Paris — Burberry Group’s incoming CEO Marco Gobbetti faces a long list of challenges when he starts the job in July, and polishing the brand’s luxury image in the discount-driven US will be right near the top. The UK luxury retailer’s sales in the region are falling at an accelerating pace, a company update showed on Wednesday, partly a function of moves to make the brand there more aspirational. These have included withdrawing from US department stores in non-premium locations and shortening the clearance period by 10 days. At the same time, a strong dollar is encouraging the wealthy to spend abroad. "Burberry very much wants to elevate their brand in the US," said Helen Brand, an analyst at UBS. "Doing so may continue to weigh on sales in the short term," she said. Revenue in the US showed a mid single-digit percentage decline in the second half, Burberry said, causing sales to miss estimates and pushing the shares down the most in six months. The deteriorating performance in a re...
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