Growth industry luxury goods

When following the news these days, would you really want to think of the banking sector as the single most important contributor to the UK economy? MF Global becomes the first bigger victim of the sovereign debt crisis, and, one after another, big institutions stoke fears by announcing to cut thousands of jobs (http://on.ft.com/rCNxKP). Admitted, we all need banks so this trend will certainly not last forever. Nevertheless, take this time of crisis as an incentive to think about what other growth industries there are, in the UK and globally. The luxury sector, which is usually dismissed instantly by the country's top graduates, has been featuring in the news as “recession-proof” (Vanessa Friedman, http://on.ft.com/rXNjRX) and highly innovative. A recent study by Bain & Co suggests the past year has been the most successful for luxury markets. Partly because of massive demand coming from emerging markets, but no less because Western consumers appreciate luxury products as an investment in quality. British designer brand Anya Hindmarch doubled its profits and takes its '21st-century heritage style' to expand heavily overseas. And then the almost dizzying growth of the new-concept online retailers such as Net-a-porter, Mr Porter, or my-wardrobe.com which just recorded 68% sales growth (http://on.ft.com/tLmZIg). In short, there are still a lot of growth opportunities in some corners of this world economy, so let's go out and find them!


Felix Rossknecht

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