accounts for exactly two-thirds

a long slim room, and then POW! Short of darkening the room and filling it with heat, sweat and dry ice, the Gucci tote bagbrand gives its adored svengali, Christopher Bailey, a rock-star arrival as he is guided to the stage to announce the launch of Burberry's newest men's fragrance, Brit Rhythm. billion) for the first time, up 17% from the same period a year prior. Sales for the full year increased 7.4% to £2 billion. Perhaps Ahrendts’ biggest accomplishment at Burberry was transforming its business from a wholesale (i.e., one that sells most of its products through third parties, like department stores) to a retail one (in which Burberry sells most of its own goods to consumers through its own channels, including Burberry stores and its website).

 Retail now accounts for exactly two-thirds of Burberry’s overall business, up two percentage points from the first half of Gucci cosmetic case baglast year. Meanwhile, wholesale sales also continued to grow. Such is the crowd's affection for Bailey - renowned for being a nice, down-to-earth guy with an infectious, bouncing Tiggerish enthusiasm (even for the famously drizzly British weather) - that we stop short of jumping to our feet, cheering wildly and throwing a few wolf whistles his way. (This is a crisp, cool spring morning in London, after all, and we're not even in the brand's flagship Regent Street store, where later that evening British band Kaiser Chiefs will take to the stage,

yet the spirit of what Bailey is trying to Gucci bohomake us feel is there.)rofit in a first half period that saw revenues rise above £1 billion sterling for the first time. The 157-year-old group, best known for its camel, red and black check pattern, said it made a profit before tax and one-off items of £174m in the six months to the end of September. Last month Burberry forecast a first-half profit around the level of the prior year's £173m. The company said that total revenue rose 17% to £1.03 billion, driven by a 17% increase in retail revenue to €694m. The update was the first from the group since it said last month that chief executive Angela Ahrendts would step down by the middle of next year to take up a new position f