Burberry earnings: What could win back China?

What happened: While Burberry begins to see gains from its global brand turnaround, China remains a sore spot for the British luxury house. As reported on Friday, July 18, Q1 brought a 4% sales lift in the Americas and a modest 1% uptick in EMEIA. However, Greater China dragged down momentum with a 5% decline. The slowdown, partly pinned on weaker tourism and cautious local spenders, dulled what could’ve been a more optimistic quarter for the company. Despite group revenues dropping just 1% — beating analyst expectations — the dip in China underscores the brand’s uphill battle in its largest overseas market. Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman said in the report, “Over the past year, we have moved from stabilizing the business to driving Burberry Forward with confidence. The improvement in our first quarter comparable sales, strength in our core categories, and uptick in brand desirability gives us conviction in the path ahead.” He continued, “Our focus this year is to build on the early progress we have made in reigniting brand desire, as a key requisite to growing the topline.” This has involved heritage-led campaigns like a fourth collection with Highgrove Gardens, located at the private residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and Festival, which celebrates British music festival culture. The Jing Take: Burberry’s recovery in China continues to lag despite efforts to reinforce its luxury positioning through hiring new ambassadors and hosting impressive retail activations. On July 14, Burberry introduced 25-year-old Chinese actor Wu Lei as its newest brand ambassador. A popular figure across Chinese socials, Wu boasts over 48 million followers on Weibo and has accumulated more than 518 million impressions on Xiaohongshu. In terms of retail activations in mainland China, Burberry has had a busy year so far. In January, the brand unveiled a large-scale art installation on Shanghai’s West Bund — a sculptural scarf designed by Lepouvoir Group. In February, the British brand opened a limited-time boutique in Harbin styled after a traditional London park pavilion, reinforcing its heritage. This was followed in April by a rooftop garden pop-up at Wuhan SKP, tied to the launch of its new store. The activation showcased impressive phygital awareness, featuring a digital rewards system through the SKP WeChat mini-program. But these moves have yet to revive consumer momentum — or fully distance the brand from its past controversies. Despite Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu stepping down as brand ambassador in 2021 due to the house’s ties to the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the brand has remained a popular household name in China. For context in terms of social engagement, the brand hashtag has 1.59 billion views on Weibo. Furthermore on Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNnote), the blue and pink check cashmere scarves are having a real moment in 2025, where the hashtag #burberryscarf has 17.1 million impressions. The appointment of a Gen Z ambassador signals further effort to court younger generations in the mainland. Still, the house has yet to generate the buzzy, cult appeal that Miu Miu or Lemaire are currently enjoying among the style set. Without deeper cultural fluency and a clear justification for brand value, Burberry’s performance in China may continue to diverge from its global recovery. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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Burberry earnings: What could win back China?