Chanel grows 16% and approaches $20 billion in revenues

It was another record year for Chanel, which consolidated its supremacy as the world's best-known and most successful high-end brand: revenues in 2023 were close to USD 20 billion (USD 19.7 billion to be precise), up 16% compared to 2022, when the French fashion house had grown by 17% to USD 17.2 billion. Independent and focused on its 'only' brand, unlike the three main luxury conglomerates (Lvmh, Kering, Richemont), Chanel further improved its profitability ratios: in 2023, operating profit rose by 10.9% to $6.407 billion, whereas in 2022 the growth had been 'only' 5.8% to $5.776 billion.

The growth in investments and capex was very high: the former, destined for 'brand support activities, which include customer events', rose by 20% to 2.463 billion, while capital expendiure was 1.227 billion, or a (very high) 6.2% of turnover. Worldwide, the French fashion house's workforce rose by 14% from 32,000 to 36,500, mainly, says a note, 'due to the strengthening of the digital sectors' (above, the image of the finale of Chanel's most recent fashion show, organised in Marseille for the cruise collection).

Significant events in 2023 include the opening of the large shop in Milan's Via Montenapoleone, the second Chanel boutique in the city and the first in Italy to offer haute joaillerie, alongside watchmaking and fine jewellery.

Comments from Global Chief Executive Officer, Leena Nair, also covered progress on sustainability: 'We are proud of our new Net-Zero 2040, SBTi-certified targets, which will underpin our company's transformation towards increasing environmental and social sustainability. The Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative, launched in 2015, promotes the setting of science-based decarbonisation targets to strengthen the competitive position of companies that want to move to a low-carbon economy.