Revenues nudged up 1% to £79.4m from £75.1m last year.

The jewellery giant noted its UK performance remained ahead of the market, which it said was being impacted by dampened consumer sentiment.

It also attributed a rise in traffic during the quarter to the “improving strength of the Pandora brand despite the tough consumer backdrop”.

Across the global business, profit rose 12.7% to £153.1m, while sales grew 14.9% to £774.8m.

Pandora CEO and president Alexander Lacik said: “Our strategy continues to take Pandora to new heights despite general consumer spending being somewhat sluggish.

“We have successfully started the journey to make Pandora known as a full jewellery brand, and our results show that consumers like what they see.”

He added: “Thanks to our strong performance, we are again raising revenue guidance for 2024 and look to the second half of the year with optimism.”

The results come amid a wider challenging market for the luxury sector, with Burberry’s annual profit plunging 36% earlier this year.

The luxury fashion retailer said its like-for-like sales fell 12% in the final quarter, wiping out gains made earlier in the year.

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The Italian designer will set up installations on the façade of the department store’s Brompton Road side and in its 36 windows with various animations to celebrate its 100-year history, WWD reported.

The takeover, which runs from 7 November to 2 January, will also see the launch of two permanent Loro Piana stores at Harrods, one dedicated to kids and the other for its interiors line.

This will be the first time that Loro Piana will stage such initative and coincides with Harrods’ own 175 year anniversary.

The retailer kicked off its year-long celebrations with a Burberry takeover in February, which saw its shop floor having a camping-inspired revamp and its doormen kitted out in new blue check uniforms.

Speaking to Retail Gazette earlier this month, partnerships director Alex Unitt promised that Harrods’ highly-anticipated Christmas display will be “showstopping”.

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The luxury fashion retailer is working with headhunters to find two new non-executives who would be candidates to replace the chair, Sky News reports.

While a definitive timetable for Murphy’s exit has not yet been established, insiders describe the search process as an “indirect hunt” for his replacement.

One luxury goods source said: “They have been pretty explicit that the job is available for the right person.”

Last week, Burberry hired ex-Michael Kors boss Joshua Schulman to replace former CEO Jonathan Akeroyd who stepped down “by mutual agreement with the board”.

The replacement, which was effective immediately, came as the business warned that annual profits would fall short of expectations after first quarter sales fell by a fifth.

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The column, based on Edward Mews, has been designed in reference to the famous Oxford Street store façade, and comes under the retailer’s wider Sportopia activity, which sees it turn into a “sports venue like no other” over the summer.

Bookable for groups of up to six at a time, the wall, which was first scaled by grassroots group championing women in the outdoors Gorp Girls, arrives as indoor sports climbs in the Olympic line up this year, and climbing sees a huge rise in popularity globally.

Earlier this month, Selfridges teamed up with Snapchat to introduce an augmented reality locker room to its Oxford Street store as part of its Sportopia activity.

The pop-up allows shoppers to virtually try on sports kits and interact with their favourite sports brands.

The department store also recently partnered with athletic brand Champion to open the doors to the ‘Champion Sports Bar’ under the initative.

The brand transformed its Harry Gordon’s Bar & Kitchen, located on the store’s lower ground floor, into a USA sports bar-themed venue as part of a two-month takeover.

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The chief financial officer said the group wants to be “the strongest proposition in luxury and that’s why we’re investing so much in our store estate and platforms”.

The Flannels owner snapped up online designer department store Coggles from THG in June, adding to its growing retail portfolio.

Despite fears the retailer could fall to the same fate as MatchesFashion, which was placed into administration weeks after Frasers acquired the business, Wootton confirmed the brand will be “part of our luxury brand ecosystem”.

“We’ve spent a lot money on our luxury business, it’s very well invested great store estate, great platforms – we’re strong believers in the luxury market,” he says.

“It’s no secret that the luxury market as a whole is in a bit of a trough at the moment but it’s very cyclical.

“A lot of brands in luxury, heritage brands, have been around for decades. It will come back, and when it comes back, we’re very well positioned to take advantage. We are going to position ourselves as the leading luxury retailer.”

It was reported last week that the group is considering making a bid for Yoox Net-a-Porter, as owner Richemont seeks to dispose of the online platform for “next to nothing” after a failed sale to Farfetch last year.

“I can’t talk about acquisitions,” says Wootton. “All I will say is that we are an acquisitive business. We look at many opportunities across many sectors, with varying degrees of interest.”

It’s not just retailers that Frasers has its eye on, with the group also reported to be in talks to acquire the Princesshay Shopping Centre in Exeter to add to its burgeoning property portfolio.

“The property strategy is really about unlocking the retail requirements for the sports and premium luxury businesses – that’s the core bit – and we can, in effect, underwrite the values of these freeholds by putting our fascias in them.”

“In a shopping centre, for instance, there’s a lot of empty space where Debenhams once were that no retailer can fill.

“We’re pretty much the only retailer in the UK to fill them – we’ve put Frasers in, Flannels in, Sports Direct in, and through being there as the anchor tenant, we can bring in new and good retailers and keep the well-performing retailers and increase the value.

“And if appropriate, we’ll recycle that capital back into the business to spend elsewhere,” he adds.

Frasers reported a 13.1% jump in profits this week in what it described as a “break-out year”.

The FTSE 100-listed firm posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £544.8m in the year to 28 April – falling at the top end of its guidance range of £500m to £550m and up from £478m the year before – despite a 0.9% dip in total sales to £5.53bn.

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Frasers is understood to have approached the investment bank, who is handling the sale, to look into a potential bid, according to Retail Week, and is currently preparing a non-disclosure agreement surrounding a deal.

Richemont is thought to be seeking to carry out the deal for “next to nothing,” after its efforts to sell the fashion brand to Farfetch failed last year following a rescue bid by Coupang.

Flannels-owner Frasers Group has been snapping up some of it’s luxury rivals of late in what observers believe is a ploy to take them out of the market.

It placed Matches Fashion into administration in March, less than three months after buying the luxury fashion etailer.

The Mike-Ashley owned group also bought Coggles from THG last month as part of a new multi-year partnership with the online group, which will see the Frasers Plus credit offer integrated into THG’s Ingenuity platform.

It also shut Sunderland indie Aphrodite just months after it acquired it earlier this year, Drapers reported.

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Baldo is set to replace Thierry Andretta from 1 September, who is stepping down from the business with immediate effect having worked there since 2015.

The new executive served as CEO and executive director of Ganni from October 2018 to this April. Previously, he was CEO and board director of handbag company Coccinelle from 2016 until 2018, and served as board director of Marni Group from 2013 until 2016.

Mulberry chairman Chris Roberts said: “Following our search process, it was clear that Andrea’s international fashion brand expertise, creativity and strategic thinking meant he was absolutely the right person for this role.”

Mulberry recently saw its full-year sales fall amid “challenging” macro-economic conditions and decline in luxury consumer spending, particularly during its last quarter.

A host of luxury retailers have seen their sales hit amid a slowdown in luxury spending, with Burberry’s full year profit plunging 36% in May.

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The retailer has lost over a third of its stock market value since the start of the year and is at risk of being booted off the FTSE 100, according to The Telegraph. 

The restructuring plans were announced to staff members in a Zoom meeting during late June, as impacted employees were informed they were either facing redundancy or needed to reapply for their positions.

Burberry has commenced a 45-day consultation, indicating that hundreds of jobs could be axed. The job losses are expected to mainly impact the brand’s UK offices.

It is believed that union officials are currently co-ordinating redundancy settlements with a select group of workers.

While the fashion house has not confirmed how many staff members will be affected, workers believe up to 400 roles could be scrapped under the plans.

The news comes as Burberry has struggled to deliver a turnaround, with its full-year profits recently dropping 36% to £418m as it grappled with a challenging economic environment.

Sales dipped 4% over the year, as chief executive Jonathan Akeroyd admitted that “executing our plan against a backdrop of slowing luxury demand has been challenging”.

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Fortnum’s Dispatch, available from today (July 4), offers three subscriptions for top ups of the retailer’s biscuits, loose leaf teas and jam.

The Tea Post – which costs £100 annually– offers customers a year’s supply of monthly refills of a choice of Fortnum’s tea blends. Subscribers will also receive a customisable initialled china mug, tin and strainer.

The Biscuit Post, which costs £20 a month, offers refills of the retailer’s popular Toffolossus, Chocolossus or Gingerlossus biscuits, available on either three-month, six-month or 12-month subscriptions.

The third subscription, called The Teatime Dispatch, offers a selection of both tea and biscuits, as well as a choice of marmalades or jams, for £75 a month.

Chief executive Tom Athron said: “Things have been busy here and we have had our creative hats on again.

“We’ve been having a bit of fun figuring out how we can bring unbridled Fortnum’s joy into peoples homes more often, and this is our very latest innovation.

“Welcome to Fortnum’s Dispatch – launching today – our new subscription service that delivers refills for your tea, your biscuits your jams, every month for however long you choose.

“This is just the latest tiny chapter in our 317 year history – There is more great innovation come.”

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The move comes three months after owner Frasers Group placed the luxury fashion retailer into administration.

Matches emailed customers to say that the website will close at midnight on Sunday, with an extra 20% off available on selected discounted items for a minimum spend of £200, Drapers reported.

The business shuttered its Mayfair store on 5 Carlos Place last month.

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Back in March, Frasers Group appointed administration less than three months after buying Matches for £52m from Apax Partners, saying the retailer “consistently missed its business plan targets and, notwithstanding support from the group, has continued to make material losses”.

On 29 April, the Mike Ashley founded group said it had acquired Matches’ intellectual property for an undisclosed sum, though the deal did not include the retailer’s £83m worth of stock or its remaining staff.

Prior to the administration, Matches employed 533 staff across its head office and three stores in London.

As of May, around 120 employees remain as they continue to sell the remaining stock, including staff across finance, trading, customer service, distribution and stores.

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