Louis Vuitton and other global luxury goods makers saw their profits soar in South Korea in the last decade but remained reluctant to make social contributions, their financial statements showed Sunday.
Louis Vuitton Korea Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, posted higher net profit growth than any other luxury goods maker in South Korea, according to its financial statements from 2001 to 2010.
Its annual net profit skyrocketed to 40 billion won ($37.84 million) in 2010, compared with 370 million won 10 years ago, its statement showed.
The French luxury goods maker’s annual revenue also spiked nearly 10-fold to 427.3 billion won last year from 49.3 billion won in 2001.
Prada Korea Ltd., a unit of Prada SpA, also posted steep growth, generating 32.3 billion won in net income in 2010, compared with 2.7 billion won in 2001. Its revenue jumped to 175.6 billion won from 31.8 billion won in the same period.
Ferragamo Korea Ltd., whose parent company is Salvatore Ferragamo Italia SpA, saw its income nearly double during the 10-year period from 5.1 billion won to 11.3 billion won. Its revenue grew to 82 billion won from 33.9 billion.
Gucci Group Korea Ltd. reaped 11.5 billion won in 2010 net income, compared with 5.8 billion won in 2001, while its 2010 revenue stood at 273 billion won, a 7-fold jump from 36.7 billion won in 2001.
Despite the surge in their earnings, the luxury goods makers made little to no donations in the country during the same period, their financial statements showed.
Louis Vuitton Korea made its first donation in 2003, which amounted to 5.79 million won, a molecule of its 3.5 billion won net profit in the same year. It donated 58.55 million won in 2010 or 0.14 percent of its annual net income.
The French luxury goods maker’s total donation in the 2001-2010 period stood at 110 million won. In the 10-year period, Louis Vuitton raked in 134.6 billion won in net income and 1.69 trillion won in revenue.
Prada, which donated 500,000 won in 2001, did not make any donations in 2010, according to its financial statement. The amount of its donations in 10 years in South Korea is 3.81 million won, while it generated 66.5 billion won in net profit. (Yonhap News)
Gucci and Ferragamo donated 37.28 million won and 27.46 million won in 2010, respectively, outdoing Louis Vuitton and Prada but still underperforming South Korea’s industry average.
Cheil Industries Inc., a fashion unit of South Korea’s largest industrial group Samsung, donated 3.7 billion won, or 2.9 percent of its annual net profit, in 2009. LG Fashion Corp. made 72 million won in donations in 2008, about 1 percent of its 72.6 billion won of net profit.
Meanwhile, financial statements of French luxury house Chanel, which switched to a private company in 1997 in South Korea, were not disclosed.
(Yonhap News)
