This report differs from other Mintel retail titles in that it looks primarily at companies involved in design, manufacturing and distribution, rather than traditional retailing. However, many luxury houses are increasingly focusing investment on directly-operated stores in favour of wholesaling to third party distributors. But the reported revenues from these companies (and one of our two market size definitions – see below) does include a mix of retail turnover, wholesale sales to franchisees and concessionaires plus income from licence agreements. Sometimes the last of these is included in wholesaling activities.

The report includes profiles of the top seven luxury operators by turnover including the major ‘multi-branded’ houses LVMH, Richemont and PPR Luxury, along with Polo Ralph Lauren. The other three in our top seven are beauty operators Estée Lauder, Shiseido and L’Oréal. The last two of these also have mass-market operations but in the case of L’Oréal we have been able to hone in on its luxury division. However, Shiseido does not split out luxury separately and so it appears higher up our rankings than it would otherwise be.

Some questions answered in this report include:

How can companies prevent the ‘upper-mass’ drift?

What luxury goods categories will have the strongest performance given the current economic uncertainty?

What are the leading 20 luxury brand operators’ market shares?

How can retailers balance tradition and technology in a multichannel world?

We’ve seen that China has remained a strong market for luxury goods. What other regions offer substantial growth opportunities?