, we have a whole set of new products, of events. For all our brands, we've got a great many things planned. And lastly, I'd like to say that in the group, we're ready to continue this measured expansion based on the quality and desirability of our brands. And of course, to continue the commitment that we've shown.
We're very pleased that all our employees are hugely motivated on the environment, on inclusion, and all the factors that when you join LVMH, as I said, you're joining a family, just not an anonymous group. You see that two additional family members will be joining the board. I think that's good, aside from the fact that it brings down the average age of the executives. That's very much in vogue to have younger executives, even if I haven't planned might have a question. I haven't planned to leave either in the short or medium term, so rest assured. You might be sad, but I'm here for a while yet. I see smiles, so it does not create any panic on the part of my teams. This family that welcomes the main members of the group. When one enters LVMH, one enters a family.
We're considered like a family. We do things. We approved at the board today an employee share ownership plan that was submitted to me, and we're going to launch that during the course of the year once it's been tabled at the AGM. We'll continue, hopefully, to attract the best designers. We already have a good number, but we have to motivate. I know that Pietro, Delphine, and Michael were working with them because the designers I mean, that's really great, but we have to guide them. We mustn't do things. The difficulty is both to put their talent in the brand, but at the same time to respect the history of the brand, its legacy, its historical past. What was great in the Monday Show by Maria Grazia, we saw the novelty, the extraordinary quality of what she's. At the same time, we saw Mr. Dior.
That's great. For Vuitton, it's a bit more difficult because he wasn't into fashion, so you have to be a bit more imaginative. We're getting there. With Pietro, we're spending quite a lot of time on that process. I don't know if I've forgotten it. Oh, yes. Of course, all this, all the new entrants, the company viewed and considered as entrepreneurs. The spirit of enterprise, of entrepreneurship, the motivation of executives is fundamental for success because the group's decentralized. We've got many companies, over 70 companies each, headed up by a CEO who, of course, must discharge the full mission but has full autonomy. And that's why we do many things. Well, how do you manage so many different companies? Well, they manage themselves, of course. There's interaction, but there's independence. Is that every leader behaves as though he owned his brand, and that's good.
Sometimes it's difficult because when I want to intervene or step in sometimes, that we don't always agree, but that's good. That's as it should be. But through contradiction, you can move forward. Michael's smiling, but for 10 years, we sometimes had some pretty fraught discussions, but that's good. It does show that the company is headed on a day-to-day basis by a leader who's in it from morning till night. So confidence for 2024. Bravo to all the employees who are here for the extraordinary results that you delivered in 2023. And now, Mr. Guiony, our Chief Financial Officer, whom you all know, will present these great results.
Thank you. And for those of you who were on Planet Mars over the past two months, this is a picture of the facade of the Saks Fifth Avenue building in New York City, of which we're very proud.
We're very proud of the figures as well. A few record figures, EUR 86.2 billion in revenue, a margin that remains at a high level. EUR 23 billion in profit from recurring operations, and the debt-to-equity ratio, the gearing, is very satisfactory. Starting with the revenue, we went from EUR 79 billion- EUR 86 billion last year. Organically, we're talking about 13% organic growth. There was a significant negative currency effect, which is -4%, but all in all in euros, we're still up 9%. If you look at the geographical distribution of sales, I tend to skip over this sometimes, but there are things that we like to see: 25% in the U.S., 25% in Europe, and Asia being the biggest region, 31% including continental China. The rest is Middle East, Japan, and South America. Now, we look still at the geographies, looking at growth on a quarterly basis, region by region.
That gives you a sort of general picture. Starting with the United States, the United States had a challenging year. It ended up well enough, better than it started. But Q2 and Q3 had little growth, but there was some acceleration in Q4. And that's not just because of Sephora, even though Sephora enjoyed significant growth, but it's the other activities that made it possible to achieve that growth. Japan remained very high even in Q4. Q4 slowed down a bit, but you have to remember that there were price increases in Japan to avoid turning Japan into the Japanese duty-free window for the company, but it started off on what was a challenging basis. Asia, a bit complicated again because the lockdown policies, especially in China, distorted the performance in Q2 and Q3.
But if you look at the position over two years, there was double-digit growth in Asia, a significant contribution there. Europe is back to growth levels that were more in line with what we had in the past. We had two exceptional years. We are sort of landing, as it were, in Europe, but we're still looking at significant growth. Turning to the various businesses, so overall organic growth was 13%, apart from Wines & Spirits, and you may have questions about that. That was a very specific situation because there were high levels of inventories in 2023. Other than that, all businesses enjoyed significant growth. In the competitive environment, especially starting with Fashion & Leather Goods, which accounts for about half the revenue, half the sales of the group with the highest growth, except for Selective Retailing, we're looking at 14%.
Perfumes & Cosmetics are all again double-digit at 11%, Watches & Jewelry 7%. And as I said, Selective Retailing is way ahead of everyone else, not just in terms of profit, but in terms of organic growth for the year. And there were negative currency effects, -4%, but there were -2% in H1 and -6% on H2, especially Q3. And that, of course, dragged our sales performance down. A few words about this bar chart bit. Difficult to read, but you look at sales or revenue by business. So what this highlights is the two halves of the year, especially on the left-hand side of that table. The first half had 17% growth, and that reflected also the fact that we were pulling out of the COVID crisis, which had lingering effects, especially in Asia.
Then the second half of the year, which is sort of a normalized performance, and we're looking at about 10% growth. But average organic growth over the past 35 years has been 9.1%. That's the historic trend. So we were close to historic trends indeed. And that is indeed what we wish to achieve. I won't repeat what Mr. Arnault said. If you have any questions, Philippe might say there was some volatility, but we ended up here better than we started in Wines & Spirits. Fashion & Leather Goods also, there were ups and downs. I won't go into the details of all the numbers, but you have to remember that by and large, the second half of the year was a year of sort of a soft landing. Looking at distribution per business, but looking at Profit from Recurring Operations, up 8% overall.
Wines & Spirits were down 2%. That is unfortunate nonetheless. Sales were significant, I mean, -10% in euros, so -2% in profit. It means there were significant efforts made to keep costs under control in the Wines & Spirits business. And so we can be very pleased with that performance in what is, after all, a very challenging context: Fashion & Leather Goods, Perfumes & Cosmetics, and Watches & Jewelry, about 7%. And that is in line with revenue in euro. And so the profit margins remain perfectly satisfactory, especially Fashion & Leather Goods, where we have almost 40%. Selective Retailing, 76% in organic growth, so significant leverage there. The margins were up significantly. At Sephora, we're looking at levels close to the peaks we enjoyed in 2017, 2018. So that is a very, very satisfactory performance.
The next one, you see that the net profit, again, I won't dwell, well, the gross margins, 68.8%. I mean, that's significant. This is more than significant, in fact. And well, this is why we can continue investing. Expenses overall were up 10% over the year, but that varies from the big difference in H1, H2, up 18% in H1 and only in H2. So we were able to adjust expenses to revenue levels, euro-denominated revenues. And in fact, profit margins were slightly up whereas it was slightly down in H1. Now, this is an issue that is very much your concerns, and so that's why I'm referring this. But we're still looking at 8% in overall growth in operating expenses. The [Foreign language] , we decided to do away with the starboard. That is, the businesses on luxury boats.
We found it difficult to make a profit. We found it difficult to do business with operators. And so we decided to pull out of that business. I'll give you a few words about the financial performance and income tax. Tax is still 26.2%, almost EUR 6 billion in taxes paid. The group of LVMH, not in this room, who believe that we don't pay any taxes. All in all, just last comment, the net profit, the group share of net profit stands at about slightly above EUR 15 billion. And that's also about 80% in line with that of profit from recurring operations. We said that this was about 8%. There was an unpleasant currency effect, about EUR 700 million. So our performance last year was not helped by the currency factor. So the financial performance, you have four items: net financial debt, in other words, interest expenses.
That grew significantly, but you may have noticed that interest rates went up. Gross net stands at about EUR 20 billion. Half of it is at fixed rates, so it's not sensitive to variations. But the other variable rates, especially short-term loans, and that, of course, we suffered the variation in the yield curve. And so there was also the leases that shouldn't really be the lease liabilities. It's an invention of IFRS 16. It shouldn't be there, but it's still there for some reason. The cost of hedging is slightly up. We were slightly up. And the portfolio last year, the portfolio lost about EUR 500 million in value. Now it's up EUR 260 million. And in fact, even though these are potential capital gains, we haven't sold anything. But all in all, the portfolio is enormously high.
If you look at the balance sheet, we have some high tangible assets because there were a number of acquisitions, more inventories, more equity. That is because there were fewer significant acquisitions this year. Cash flow, so you have a contrasting figure. Self-financing capacity, I mean, was up 10%. I mean, that's above the level of profit. We paid more taxes. There was more interest expense. The WCR change was due to inventory. Part of it is something that was to do with our business, but the other was simply because over the second half of the year, we had inventory for sales that turned out to be less than expected. So we had more inventories than expected. Then operating investments, EUR 7.5 billion. Inside that, you have about EUR 2.4 billion in real estate, property. I'm not talking about stores.
I'm talking about the walls, the buildings themselves. And this, of course, these are one-off. And that means if you pull out real estate, there was EUR 4.5 billion last year and EUR 5 billion this year. But the variation is not as dramatic as it looks.
[Crosstalk] So that is what is behind the cash flow disponible. So you have dividends to actionnaires of LVMH, [Foreign language] aux minoritaires. Minority interests are not in the chiffres précédents. They are significant. Nous avons aussi procédé à quelques rachats d'actions pendant the year. So on rapports to EBITDA because it's the measure.
Compared to EBITDA, we're looking at 5 months of EBITDA. I think this is a satisfactory performance again. And finally, dividends, we will propose a EUR 13 dividend to the AGM. So in line with the growth, both.
[Foreign language]Because on a déjà payé 150 du revenu account au mois de décembre. Le solde sera mis en paiement.
There was an interim dividend paid out last year, and the balance will be paid in April. Thank you.
Just a brief word to follow up on that because I was informed that I omitted to mention Wines & S pirits. Wines & S pirits delivered a year, as Jean-Jacques said, marked both the success of wines and champagne and slight difficulty on the U.S. market, in particular with Cognac. It's worth noting that Philippe Schaus helped us a great deal to buy Château Minuty, one of the most iconic rosés. Between the Château Minuty and the Château d'Esclans, far and away, the leading producer of rosé de Provence. That's excellent news. Another point I omitted, I was going to say, what about the success of Berluti? Berluti has been managed this year for some 10 years, and the performance was excellent for Berluti.
And lastly, on Perfumes & C osmetics, Dior delivered a remarkable performance. Now it's Stéphane who's taken over the division of Perfumes & C osmetics. And the brands aside from Dior are working very well. If you look at the rate of increase of our perfume and cosmetics brands, we're amongst those that are posting the highest growth in the market with all the major competitors. I won't cite here, we all know, of the Perfumes & C osmetics market, with, of course, Christian Dior in the lead going from success to success. And now we're available to answer your questions. If you have any questions, of course.
So if you'd just kindly introduce yourself when you ask your question.
Antoine Belge of BNP Paribas have a question on the brand Christian Dior. For the past three or four years, running revenue doubled year on year. Now it's only up 14%.
Is Dior going to continue up this trend? You said something about slowing down the growth. Are there a number of things you might wish to consolidate on the brand, on Christian Dior? Jean-Jacques Guiony, second question, said that there was a contrasting performance between H1 and H2. There was more rigorous control of the costs in Wines & S pirits , but also other businesses. There were also negative currency effects next year. What do you expect? And then regarding hard luxury, you said that brands well, you mentioned Richemont Cartier from Apple had remarkable performances. Organic growth in Watches & Jewelry was 3% over the past two quarters. What is it that Tiffany and Bulgari need to be able to compete with the likes of Richemont? And you showed some admiration for that group.
If Rupert was willing to forge a partnership, are these brands that you might consider adding to your group?
On your first question, the haute couture growth is in the average of what was reported. But as I said earlier, growth must not be a goal. The goal is desirability. People must desire the brand, whether it's for Dior or other brands in the Fashion & L eather division. It's good to generate growth. It's great what we did with Pietro these past few years with Dior. But we've reached a stage such that we no longer need to have such high growth. And between 8% and 10% is perfect. We do more ad vitam too. But the goal isn't to generate growth at all costs. I repeat that here.
I'm very happy to be able to slow down, slow them down, even if I have some eager horses that I have to slow them. I mean, that's good. It's more restful than having to push them. For the desirability, we mustn't try and have as a goal the top line, the revenue. I'll end with Richemont, who we consider as an outstanding leader. I don't, in the slightest, wish to upset his strategy. I understand he wants to remain independent. I find that very good. If he wants support to maintain his independence, I'll be there.
On profit margins, you said that margins were volatile. Well, I mean, they were down 0.5%. H1, up 0.1% in H2, down 0.35%. I mean, these are minute variations. I cannot answer your question on profit margins and expectations in 2024. In 2021, margins were up significantly, up eight percentage points.
We said at the time that we proposed to remain there. We were able to do that. We were 26.7%. Now we're at 26.5% today. We were able to keep margins at that level. We certainly intend to do this.
Okay. Any further questions?
Good evening. I'm Édouard Aubin from Morgan Stanley. Mr. Arnault, you seem confident at the beginning of this year. Can you say a few words about the latest trend, December, January, per country? Were there countries where demand was lower? Are things looking up in the U.S.? Can you tell us about the trends? That would be nice. Another point, you said that over the past 12 months, the brands at the top of the pyramid overperformed the rest. I mean, the top-end brands are really overperforming. Do you think that trend will continue?
Or do you believe that because luxury is sort of opening to sort of the middle class, it's becoming more democratized, that might bring the top brands closer to the other levels? And then on Wines & Spirits, there was a rather unusual situation. Demand was slightly down. But we also found that there were discounts on some of your brands. Can you give us details about, I mean, how did you balance that with keeping costs down?
Well, on the upward trend, people going for the top end, to the high end, that trend is there. But it doesn't mean that the other products are no good. But to drive a brand up, it is, of course, the most outstanding products that will do that, that will do the driving.
That trend will continue, especially if these exceptional products are not just there to stay in the window, but if they really will be sold and purchased, even if they're expensive. If you look at our competitors, prices went up significantly over the past few years. Now, when prices go up, when you have price increases as well, there should be a reason behind this, a technical and economic reality. It's not a matter of saying, "Come on, let's just hike up the price because demand is there." No. There must be a reason for that. The product must justify this. And about watches, I'm not talking about the one I'm wearing, which is, it's not cheap, but it's, say, affordable. But some of the watches will become much more expensive. To Louis Vuitton, in particular. Some watches can be as expensive as EUR 500,000 or EUR 1 million.
I mean, it's only La Fabrique du Temps. That workshop can build them. No one else can do that. These are automatons. I saw one such machine built by Vuitton. And on the front, there was the picture of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out. But if you wind up the clock, you will see that Einstein's tongue going up and down while giving you the time of day. And that alone is worth EUR 500,000. You make one of these, that timepiece. And that is the stuff dreams are made of. This is, of course, what will drive the brand up. No, regarding the distribution between China, U.S., and whatnot, well, A, we don't divulge these figures anyway. At least, well, mid-December, the trends were pretty much the same. But we look at the customers in China over the past two years.
The levels in Q4 were about the same as in Q2 and Q3. So for Fashion & L eather Goods, we were looking at upwards of 30% in December. I mean, I love to make comments on months within quarters. But December did well. As to profit margins in Wines & Spirits , I don't know if Philippe can take this, but I can say briefly, there are three items.
There was a positive currency effect. There were currency gains. We know that this, of course, helps the profit margin. But what you said about discount, there were no discounts. We canceled the price increases. Discounts is what Pernod and Rémy do. But no, we decided to cancel the price increase. But there was not a discount. And therefore, there was no impact on the profit margin because it was a price increase that didn't occur, not the same as a discount.
But of course, we engage in cost control, especially marketing expenses because demand was low in certain countries. But there are areas where there's no need to go marketing, to do any marketing if there's no demand. And inventory, if the retailers already have the inventory, no need to spend any kind of money on marketing. And that is why profit margins went up. But there was very good work done by the Wines & Spirits division.
Hi. Good evening. It's Louise Singlehurst from Goldman Sachs. And I apologize in advance for speaking in English. If I could ask two questions, please. Firstly, Monsieur Arnault, you were very kind last year to give us the size of the Vuitton brand in terms of revenues. I wonder if you could share with us your philosophy about the expansion into other categories and where you see that going long-term.
Obviously, you've talked about the Tambour watches. And we see bigger ambitions within jewelry. But are there other categories in addition that we might be able to consider for Vuitton longer-term? And then secondly, my question for Jean-Jacques. As you look across the regions and the consumer clusters, where would you envisage the most sensitivity to spending? What can you tell us about the cluster? And I wondered if you could share with us any thoughts that you might see the Chinese consumers coming back to Europe this year. Thank you.
The other categories or other sectors that we might be interested in, I'll say two things. It's going to remain marginal. And for the time being, it remains confidential. So it's a bit difficult for me to venture into that area. I'm really sorry to disappoint you on that. Sorry, I missed part of it.
Sorry. It was about what you're seeing today in terms of the clusters and the outlook, the most sensitivity across regions, but also the clusters of nationality. Thank you.
Well, the fundamental question then, I mean, it's easy enough to measure c ustomer movement. But it's difficult to correlate customer trends and regions because up until last year, Chinese customers were domestic. But now, they're traveling all over the world. And when you see when they tend to travel, they travel to Hong Kong and Macau. No surprises there. But regarding France in Q4, I myself was surprised by the numbers. We are looking at about 30% below what we used to do with the Chinese in 2019. So we're not back to where we were. I mean, Vuitton is the best. We're close to where we were, say, in 2019.
It's not the same customers, fewer groups, much more independent travelers with higher worth. So this is a trend we can adjust to. We'll see whether this is a lasting trend. We're not particularly concerned, neither pessimistic nor optimistic. But we don't see the big busloads of Chinese customers coming in groups. But we're still doing significant business with the Chinese in Europe and in France.
[Foreign language]Merci beaucoup, Luca Solca. Could you tell us more about the contributions of growth drivers? You mentioned the mix effect and price increases and rather small part played by volumes. I mean, that was more in H1, less so in H2. So do you expect volumes to play a lower part in increased revenue because there's low demand on the middle class?
And then coming back to what you said about Chinese customers traveling now, we noted projects where we're looking at plans to make bigger stores in China for both Vuitton and Dior. But does the size of the store network in China is that in line with the growing number of Chinese customers or higher number of Chinese customers in Europe than expected? And then regarding property investments, you gave us a few figures. But could you tell us what's behind this? Is there any need to purchase property? Or what's the value of this? I mean, we see a lot of these property acquisitions in the media. Is that particularly profitable? And then you didn't tell us about organic growth in champagne in Q4.
The philosophy hasn't changed. There hasn't been any significant change in H2 or in Q4. The growth is based on mix. We're not trying to sell more volumes. But we want higher added value, some volume, of course. But we have to make sure that this is not to the detriment of quality. So we're not leaning on sort of unbridled growth in volumes. We don't want to demonetize the brands. And price increases as little as possible.
Sometimes, we have to engage in this because of monetary situations or exchange rates. But the main growth of the group, the main brands, is driven by the mix, the high-end products. Regarding the size of stores in China, a couple of comments. Compared to 2019, there are twice as many Chinese customers as in 2019. The size of business from tourists is down in percentage. But in absolute numbers, it's the same. And so it means that the domestic purchase in China has grown significantly. So we have to meet that.
Yeah.
The sales figures per square meter are very high. We're at the maximum of what we can do to satisfy the customer, not to have too many difficulties for service. As to real estate locations, investment in real estate, some of the group's already done ever since I've been in charge. We're trying to secure and to buy the best possible locations for our companies, triple A locations. I see that since we started, the locations that we have from the start. If you take Fifth Avenue in New York, we have three of the best corners. It's 57th, as you know. Yeah. Three of the best corners there on the Champs-Élysées. I mean, I'm not going to run through the list. It's not just the best locations. But pay them B-plus and pay them at the triple A price. Some of our peers haven't quite understood.
That's another problem, another matter.
If there are no further questions, thank you. We'll see you next year.