Burberry tipped for sales rise

Burberry is tipped to post a 3% increase in sales when it releases its trading update on Wednesday of this week.

"All being well the group will emerge both robustly profitable and with more control over its own destiny," Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, told City AM today.

The British luxury brand's new CEO Marco Gobbetti, who joined last year from Celine, has been undertaking a strategic review of the business including a revamp of its stores, the axing of non-luxury wholesale accounts and a general move to take the brand back upmarket.

Chief creative officer and president Christopher Bailey is to stand down from the Burberry board this spring after 17 years. He will remain with the business on a consulting basis until the end of the year. Rumours persist that Celine's outgoing creative director Phoebe Philo will replace him.

When Philo announced her departure from the French luxury house before Christmas it was made clear she had no plans to move to a new job immediately but given Bailey's extended departure period, this doesn't necessarily rule her out for the role.