Burberry bucks the trend and looks towards the BRICs

Posted on 24 May 2012

In an investment of £200m, the British manufacturer of luxury clothing Burberry is expanding into Central and Latin America with plans to open up to 10 stores in Mexico and Brazil.

As well as opening new stores in Latin America, Burberry plans to increase its overall retail space by 14%.

Burberry is admired by many successful businesspeople – at SAP’s UK & Ireland Forum in London on Wednesday this week (May 23) Robert Enslin, president of sales at SAP praised the clothes manufacturer’s ability to innovate consistently, and remarked that “he would not like to be [Burberry’s] competition”.

Although not officially classed as a BRIC nation because it was considered already more developed when the term was coined, Mexico is a country that displays many of the characteristics of such economies.

Some have even commented that Mexico’s tax system, relatively low tax levels and flexible labour laws make it a better place for businesses to flourish. A business development representative for Latin America from Delcam, a CAD/CAM software manufacturer pointed out that Brazil’s tax system is extremely complex and businesses find it difficult to prosper.

Burberry’s move comes after its dominance of the South East Asian market – however company spokespeople have reported tough trading in some countries in the region, for example South Korea.