Kildare Village store and tourists boost Gucci in Ireland

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 14, 2016

Irish revenues for Kering’s Gucci brand tripled to €3.9m last year following the successful opening of a Gucci store at Kildare Village in the summer of 2015.

The company, which had made an Irish pre-tax loss of almost €88,000 in 2014, returned to profit in 2015 with pre-tax profits of €41,336 as revenue rose 190%. However staff costs more-than-doubled following the new store opening.

The sales and profits boost came as the company said that tourist revenue was a key factor. “A significant proportion of our sales performance is linked to the level of tourism in Ireland,” Gucci said.

But while the 190% sales rise easily outstripped the 3% increase of a year earlier, the gross margin fell sharply, hitting 38% from 52% in 2014.

The company said that it “continue[s] to work towards increasing our market share by focusing on the achievement of an organic growth on the existing store network, providing an excellent retail experience to our customers and optimising the merchandise available for sale, along with investing in our store portfolio”.

It also said it would boost its selection of higher-end and exclusive product.