Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us, and welcome to our first physical presentation since the pandemic began a couple of years ago. I'm Gerry Murphy, Chair of Burberry, and I'm delighted to be joined here today by Jonathan Akeroyd, our brand new CEO, and a more familiar face in the person of Julie Brown, our Chief Operating and Financial Officer. Jonathan will share with you some initial thoughts on Burberry after his first eight weeks in office, and then Julie will take us through the highlights of our last financial year, which ended on the second of April last. Julie will also comment on the outlook for the current year, which is evolving as continuing COVID-19 lockdowns in mainland China contribute to near-term external uncertainties.
Despite the challenging macro environment, I am very proud of our teams as they adapt to developments and stay focused on our brand journey, our purpose, and our values. As a reminder, the slides and the transcript from this presentation will be available on our website. We'll be happy to take your questions at the end of the presentation. Thank you, and now I hand over to my new best friend, Jonathan.
Thank you, Gerry. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know you more in the coming months. I've actually seen a few familiar faces here as well, which is fantastic. I feel very privileged to be here, standing before you here today. As you know, Burberry is a unique British heritage business that I admired actually for many years. It's got an extraordinary history, heritage, iconic products, and house codes, and strong culture and values. I'm really looking forward to leading Burberry in the next phase of its development. I've closely followed Burberry's journey over the past few years, and I've been really impressed with the progress made to date.
The company has laid out a clearly defined strategy to elevate the brand, product, and customer experience to true luxury status, and has taken some challenging but important commercial actions to achieve this ambition, including a relentless focus on full price sales. At the same time, Burberry has continued to be a force for good, leading the industry in luxury's transition to net zero and supporting communities in need. As CEO, I fully intend to build on these strong foundations as we focus on accelerating growth. The ambition to be true luxury remains absolutely right, and it will create the most desire and value for the brand and ultimately the most sustainable and profitable business. Meanwhile, Burberry will continue to go the extra mile in terms of environmental and social responsibility, guided by purpose and values.
Since joining in March, I've been better able to get to know our teams and our business. My immersion has left me even more excited about the opportunity that lies ahead. The quality and commitment to our people is second to none, and we have a strong platform from which to grow faster. I look forward to updating you on my plans to in the interim results in November, and I will now hand over to Julie. Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everybody, and it's absolutely amazing for me to see so many familiar faces in the audience. It's really, after two years, it's a great pleasure. We'd like to update you on the progress we've made in the year. During full year 2022, we continued to deliver the strategy of elevating the brand, product, and customer experience. It was a year where we focused on increasing full price business, and this is underpinned by a strong gross margin and also a record profit. While it created a headwind to revenue growth, our decision to exit markdowns was the right one for the brand, and also for the foundation of longer term sustainable growth. Regionally, compared with full year 2020, we've seen a strong performance in Americas, where full price sales in the U.S. market have almost doubled.
Mainland China and South Korea, they're up more than 50% and 80% respectively. EMEIA, as we know, has been impacted by travel trends due to COVID, so we're pleased to say that full price sales turned positive in the fourth quarter versus pre-pandemic levels due to the growth and the focus on local clientele. From a product perspective, continued investment in our focus categories, outerwear and leather goods, led to full price sales growth of 39% and 28% versus LLY respectively. We have enhanced our luxury experience with strong new store concepts that have been rolled out across the stores globally. We've now completed 47 stores, and then we've got a further 65 planned in the coming year. We've made great progress against our responsibility targets, and we're now carbon neutral in our own operations.
As a business with ESG at our core, we are building on the success of a program by committing to new industry-leading climate targets. Finally, we've delivered excellent cash conversion of over 100%, leading to a strong balance sheet. This has enabled us to grow the annual dividend by 11% and recommend a GBP 400 million share buyback to be completed in the financial year. The lockdowns in mainland China, as Gerry mentioned at the beginning, and SAP, resulted in a challenging end to full year 2022. Turning to the summary financials on slide seven and referring to year-on-year changes at constant exchange rates. Total revenue was GBP 2.8 billion, up 23%, and adjusted operating profit was GBP 523 million, an increase of 38% and a record level for Burberry.
This resulted in a margin improvement to 18.5%, and this is actually up 210 basis points at constant rates compared with the prior year, and approaching the 20% target we set for the group by full year 2024. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 49% at constant rates and 40% reported and further benefited from a lower tax rate and reduced shares in issue. Free cash flow for the year was GBP 340 million, slightly down on last year due to the investments in the store portfolio and also the phasing of tax. The dividend has increased 11% to GBP 0.47, in line with our progressive policy and also restoring the dividend cover to 50%.
Please note that in this presentation, growth rates and figures are stated on a CER basis and are like-for-like on a 52-week basis. As you know, under the retail calendar, this year is a 53-week year, and this has been incorporated into the reported financial values. Before we get into the financials, I just wanted to share one slide that gives you some data behind Jonathan's comments in the opening about the journey we've been on over the last five years as we've shifted the focus in the business. Retail revenue is increased from 77%- 80% of our sales, and this is despite the removal of around GBP 200 million of markdown revenues. Newness has increased as part of our product portfolio from around a quarter to almost half of our revenues, resulting in an improved balance of product offer.
Real estate has been substantially refreshed. Over the last five years, we've opened 125 new stores and closed 176, including 38 stores in non-strategic locations, delivering improved productivity. Importantly, we've also seen a 30% decline in wholesale doors as we exited non-luxury accounts. Despite this, wholesale revenues have increased through the remaining doors to higher quality accounts. Now, during this period, product elevation has been the major focus, and this has also been reflected in a significant increase in AUR. Finally, we've also transformed the cost base of the business, delivering over GBP 200 million of cost savings and reinvesting it in the business in marketing, clienteling, and customer inspiration. Overall, the foundations for growth are well set. I shall now take you through the income statement, starting with revenue on slide nine.
The group saw retail sales growth of 20%, with the comp up 18% and within this, full price grew 24%. Wholesale was strong, up 35%, driven by an excellent order book, and licensing saw good traction in both eyewear and beauty, rising 11%. Overall revenue grew 23% at constant rates and 21% reported due to a GBP 35 million tailwind from the addition of the 53rd week, together with a GBP 86 million headwind from currency. Slide 10 shows our retail sales performance versus two years earlier or LLY, as we call it. Total retail sales grew 10%, comprising 6% from the retail comp and relatively modest space growth of 4%, largely in Asia.
Within the retail comp, full price grew 30% and the exit of the markdown presented a nine percentage point headwind to comparable store sales growth together with reduced trade in outlets. It is worth noting that there was less inventory available for outlets despite the exit of the markdown, demonstrating strong inventory management and improved sell-through in the business. As mentioned, headwinds from the markdown reductions will no longer occur going forward. This is the last quarter. Moving on to slide 11 and showing our quarterly retail performance. We believe it's most helpful and more representative to compare this with pre-pandemic levels, and consequently, we're showing Q1 to Q3 against double LLY and Q4 against triple LLY. We'll focus on the full price through the quarters, given the disruption from markdown.
Full price growth in the first three quarters increased 21% compared with full year 2020, driven by strength in Americas, Mainland China, and South Korea and from our key focus categories, outerwear and leather goods. In the fourth quarter, full price growth was up 17% versus pre-pandemic levels, lower than Q3 due to COVID-related disruption in Mainland China and SAP. Including digital, around 40% of our Mainland China distribution is currently affected by closures or restrictions. I'm pleased to say that going forward, we will simplify all our comparisons to concentrate on versus last year alone and also return to a single measure of retail comp performance. Taking a closer look at the regional retail performance versus two years ago on slide 12. Americas has been the standout region, up 28%.
The full-price business was excellent, with the U.S. almost doubling in the period. This was driven by new clientele to the brand. Overall, Asia Pac grew 13%, with full price up 29%. Strong growth was seen in Mainland China, with full price sales rising 54% in the period, although this was affected by COVID in the fourth quarter. The region saw good demand from customer groups with particular success in leather and outerwear in the year. South Korea saw full price sales increase 81%, and this growth was partially offset by Japan and SAP being the most impacted regions by COVID-related tourist flows. EMEIA has continued to progress in the period, but for the full year was down 18% with full price down 11%.
Actually, we're pleased with this performance, given 50% of EMEIA revenues pre-pandemic were driven by tourists, and they remain now at low levels. In the fourth quarter, EMEIA full price sales were ahead of pre-pandemic levels, driven by our focus on local clientele. Turning to the gross margin on slide 13. The most significant year-on-year benefit to gross margin was our move to full price, and we've also benefited from price increases. These more than offset a number of headwinds, including channel and geographical mix, increased duties following the exit from the EU. Overall gross margin was slightly ahead of guidance at 70.6%. In the full year, despite significant inflationary pressures and further investment in product, our active management of procurement efficiencies and selective price increases means that we are planning to maintain the gross margin at around 70%.
Now turning to the adjusted operating profit on slide 14. Operating margin last year was 16.9%, and we've seen considerable improvement this year through operating leverage, the gross margin rate, and cost savings aggregating to boost the margin by 640 basis points. Of this, we have reinvested 320 basis points of margin into commercial areas of the business and also absorbed a 110 basis point headwind from impairments. Operating margin closed at 19.0% at CER, placing us in a good position to reach our 20% medium-term target. Turning to cash. The business has very strong cash generation, as we show on slide 15. Over the past six years, cash conversion has averaged over 100% despite the impact of COVID.
Key metrics include receivable days have gone from 25 to 19 days over this period, and inventory turn has increased from 1.6x- 2x by full year 2022. I'll now turn to the cash flow statement on slide 16. We delivered another solid year of cash conversion, generating GBP 340 million in free cash flow and a conversion rate of 106%. Working capital saw an inflow of GBP 54 million, and within this, inventories reduced in gross terms due to the improved inventory management. CapEx was GBP 161 million and was broadly in line with guidance, reflecting significant investment in the store network. Tax paid was GBP 180 million. It was up on the prior year due to the rise in profits and the phasing of tax payments.
I thought it'd be worthwhile reinforcing our medium-term value creation model that has two components on slide 17. Firstly, from our operations, we remain committed to achieving high single-digit revenue growth and meaningful margin accretion from a full year 20 constant currency base, assuming a broadly stable macro environment. Secondly, from our capital allocation model, where we prioritize first organic investment, and we've invested over GBP 600 million in capital expenditure over the last five years. Secondly, a progressive dividend where we've returned to a 50% cover and paid out over GBP 700 million in the last five years. Third, inorganic investments, which by their nature are infrequent. Finally, returning excess cash to shareholders while maintaining a solid investment-grade credit rating. We've previously returned GBP 800 million since 2017, and today we've announced a further GBP 400 million share buyback today.
Our leverage is low at the end of this year at 0.2x net debt to EBITDA, resulting in a very robust balance sheet. Now, given we've issued guidance last year, we'd like to update you on the progress towards those goals. Guidance was set based on full year 2020, given the disrupted base in full year 2021 due to COVID. Revenue is running at a 5% CAGR, with full price delivering a 15% compound annual growth rate. The benefit of this elevation is that it's seen in the gross margin that is now around 70% and a level we believe is sustainable for the business. Similarly, the operating margin is up over 200 basis points and shows good progress to our 20% medium-term target.
Turning to the outlook on slide 19 and starting with the medium term, we retain our revenue and margin ambitions. That said, as we start the new financial year, there is a more challenging trading environment due to macroeconomic uncertainty and the recent outbreaks of COVID in mainland China. We're expecting a rebound in China once restrictions are lifted, and we'll continue to invest ahead of the recovery, which is likely to lead to a more pronounced phasing in group profits between half one and half two, compared with a typical year. We expect wholesale to be flat in half one, with no change expected in terms of overall retail space. The tax rate is expected to remain at 22% this year. We expect a rate increase of around 5% from full year 2024, reflecting the U.K. corporation tax increase.
Capital expenditure is expected to be around GBP 170 million-GBP 180 million, with investment in the retail network being the largest component, covering 65 stores. Currency-based movements are favorable based on the sixth of May spots, with revenue boosted by GBP 159 million and adjusted operating profit boosted by GBP 92 million. For modeling purposes, to remind you that full year 2023 returns to a normal 52-week year. All this complexity will be gone soon. Having covered the financials, and taking a look at slide 20, I would like now to look at our strategic progress. Throughout the year, we've excited customers in unexpected and innovative ways with a range of original brand activities which generated strong reach and engagement.
In March 2021, we unveiled the Autumn/Winter 2022 collection in an event that marked the first live runway show for Burberry in two years. Presented in the heart of London, the show was a celebration of British culture and identity, further reflected in our collections, which featured icons from the Burberry archive, including the Equestrian Knight Design. Excitement around the event helped to generate record views on social media, which were up triple digits compared with autumn/winter last year. We've also inspired our customers with activations and collaborations. Q3, as you know, saw one of the largest activations on Jeju Island, South Korea. We followed this in Q4 with a month-long takeover of Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. The immersive installment was directly inspired by Riccardo's spring women's collection, Animal Instinct.
As part of the store takeover, the exterior facade of the building was draped in kaleidoscopic abstract print with an activation brought to life through an Instagram filter. At the end of the quarter, we teamed up with Supreme to launch an exclusive capsule which sold out on burberry.com within seconds. The collaboration generated brand heat, with Supreme posts representing some of the best-performing content in the fourth quarter, outperforming the average engagement by over 100% and generating a high level of new followers. We built on that positive momentum at the Met Gala earlier this month, where we hosted a table and dressed a stellar lineup of guests, including Kate and Lila Moss, Bad Bunny, and Bella Hadid. We outperformed peers in terms of earned reach on social media and generated over 1,000 pieces of coverage.
We also continue to harness our creativity to drive growth across our two core product categories, outerwear and leather goods. Following the success of our first dedicated campaign celebrating our iconic outerwear offer, full price sales grew 39% compared with two years prior. This was driven by a strong performance in jackets, quilts, and downs. Rainwear, too, performed well across both heritage and non-heritage, accelerating in the second half. Secondly, leather goods also delivered a strong performance, with full price sales up 28% versus LLY and the fourth quarter benefiting from the launch of the Frances Tote, a recent extension to the TB family. As we enter the year, we've initiated a recent launch of the Lola handbag campaign, including a program of pop-ups and pop-ins across the world.
Following the campaign launch, we saw an impressive level of views and engagement across social platforms, outperforming previous handbag campaigns and videos by 110%. Turning to the customer experience, we continue to roll out the new store concept that represents all that is new in Burberry, authentic, bold, elevated with creativity at its core. The concept will transform how our customers experience the brand and products in a uniquely British luxury setting with our leather product in a much more prominent position. Here you can see the recent opening of Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris with the store draped in Burberry check. We now have four flagships in the new store concept, including Paris, Sloane Street in London, Plaza 66 in Shanghai, and IFS in Shanghai.
In terms of the rollout of the concept, we've now completed 47 stores and a further 65 are now planned for full year 2023, meaning that over half of our sales will be made in new or refurbished stores, enhancing the customer experience. In terms of performance, the majority of stores are performing above plan, attracting new elite clientele and delivering higher AUR than the prior store portfolio. In addition to the physical stores, we also continue to focus on omnichannel and a seamless customer experience between on and offline. For example, in the fourth quarter, we expanded our aftercare offer by rolling out new digital tools to enable customers to access bespoke services. To supplement stores, we've also invested in a large number of pop-ups and pop-ins during the year. These are the more interactive spaces dedicated to amplify the marketing campaigns and inspire our consumers.
This year we started with 70 units in H1 with the leather campaign, followed in outerwear in H2 with a further 34 units. In Q3, we created a traveling trench cube inspired by our Shenzhen social retail store to showcase an immersive experience across a number of stores in mainland China, generating strong engagement, traffic, and sales. We have followed this more recently with Lola, launching an extensive program of 65 pop-ups globally to accompany the campaign. Finally, moving to ESG, we continue to take industry-leading steps to advance our decarbonization agenda. I'm proud to say that we've largely met all of the ambitious targets we set out in our 2017 responsibility strategy. First, as a company, we are now carbon neutral across our own operations globally, and 100% of our electricity is from renewable sources.
Second, regarding product, almost all of our products have more than one social or environmental benefit, and actually, the majority have more than three. Finally, with regard to communities, we've exceeded our goal of positively impacting a million people through projects such as the recent partnership with Marcus Rashford MBE and charities across the U.K., U.S., and Asia to provide literacy skills and safe creative spaces for underrepresented youth. Looking forward, we remain resolute in our commitment to make a positive difference to people, planet, and communities. The strong foundations we've set underpin our new ambition to be climate positive by 2040, which will require accelerating emission reductions across our extended supply chain. In November, we also announced a new biodiversity strategy to further protect and restore nature while expanding support for farming communities and developing regenerative supply chains.
In parallel, we've continued to prioritize diversity and inclusion together with colleague health and well-being while supporting communities in need. As a modern luxury brand, I am pleased to confirm today that we have banned the use of exotics in future collections, building on the commitment we made a number of years ago to go fur free. In summary, having successfully established a strong platform from which to accelerate growth, we are well set up to embark on the next chapter, and we will continue to deliver high-quality growth while building a more sustainable and inclusive future. We're a business with enormous potential, and I look forward to working closely with our new CEO, Jonathan Akeroyd, as we advance to the next stage of Burberry's strategy.
I'll now share with you a short video highlighting some of the year's achievements, and then we'll return to questions at the end. Thank you.
Okay, thanks everyone. Opening up to questions. We'll take Antoine first who we haven't seen this morning. Antoine. Actually, if you could just say your name and where you're from, just so for the transcript. That'd be helpful. Thank you.
Yes, good morning. It's Antoine Belge at BNP Paribas Exane. Three questions if I may. The first one for Jonathan. Obviously early days for you. It seems that the brand perception for Burberry differs from one region to the other. Quite good it's in some and less so in others. Do you think that Riccardo Tisci needs to maybe change a bit the aesthetics of the brand? My second question is about the fact that sales are expected to grow high single digit this year. What's the embedded situation in China that you have in the guidance?
Do you expect that, I mean, for high single digit to be achieved, that China should get out of lockdowns, I don't know, in July, for instance? Finally, in terms of the margins, so 19.5% is the reported base. I understand the FX benefits, but if we just look at the underlying margin at constant currencies, what are the moving parts? Do you think that there could be a significant, you know, margin improvement this year? I don't know, see if you can be maybe 100 basis point. Thank you.
Thank you, Antoine. I'll take the question on the brand because actually, I think I'd really like to call out the great work that everybody's done over the past four years. Also, please bear in mind that in those four years, we've also had a pandemic. For me coming in, I've been extremely impressed with initially the strategy that was laid out. I think the execution was very quick. I think it's also important to call out a lot of the things that Riccardo has brought in and the company's brought in. We now have new brand codes, which give us, you know, a huge amount of consistency. I've been very impressed with the TB that was launched very quickly.
We've now applying it to, you know, a great deal of our leather goods. Also the monogram, I thought, was an excellent complement to the heritage brand codes that we have. Again, that's. I think this is something that we're gonna be planning a lot, particularly in the summer months. We have activations last summer. We're gonna continue that through this summer. I think this brings a big consistency. And I definitely call it out across all regions personally. From that side, I think, you know, I give Riccardo a lot of credit for. I'm sure I'll come back to this later.
It's easy to say about elevation, but it's certainly, you know, the elevation of the retail network has had a lot of investment last year, and we plan to continue to invest this year. The consistency, the network clearly needed to be upgraded. We're doing it. We're doing it very quickly. Again, also very consistently, and I've been impressed with that.
Okay. Thank you, Antoine. First of all, the question about China and in relation to guidance. Well, first of all, going one stage back, in the fourth quarter versus last year, our China business declined 13%. We did deliver in the quarter a strong comp at 7%. The rest of the business effectively was growing around 20%. We've got a strong underlying business performance. It was really the disruption from China in that final period. In terms of the current trading situation or the current situation in China, what we're finding at the moment is we've got approximately 40% of our distribution in China disrupted.
That's either through store closures, or it's basically due to people not going out because the city's on lockdown, and then also restricted hours. Together with the digital hub being disrupted also. It's around 40% of the business is currently experiencing a disruption. We obviously don't know when it will end like most people. We've worked a number of scenarios out in the business, and basically, it's just we've worked on the basis of an upside, a base case, and a downside. The cost is to the base, the upside is the inventory planning, and the downside, we'll manage cash to the downside case. We're being very flexible and agile in the way that we're managing the business. In terms of the margin, you know, we're very pleased with the margin.
We're pleased with the gross margin, so coming out at 70.6%, despite the inflationary pressures from logistics and freight, we're pleased with that. When it comes to the operating margin, as you say, it's reported 18.5%, but on an underlying basis, it's 19% CER versus last year. Again, you can see us making the progress towards the targeted margin of 20%. Within the components of that operating margin accretion, you know, we had a considerable benefit over 500 basis points of leverage on the operating margin. We chose to invest, you know, over three percentage points of that back into the business, largely into the commercial front line, into visual merchandising, marketing, and customer inspiration. Net net, you know, we see it as a good result for the business.
Okay. If I go to Rog next, then Zuzanna, and then we move over to Emma. Okay. Rog.
Thank you. It's Rogerio Fujimori from Stifel. I have two questions. First, I think on the
On the price increases that you have taken, have you seen any consumer resistance, any surprises on elasticity, and are you still happy with the value proposition versus peers? The second is on the distribution cleanup. I think you completed the rationalization of all non-strategic doors. I think I just want to confirm that in terms of particularly both outlet footprint and if the work is completed. I think related to that, I think how many stores perhaps you need in Hong Kong. I know it's easier to close than open and any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
Okay. Yeah. Yes, in terms of price, as you know, we took a high single-digit price increase on a large part of the leather range back in May last year. We use and we've taken some price increases on other parts of the range across the portfolio. We do data analytics to look at the consumer response whenever we take a price increase so that we can judge the position. We've seen no adverse consumer response to the leather goods price increase, which was the more substantial of the two. We've taken an additional one in January also, again, largely the leather range. In terms of pricing opportunity, we do see continued opportunity for price. Clearly, the world is suffering at the moment from major inflationary pressure.
We do see opportunities for selective price increases, but we'll be very careful, and we work with the merchandising team on deciding where to pitch it, and we'll inform you when we've done it. They were commercially sensitive information, so we won't give it ahead of time. In terms of stores and store closures, yeah, we finished the program. A few years ago, we said we're going to close 38 non-strategic stores. These were stores that were either in the wrong strategic location or they were underperforming. We've made those closures. Now we've completed that program. The rest of the changes you saw on the bridge that I shared this morning, it was all to do with really refreshing the network. In some cases, we've moved from one location to another.
Paris is a great example of that. I know Jonathan visited it recently, just last Friday. I think we're very pleased with the new location in Paris. I don't know, Jonathan, you were saying.
Yeah. I'd also like to call out actually, Shanghai as well. We've moved from, you know, a good location in Shanghai into the best location in Shanghai. Shows our commitment to China and our belief that we can, you know, once this wave is out of the way, that we really feel confident that we've got the product mix, we've got the retail network to continue to build on. Been very impressed with the store concept. Clearly, it's also been readjusted to help us focus more on leather goods, as well as our core business around outerwear and softs, and ready-to-wear. And it definitely feels, you know, in line with the elevation strategy that we put in place.
Picking up your point about future closures, we're anticipating retail space being broadly stable during the course of full year 2023. There will be closures and relocations within that, but broadly stable in terms of overall dimensions. The final question about Hong Kong. Yes, we have made the decision to make two of the main store closures in Hong Kong. The trading position there is challenging. Clearly, it was an area of the world that previously benefited a lot from Chinese tourists, and now, of course, suffering from lockdowns. Yeah, we've made two changes there. But at the same time, we are continuing to refurbish and invest in the stores in preparation for a full reopening. Yeah, the investment continues.
Zuzanna Pusz from UBS. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three. The first question is a bit broader in outlook for both Jonathan and Julie. I mean, you confirmed today your outlook for high single-digit sales growth and 20% margin, EBIT margin. I'm just wondering, I mean, first of all, given that you've achieved almost 20% margin because you were at 19% on an underlying basis, despite just 5% sales CAGR, does it mean that maybe in the short term you're likely to prioritize sales a bit more, so reinvest and, you know, we should see a bit of a, kind of, you know, more of a pause in terms of margin expansion? Secondly, related to that's more for Jonathan.
I mean, you highlighted in today's press release that we should expect a strategic update in November. Does it mean that it will be more qualitative rather than quantitative? You know, does it mean you're not gonna change any of the financial targets, or is it just too early to say? My second question is a follow-up on pricing. Can you just remind us what exactly were the price increases and the timing? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll just check. I think it was roughly 10% on your leather goods offering early in the year, which means that you saw two percentage point contribution. In which case, I was just wondering why full price sales lagged so much because, I mean, the total like-for-like was 7%, full price was 5%, but it should have benefited sequentially from pricing.
Is it just related to China? Any additional color on that would be very helpful. Third question would be just generally if you could, maybe comment on what you're seeing in the market right now. I appreciate China is not easy to comment on, so I won't be asking you about that. Maybe specifically the U.S. has been an incredible success story for you and the sector overall. Given the market volatility, are you seeing trends unchanged and maybe similar in Europe? Thank you.
Okay, sure. I mean, I'll start on the strategic outlook. I mean, surely, with two months in, it's still early days, but, you know, I've been quite immersed in the brand. I've had a, you know, good study of it, obviously, clearly before I joined as well. Again, calling out, I'm very aware that we've gone through a transition. We've put in place a new strategy. We've executed it, recently in the past few years. Now, you know, the expectation is on growth. I think all of the actions that have been put in place will enable us to focus on that, and I'm very excited to do that.
I'm also very excited to share with you about, you know, what we can also do to enhance the strategy that was put in place, and I'm sure we can give some color on that in November. I'm very positive that we can do that. I'd also, again, like to. The decision to exit markdown was very brave and very impressive. You've seen the growth that we've grown on our full price business. We believe that we can continue to really focus on that. You also saw the share of the mix in terms of the offer. You know, we now have a very good balance between newness and carryover. You know, this means that we can protect our margins on the carryover.
We can continue to build our accessory business there, which I think is really important. Also, there's, you know, an opportunity now to really also play on the newness as well, which is clearly important. I would say, you know, your comment on America is right. I think there's a much stronger appetite for the brand now we've gone through this move. We've seen a high level of recruitment for a new customer coming to Burberry, younger customers coming in across all the regions. There's, you know, lots of elements we can play on. I think one thing that we have that's very special is we have some very core strong categories, obviously, in outerwear.
We're developing, I would say, a stronger presence in outerwear on top of our raincoat business. That is always something that I think we can safely say that, you know, we own that very nicely. Also the introduction in leather goods as well, and there's been a, you know, a very positive reaction to that. I'm confident that we can continue to build on that. Again, I'll share more depth and more color on that in November.
Great. The first one in terms of, the margin progression, given the 5% CAGR. I mean, we're obviously pleased with the margin. You can see the benefit of the full price switch coming through there with the gross margin. We will reinvest in the business. You've seen us do this when we share the operating margin bridge, you know. There was a considerable amount of leverage we could have gained, but we chose to reinvest in the business. Over three percentage points of that was reinvested. I think we'll carry on doing that. The focus is very much we're holding what you might call support areas in the business or enabling areas. Burberry Business Services is relatively flat.
We're allowing all the growth to go into the commercial front line, and we'll carry on doing that because it's the way to fuel the growth. We're not obviously going to give guidance, specific margin guidance on the next two years just because the environment doesn't really favor doing that. We are confident of reaching, you know, the guidance, which is the 20% margin by full year 2020. It's just a case of the timing and the phasing of how we go about doing that, just because we've got to manage the business in a very agile way, as you saw us do during the first wave of COVID. In terms of pricing, we took a price increase, as we mentioned, back in May, which was. It wasn't 10%.
It was a high single-digit percentage change, and it was a sizable portion of the leather goods range. We have taken some price increases. Just in terms of your question about why have you got a comp of 7% and full price of 5%, the reason for that is simply due to the mix of the regions. In terms of our mix of regions, China, which is one of our, you know, most prominent mainline regions, if you like, with stores as opposed to outlets, as that fell because of the lockdowns and EMEIA was growing very strongly, you get a shift in the region. If you look at all the major regions, the full price actually beat the comp in all cases.
It was just the fact that when you put them together, it's the mix, it's just the math that does it, unfortunately. It can be tricky for people to follow. Try it out and you'll see it does actually work. In terms of, I think you mentioned also about China and price. Just to say, China in this fourth quarter has had a major impact. You know, -13% in our fourth quarter versus last year. The rest of the business is up 20%. A very strong performance elsewhere. What we're seeing in the market was, I think, your fourth question. In terms of the market, we are seeing a robust environment in the United States. Our growth in the United States, we were up 13%.
This is full price. The comps get tougher, though, in the United States. You probably remember in the first quarter last year, our full price business grew over 110%. We are going to come across some much more difficult comps. Having said that, you know, there's still a clear demand for the product, and we're seeing very good traction in leather goods. Jonathan mentioned leather goods. Really, really strong traction. It brings me on to the other major region, which is EMEIA. EMEIA is growing very, very strongly. You know, we're seeing over 50% full price growth in EMEIA. As we mentioned, the full price is back to pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter, which is really quite an achievement because half the business was tourists.
Overall, we're seeing that strength continuing into the first quarter. Yeah. If only China would unlock, we would have a very good picture. Yeah.
Okay. Erwan.
Oh, thanks. Thank you, Julie. Thank you, Julie, and welcome again, Jonathan. Three points, if I can. Maybe in terms of, you know, you arriving and discovering, I mean, I suspect you knew the brand quite well before. Looking at merchandising, you know, if you interview some of the sales staff, they'll tell you, "We need more T-shirts," or, "We need more denim," or, you know. Are you identifying any easy wins as you take over the brand in terms of merchandising? 'Cause I think you have a reputation for being a really good merchandiser. Are there any obvious gaps that you think can be filled for the brand? Secondly, I think you mentioned that you know, exiting takedowns was quite a brave move.
At the same time, there's a bit of a dichotomy because in mainline stores you're selling more at full price, and at the same time, there's still a pretty big outlet component. I'm just wondering how you think about this dichotomy and, coming more recently from a group where outlets are a big thing. How do you view the potential conflict or contradiction? Lastly on China, when you had lockdowns last year in Xi'an or more recently in Shenzhen, you had a pretty big rebound following that. There's a lot more duration here in Shanghai and now Beijing and other places.
I'm just wondering, you know, you mentioned you have been working on different scenarios, but how do you think about consumer psychology as you've had more duration, and how can you hope for the consumer to rebound versus, you know, the experiences of lockdowns from last year? Thank you.
Great. Thanks. On the product side and easy wins, you know, of course, when you join a company, you can always see some call-outs and some easy wins. You know, we're already working on that with the teams. Clearly, again, we'll be working on those now, but you know, I'll set out, I'd say, a much more concise merchandising strategy at the end of the year. I would just like to say that, again, credit to the teams. We've got a very good team of merchants in the company. I've been very impressed with the level, the caliber of our teams, both through design and also merchandising.
They're able to adapt and as I mentioned earlier, you know, with this ability that we have to sort of complement our replenishment, our carry over of business with newness, we can adapt to that quite quickly. I would also like to say, I was very curious upon joining to see the ability of a company that was historically a ready-to-wear focused company transition into a better focus on accessories. We've, you know, again, built some good teams there across design, merchandising, so I've been very impressed with the offer that we have in place, and there's lots of things that we can build on there. Julie mentioned earlier, recently in the last few weeks, we've launched our Lola bag.
There's been a very positive reaction to that. That's actually, I would say, beyond our expectations in the launch that's had, as well as, you know, a very strong link in between the way that we've marketed it and we promoted it, so that's been a success. Just coupled into that, the pop-up model in terms of launching product, as you know, is very modern. It's very relevant for now. The consumers really engage with pop-ups wherever they are, both, you know, locally, but also particularly in Asia. We've held back on obviously activating those. We intend to.
When the market does come back, we will be ready, and we'll be activating those pop-ups through hopefully the second half of this year. We're all ready to go with that. Yeah, again, I look forward to sharing a little bit more color on the merchandising strategy in a few months. Just on the outlet business, you know. You know, and as we have exited markdown and we have a very clear policy in terms of how we manage our aged inventories, the outlet channel will help support that, and we believe that for now it will be very complementary, and we're very confident that we can actually make that and manage that well.
Yeah. I think, just to add to that as well, because we were one of the first, if not the first actually, to announce a non-destruction of inventory policy, it's therefore important to keep the ability to liquidate that inventory. We're coupling it with, you know, with good sell-through on the mainline product. In terms of your third question, relating to China, we're actually looking at this with my team at the back just a few weeks ago. We looked at what happened to China sales in the first wave, and the length of time to rebound. Then what happened in August. August was a much smaller snapshot of a downturn.
We looked at what happened in August and the length, the speed of the uptake, and the curves are tending to just follow, you know, in terms of the rebound. It does seem to be fairly resilient. The section of society that luxury brands target anyway tends to be a more resilient sector to these macroeconomic issues we're experiencing in the world at the moment. We are anticipating a rebound, and that's one of the reasons we've bought the inventory to an upside case so that we're ready for that rebound. We will also invest ahead of the curve because we think it's important to be ready. As Jonathan mentioned, we suspended a whole series of popups and pop-ins that we were planning in China.
Plaza 66 is our major store there, currently closed. As soon as we can reopen these, they're extremely good engines for growth, so exactly what we will do.
Hmm.
Okay. I think we've actually got somebody. I'll sort of come back to you in a second. We've got somebody on the line. Over to Luca.
Yeah. We've had an email on behalf of Luca Solca from Bernstein. He says, "Now that you have exited the unwanted wholesale accounts and stopped markdowns in store, has your strategy regarding outlets changed?" Then follows on with, "The Supreme collaboration has been particularly successful with the younger generation. Are you planning to rely on collaborations going forward to diversify the brand's aesthetic under Riccardo?"
Hello, Luca. I think we really covered the outlet question. I think that's quite clear. With regards to the collaborations, they're you know, they're an important model of the market that we're in at the moment, and we were extremely impressed with the Supreme collaboration. It was very nice to see finally queues outside of our flagship stores in Regent Street. We sold out online very quickly. Again, we you know, the nature of our brand really lends itself to doing exciting collaborations and also product initiatives. Again, I mentioned earlier, the monogram, we activated that well in the summer. We plan to do it again this summer. I think that will be our internal collaboration, if that makes sense.
I think people have really reacted to that very well, and it's something that we evolve every season, so it's not just the same product, it's a refreshed and a new monogram, and we can, you know, hopefully build on the excitement to it next month when that launches. Then beyond that, obviously this is, you know, something very much in Riccardo's creative vision as well, and he, you know, he's definitely got you know a strong eye for and a pulse to see really what's needed and what really the market needs at this time. We believe that there will be something that we will continue.
Okay. Yeah. That's good.
Hi. Kathryn Parker, Jefferies. I just had two questions, please. My first question is for Jonathan. I wondered if you could make some comments on the current status of Burberry's supply chain, and whether you see any opportunity for M&A in this area, and what products that might focus on. My second question is on the wholesale guidance for H1, for flat year on year. Pricing should have had some positive impact. I wondered if there's any additional impact from a switch to the e-concession model, or if you're seeing any kind of caution on reorders from your wholesale accounts.
Great. Thank you. Just with regards to the supply chain, again, two months in, I've been doing a few tours as we speak within the two months. I've actually visited our internal manufacturing facility in Castleford in Leeds. Very impressed with the teams that we have there. I think this is something that we can really build on the fact that, we're now actually, as we go into the end of this year, we're gonna be really focusing on our heritage raincoat business and really promoting the fact that, these will be made in the U.K., extremely sustainable way. Very much a lot of handcraft, a lot of passion that goes into it, and this is a real position of strength for us, we believe.
Going on to accessories, as you know, we have a good leather goods industrial facility in Italy. I've not seen that yet. I'm traveling there next week. It's certainly delivered, you know, a very good high level. Again, I've been also impressed with the quality of our leather goods, actually, and the ability to react and develop product in a very clear and fluid way. Obviously, at the moment, it's very too early to comment on M&A, and I've got, you know, a lot of things to focus on in the coming months, but we'll see how that evolves.
Okay. Taking the wholesale guidance question. The main reason the wholesale guidance is flat is not to do at all with subdued orders because when you look at Americas and EMEIA, the growth rate is very strong. There are two issues really that we're encountering. One is travel retail in Asia. Because there's little traveling taking place, it's a major compression factor on the wholesale business. The second reason is largely due to the Russian-Ukraine situation because we stopped shipping. As you know, we were, I think, one of the first brands to stop shipping into that region, and therefore, it's put considerable pressure on the wholesale business. Those are the two factors as to why you see it being broadly stable.
Okay, Louise. Oh.
Hi, good morning. It's Louise Singlehurst from Goldman Sachs. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I think just two, and maybe if we can start with Jonathan, if I could, too. This is probably the only occasion we can actually ask about your initial kind of hundred days. You're a few days into that first plan, but we've all asked questions about merchandising, supply chain. I wonder if you can talk more holistically about the view coming into Burberry, you know, the top three priorities, you know, what excites you most about Burberry over the next kind of several years ahead. Secondly, for Julie, we've sat in many years of presentations at Burberry where we've been really focused on the cost-saving plan. That's always been the topic of discussion, particularly from your tenure, Julie.
Today, there's a lot more mentions of investment for the future. When we think about the margin and that margin target of around 20%, and we're not far away from it, is it fair to say there's just a lot more flex in the system now, so there's a lot more ability to put that investment back into the brand to drive that top line that we haven't probably seen in the last five years? Thank you.
Thank you. As far as the top three priorities 100 days in, again, we definitely will be coming back to that. Clearly, you know, the three areas for me to focus on, and there was already, you know, some clear ideas in place, and I think I can help enhance that and accelerate that, is brand. Really focusing on making sure that we continue to elevate the brand. That journey has clearly been well executed, and we're in a very good place. Product, I've mentioned earlier, lots of opportunities on product, and we will continue to build on that. Then also just touching on the retail. 80% of our business is retail. We are a very strong retail company.
I've been also very pleased to come into a company with a big, strong retail network that's been also refurbished, but also, you know, we've also exited some of our poor performing stores, so I think our retail positioning is in a good place. One of the very nice surprises for me has been the quality of the retail teams. Obviously, externally, I've been really looking at what the brand has been doing on the product and the marketing activations, not so much on the retail side. Now I'm here, toured a number of stores. There's been, you know, probably I would say on the back end, you know, a huge effort in terms of retail excellence.
I can safely say that we are in a very good place here, very passionate teams, highly engaged. I've also been impressed with the blend that we have in the company between new talent coming from the outside with good, strong luxury experience. Also there's a lot of people here that have been for a good time with you know huge knowledge of the brand. Equal passion, actually, which is you know often very rare in a business. There's a huge amount of positivity here. I think that's been the biggest call-out. I would really like to call out you know our retail excellence teams and our HR teams for driving this.
As you know, it's not very easy to really pick up. You know, when you're refurbishing these stores and investing a lot of money into them, it's often sometimes you can forget about the quality and the focus of our retail team. I think that has been really impressive for me and looking forward to again building on that. Again, just to conclude on that point, you know, for us, obviously, we've got some immediate challenges now with the macro environment, but it will really be about how we can build on that and continue to grow the top line. I think that will be our focus.
Okay, thanks. Thanks, Louise, for the question. There's been a real focus, I would say, in reorienting the cost base of Burberry. As you know, we have streamlined many activities in what you may call the enabling areas. We, as one example, created Burberry Business Services as a captive in Leeds, and what we've therefore been able to do is pivot the cost base more towards some of the commercial areas in the business. There has been significant investment in the business. Although it may not be visible a number of years ago, within it, there was a lot of change within the composition. It's a bit like the change in the composition of the sales line similarly.
Over the last 12 months, you can see our OpEx base has grown, you know, close to 20% CER like for like. There's been a big step up in the OpEx. As you saw from the margin bridge, you can see the degree to which the business is capable of leveraging. You know, 500 basis points could have come through into the margin this year, but we've chosen to reinvest over 300 basis points of that back into the business. We'll continue to make, you know, those judgments. We also believe, you know, that the business is easily capable of the margin target we've set. You know, we do believe that, and the gross margin, we've done a lot of work to protect that and keep that at around the 70% level.
Y ou know, we think it's achievable. Yeah.
Okay, Carole.
Hello, good morning. Carole Madjo from Barclays. Two questions from me, please. The first one to follow up on the U.S. market. There seems to be some growing concern about the, I guess, macro environment in the U.S. in terms of, you know, inflation, stock market volatility, et cetera. When you think that your consumer base has been really boosted by new and young consumers, do you see a risk of this cohort being a bit less sticky, a bit less resilient in case of macro slowdown? That's the first question. The second one, just to come back quickly on your new store concept. You gave us some target for 2023, but how should we think about it for the medium term in terms of new stores being developed? Thank you.
I'll take the U.S. question. Obviously, as Julie mentioned, we had a very strong quarter in Q4 last year. We've still managed to, you know, have good improvement on this quarter. There's definitely, we believe from our brand's perspective, still more opportunity to grow. We actually plan to invest more money in terms of our marketing spend into America this year, continued store refurbishments. You know, obviously it's challenging times at the moment in general, but we're also confident that the way we're progressing, you know, with our merchandising strategy, with the store refurbishments, you know, we think we're gonna be well set for future growth going forward.
Yes, I think in terms of the question about the stores, we're planning 65 in this coming 12 months. The CapEx, we're expecting to be around GBP 170 million-GBP 180 million. You can see we're stepping up the CapEx a stage further. Our objective is really to roll out the new store concept, which is proving to be successful with, in terms of clientele that are coming, the AUR that they're spending, the linked selling that we're gaining in those stores. It's a more elevated experience for the consumer, and that's really what we're very focused on. We expect to rapidly.
It's one of our key strategic objectives, is to roll out that new store concept as quickly really as the architecture team can possibly manage to do it, because we think it's a real value driver for the business.
Okay. I'll do it. I'll take Chiara and then Elena Mariani. That'll be.
Hello. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. It's Chiara Battistini from JP Morgan. Just following up on the store concept, the new store concept. I was wondering whether you could give us some updates on how your KPIs of the stores are actually changing. If you say, what kind of sales densities uplifts you're seeing, or what kind of conversion you're seeing now that some of the biggest projects are being done. Second question on your consumer, and I was wondering if you give any color on how to think about your exposure to a more aspirational consumer versus a rather affluent consumer. If you feel exposed to this aspirational consumer that might be saving to buy into luxury versus the proper luxury consumer. Thank you.
Thank you.
I think on the store concept, it's important to note that we're only about six months in. As Julie called out, we've seen, you know, a good improvement in our AUR. We've also seen a better shift on the accessory sales from our accessory sales in our old store concept. So we've been pleased with that. We've also seen, you know, a much higher level of new customers coming into those stores. So you know, the early indications are that, you know, we're in a good place, and we really do believe that we can continue to build on that. More importantly, as you know, you know, the ultimate objective is to, you know, to really improve our store productivity and our sales densities.
It's still a little bit too early to give a true outlook on it.
Yeah. Just to add to that, it's probably worth knowing that we target around a 25% return on the stores when we do a new capital appraisal. The majority of the stores that we've put in place, you know, are already ahead of those expectations. What we also do is we review the performance of the new stores relative to neighboring stores that have been put in the new store concept so we can compare. It's not exactly like for like, but it's the best we can do. This is where we've got the customer data from in terms of the higher levels of spend and the higher degrees of linked selling that we've obtained in those, hence the need to and the desire to accelerate that program as much as possible.
In terms of the consumer, yeah, I mean, it varies. We look at, you know, the socioeconomic pyramid when we're looking at our consumer and patterns. There's certainly been a rise in the higher levels of the consumer, but also we've had considerable business this year from new consumers that have come to the brand for the first time. We've particularly seen that in Americas. We've also seen it more recently coming into EMEIA because it's now largely a local business. Obviously, before China was locked down, China and Korea were the big beacons of new consumers coming to the brand, largely driven in Asia by the leather goods and the outerwear. They were the very strong performers in that region.
Okay.
Can you hear me? Okay.
Yes.
Good morning. This is Elena Mariani from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions for Jonathan. The first one is about your background. You come from a very long experience with Alexander McQueen, a relatively small brand in a large group, and then more recently with Versace. Can you comment a little bit about, I know it's early days, but the difference you see between working in a large group, large conglomerate, versus coming into a mono-brand like a standalone brand. You know very well that the industry has been showing a sort of divergence of growth between the large groups that have been able to capitalize on various things, and then the smaller brands, the mono brands have been struggling a little bit. What's the difference in your opinion?
Can you comment on this? Do you still feel that mono brands and smaller companies can still have their voice heard in terms of like investments, firepower, communication? The second question is about you know the creative situation at Burberry, the creative director. You've been clearly impressed by what has been achieved so far, and we can see the results. I mean, there's no doubt that the quality of the business has improved. The products have been completely transformed. You probably know as well that part of the luxury audience has also partly been puzzled by the move towards fashion and the change in DNA of the brand. Some people have been saying that maybe Burberry walked a little bit away from the British heritage that they used to have.
What do you think about this? Are you seeing things differently? Overall, besides all the good things that you've mentioned, is there anything that, you know, maybe is an area of improvement that is standing out that, you know, you see clearly and you'd like to change or work on? Thank you.
Thank you. Well, comparing the three brands, I mean, I think that's not really something to do in this forum. You know, all I can say is that I'm very excited to be here. It really felt like, you know, a real natural fit for me to come here. We've said that I've had a history with Burberry, but I have had a long history with Burberry. I've really been in touch with the brand since my days at Harrods. You know, it was really an honor to come here and join. Obviously, the incredible thing for me is, you know, this is one of the top luxury brands, you know, in the world.
It's an incredible opportunity for me. I've been here for two months. I feel very comfortable since I've been here. I feel that I can. As I said earlier, we've got a great team with incredible backgrounds. I think that my experience in the two brands that I've worked for previously, one being a British brand, one of a big group, one being an Italian luxury house embedded in luxury, there with, you know, with a good industrial operation as well. You know, I think what I've learned from there, you know, I can bring here and, you know, help support the growth that we have here.
With regards to Burberry being, you know, a standalone brand, I, you know, don't see anything wrong with that. I think it's a great establishment. One of the things that I'll definitely call out in November is, you know, we are, you know, very fortunate to be, you know, in such a strong position as a great British brand, and this brings a lot of opportunity. Again, sort of leading into your next question, if you saw Riccardo's last show in March, you know, he is picking out the DNA of the brand now. And so, you know, I think this is important. I definitely feel it's something that we will continue to build on and develop. It's definitely a call out.
Also, I'd recognize that there was an opportunity four years ago to make Burberry more international and definitely that was the, you know, strategy that was outlined. Unfortunately, my last trip to China was over, well over two years ago, obviously. You know, I remember traveling and seeing the Burberry activations in China, particularly on the marketing side, and actually really, you know, no idea what was gonna happen and I would be here now. I actually noticed it.
I think that's been, you know, a real benefit for the brand as we, you know, really start to work on being the fact that we are a British luxury heritage brand, but also with a contemporary twist.
Okay.
Hi. My name is Sarah Butler. Sarah Butler from The Guardian. Hello. I just wanted to go back to price. You mentioned that you put prices up on luxury goods by around 8%-9% in May. Is that, now are we talking about?
That was the year before.
Okay.
Yeah.
When you say you're gonna put prices up again now, can you say what sort of order you're putting them up by and why you're focusing on leather goods? Is that because that's where cost inflation is coming through, or where you see elasticity in the market and opportunity to raise prices there where you can't raise them in ready-to-wear? What do you think the luxury consumer reaction to this inflationary environment is? Will they, with their spending, be depressed or you're not expecting them to be affected?
Yeah, just to clarify, it was May last year that we made the change, and then another change at the beginning of this. In terms of leather goods, because we deliberately set out a strategy to elevate our leather goods range, and I think as you know originally, our bags were selling for around GBP 600 to just over GBP 1,000. We wanted to move them into the GBP 1,000-GBP 2,000 range. We've been very successful in moving them, so some of the, you know, the top leather bags now are retailing just below GBP 2,000. We've made the transfer successfully, but we wanted to take it in stages.
The first thing was we purchased Burberry Manifattura a number of years ago, so we wanted to build our own capability. Then we also wanted to basically take it gently in a way because we were a ready-to-wear, and we were moving more into leather goods. We wanted to move the prices so that it was taken steadily. That's basically the strategy that we've been embarking on. The prices we've been putting the leather goods up. There's been no adverse response in terms of consumer response to those prices. As Jonathan mentioned, the Lola's been one of the most successful lines, so I think it's a testimony to the quality of the bags. In terms of the consumer and the luxury environment generally, I think it's the sector that we're operating in.
We're still seeing robust demand for the products. You know, as we mentioned, because China was closed for the latter part of the fourth quarter, if you strip that out of the business, the rest of the business has been growing in the 20% range. We're still seeing that underlying demand. Europe's really strongly growing at the moment. America, the growth rates are falling, but this is partly because of the extremely high base in the prior year now. Yeah, overall we're seeing it positively.
You're fairly confident that the luxury consumer will carry on their spending patterns what with the, you know, current climate?
It tends to be the more immune part to these types of situations with inflation and cost of living. It tends to be the last sector to be impacted. We're much more impacted by real estate prices and the stock market. In terms of the correlation with various macro factors, those are the two main factors that we need to keep an eye on. Yeah.
I have a question that's been emailed in from Thierry Cota from Société Générale. Could you explain why EBIT was down 5% in the second half versus sales up 10%, while the gross profit was up 11%? Thank you.
Yes, certainly, Thierry. Hopefully, Thierry can hear me. The main reason is really back to the question that Louise raised earlier. It was really all about significant investment that we made in the business in the second half. It was the cost base grew, you know, just shy of 20% in the second half. There was a lot of activations, pop-ups. We also opened Plaza 66 in November, so that cost comes through. At that point, we had major activations both in China, and you've seen some of the examples we had in L.A. during the course of last quarter. Jeju in Korea was in the third quarter. There's been a lot of, I guess, cost put into the business to be able to talk more about the Burberry brand externally and engage and excite consumers.
Okay. I think that's probably. We've probably had time for questions now. Thank you everybody for coming.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Don't get that online.
No, you don't, do you?