World’s leading luxury group LVMH has just announced its sales revenues for the first quarter of 2025 ended March 31st. At the end of the year 2024, when the conglomerate was still reporting strong results, revenues showed a slight improvement, offsetting the losses of mid-2024. However, the global geopolitical and economic environment is uncertain, due to the US tariffs situation and a difficult economy in China. And this undoubtedly has started to affect sales of luxury goods and will continue to do so if clarity doesn’t come back. Yet, in this uncertain situation, LVMH showed a certain resilience for Q1 2025 and maintained strong sales in some business areas, including Watches & Jewelry. 

Sales for the group in the first quarter of 2025 are reported at EUR 20,311 million, down 3% compared to the same period in 2024 (EUR 20,694 million). The LVMH Group indicates that “the United States saw a slight decline, despite a good performance in Fashion & Leather Goods and in Watches & Jewelry. Japan was down with respect to the first quarter of 2024, which had been boosted by strong growth in Chinese consumer spending in the country. The rest of Asia saw trends comparable to 2024.”

Looking more closely, sales of Fashion & Leather Goods, which represent about half of the French group’s turnover, are down 5% and the Wines & Spirits division, a minor business for the group, are down 9%. As for our main concern here at MONOCHROME, the Watches & Jewelry surprisingly showed strong resilience in this complex environment, with sales identical to last year’s Q1 – EUR 2,178 million vs. EUR 2,182 million. LVMH doesn’t break down sales by region in these mid-year reports, yet it would be interesting to see how revenues will evolve over the year in key markets such as the United States and China.

LVMH indicates remaining ” both vigilant and confident at the start of the year.” And so will we. For more details, please consult www.lvmh.com.