Burberry Group PLC

LSE:BRBY

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Good morning. My name is Julie Brown, Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Burberry. And with me this morning is Julian Easthope, our Head of IR. Slides are available to accompany this presentation on the IR section of our website, and a transcript will also be made available. We will be happy to take your questions at the end of the presentation. And please note, in this presentation, we're referring to comparative sales against 2 years ago as last, last year, LLY. I will mainly refer to LLY as it is more representative of the underlying trading performance. Turning to Slide 2. In May, we outlined our plan to accelerate growth, building on the strong platform we have built over the past 3 years. Despite a continuing challenging macro environment, in Q1, we have made excellent progress. We drove a significant acceleration in full-price sales as our collections continued to attract new, younger clientele to the brand. We generated strong growth across core categories, with full-price sales of leather up double digits versus last, last year, and outerwear seeing significant strength in jackets, quilts and downs. In addition, full-price shoes increased triple digits, helping drive customer acquisition. We exited from markdown in stores, which resulted in a low double-digit headwind to comparable store sales growth versus last year in the period. We inspired our customers with campaigns and brand activations. The most recent being for our new Olympia handbag that included a series of global pop-ups and pop-ins in iconic locations. Enhancing the way we connect with our customers, we continue to innovate in digital, where we saw full-price sales more than double against last, last year. In July, we opened our first flagship, carrying our new global design concept at #1 Sloane Street in London, that will transform how our customers experience our brand and product in a uniquely British luxury setting. At the same time, in line with our commitment to ESG, we pledged to become climate=positive by 2040, going beyond net zero to a new industry standard. Turning to Slide 3. In terms of our financial performance in the quarter compared with last year, comparable store sales grew 90%, and space contributed 8%, bringing revenue growth to 98% before the currency headwind. On the right, we show growth in Q1 versus last, last year. And on a 2-year view, both space and comp have grown 1%, resulting in total constant exchange rate growth of 2%, meaning retail sales have recovered to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, with our full-price business considerably ahead with comparable store sales growth of 26%. Overall sales were GBP 479 million after a 6% headwind from currency. Turning to Slide 4. Looking at the quarterly progression, we continue to build momentum versus last year in both comparable store sales and full-price comparable sales growth. The last 2 quarters are shown against 2 years ago, given the COVID-disrupted base. We made gains in Q4 and Q1 on both measures against last, last year with full-price sales significantly ahead of pre-COVID levels, underpinned by the strong platform for growth that we've created over the last 3 years. The comp this quarter was impacted by a number of major factors. Firstly, it was hurt by the exit of markdowns, impacting growth by a low double-digit percentage, together with the continued reduction in outlets. We now have a significantly better quality mix within our revenues when compared with 2 years before. Secondly, it was impacted by closures, with an average of 11% of stores closed in the quarter, easing to 3% of stores closed at the end of June. And finally, growth was driven by local customers as tourism also remained at a low level, generating only 7% of our sales this quarter versus 30% 2 years ago. Moving on now to Slide 5. The strength of our brand can be seen in the quarterly performance in the Americas and Asia Pac against 2 years ago. The Americas saw a significant acceleration, with 34% comp and 114% full-price comp growth. Within this, the U.S. was particularly strong, with comp growth up almost 50% driven by new younger customers, in particular in menswear, attracted to our key housecoats with a good level of repeat business. We also saw excellent traction in shoes and jerseys with AUR up significantly. Asia Pac grew by 7%, with full-price up 23%, with a strong performance in Korea and Mainland China. Mainland China grew in the mid-30% range with full-price up more than 55%. This was driven by new young clients with good traction in our core product categories of outerwear and leather. Korea also showed a strong performance in the 30% range, with full-price up over 90%, and leather and outerwear the main growth drivers. This was partially offset by Japan and the rest of Asia Pac that continue to be impacted by reduced tourist flows and increased store closures. EMEA remained the most difficult market and declined by 38% in the first quarter. The performance continued to be impacted by COVID-related store closures with an average of 25% of stores closed and a significant reduction in tourist travel compared with Q1 full year '20. This resulted in both Continental Europe and the U.K. seeing declines in the mid-40% range compared with full year '20. On a positive note, the European and British nationalities showed growth in the period. And recovery has gained momentum since the stores reopened, and we saw improving trends in both new and repeat business in most markets. The Middle East increased by a low double-digit percentage, and Russia showed excellent growth in the mid-double-digit range. Turning to Slide 6. Our new product collections have proved very successful, helping to attract new and younger customers to the brand. Total full-price leather goods increased 24% compared with last, last year, and this was especially strong in the U.S., Mainland China and Korea. Within this, the 5 women's handbag pillars accounted for around 75% of women's handbag sales, with all shapes, including Olympia, contributing a good level of sales. The Olympia campaign this quarter with Shygirl, Kendall Jenner and FKA twigs was accompanied by a series of global pop-ups and pop-ins in iconic locations, including Harrods and Bergdorf in New York City, together with an interactive augmented-reality experience. The response to the campaign has been excellent from both press and consumers, generating significant reach and engagement, particularly across social media, where consumer engagement on our campaign posts grew double digits compared with our Pocket campaign, and newsfeed posts reach and engagement grew 96% and 58%, respectively, versus Pocket on Instagram. Outerwear showed strong growth, with jackets more than doubling and quilts and downs delivering more than 70% versus last, last year. Digital continued to see excellent growth with full-price sales more than doubling versus last, last year, and this has been supported by innovative campaigns, including a collaboration with Mythical Games. We also launched an inventive Handbag Hub on burberry.com to support our Olympia campaign. The hub complements the campaign by leveraging digital-first content to support Olympia, with a strong focus on craftsmanship whilst embedding online to off-line services. In June, we launched our Men's Spring/Summer '22 show and collection, Universal Passport. The show was filmed in the striking Millennium Mills at the Royal Victoria Docks in East London. This resonated very well with both press and consumers, recording double-digit growth in consumer reach versus our Autumn/Winter '21 Men's presentation. Turning to Slide 7. Last week, we achieved a major milestone, opening our new flagship on #1 Sloane Street London. The first flagship to carry our new global store concept was designed in collaboration with the architect Vincenzo De Cotiis, and represented all with this new Burberry, authentic, bold, elevated with creativity at its core. The store concept will transform how our customers experience the brand and products in a uniquely British luxury setting. The store has just received a BREEAM Excellent standard for its environmental, social and economic sustainability status, with the cost being eligible for the use of bond proceeds underlining our focus on sustainability. In addition to Sloane Street, in Q1, we transformed 7 Asian stores into the new concept. And later this year, we will open 2 more flagships with the new concept in Paris and Shanghai, and with Bond Street planned for next summer. In addition to our store refurbishment program, we will continue to create immersive in-store experiences to inspire and engage customers, including building on our test lab, social retail store in Shenzhen, where we plan to scale successful experiences and activations across our store network globally over the year. Turning to Slide 8. Building on our progress in sustainability, we set a bold new ambition to go beyond net zero and become climate-positive by 2040. Underpinning this pledge is a series of actions within our value chain, including accelerating our emissions reduction target across our extended supply chain to 46% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2040 and beyond. This is 10 years ahead of the 1.5-degree pathway set out by the Paris Agreement. However, we will aim to go beyond net zero to become climate-positive, which we will achieve through supporting carbon-removal initiatives beyond our footprint alongside the significant emissions reductions. It also involves investing in initiatives beyond our value chain to help safeguard our planet for generations to come. These include programs that protect and restore natural ecosystems that remove carbon from the atmosphere and projects that help communities that are most vulnerable to climate change. This is underpinned by the Burberry Regeneration Fund that will invest in projects to remove carbon, built climate-resilient projects and deliver a climate-positive goal for the group. Turning to the outlook on Slide 9. The execution of our strategy is on track. Growth has accelerated led by full-price sales, with a strong performance across core strategic categories. Our decision to exit markdowns was executed to plan, and we expect it to result in a mid-single-digit headwind to full year '22 comp versus last year. The strong order book has resulted in us increasing our expectations of wholesale sales. We are now anticipating them to increase by around 60% in half 1 from 50% previously. Foreign exchange is now expected to be a GBP 40 million headwind to adjusted operating profit in full year '22. Medium-term guidance remains unchanged, with high single-digit top line growth and meaningful margin improvement with a target to reach a 20% plus operating profit margin, barring any further macroeconomic events. Thank you for listening, and we will now move on to the Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first telephone question is from the line of Louise Singlehurst of Goldman Sachs.

[Louise Susan Singlehurst, Managing Director]

I wondered if we could just have a bit more detail around the 2-year stack growth, if we can, particularly around Asia Pac. Obviously, there was that slowdown, the 7% number. But if we think about China, up 55%. And I think in the prior quarter, it was up 53%. But I guess it's probably a full-price and an overall like-for-like mix between those 2. Can you just talk about the other regions, Japan, Hong Kong? And just to clarify, are there any changes that you're seeing in terms of the underlying momentum, specifically for the Chinese consumer? And then secondly, for Europe, understandably, obviously the continued weakness from the lack of tourism continues and the lockdown activity would be an impact, particularly for apparel. Is there anything in the number that you can talk to us about? I know we're not going to get an exit rate or anything on more recent trading. But Julie, is there anything that you see in the data or the -- whether it's traffic, conversion, engagement that you see gives you a bit more confidence as things have reopened anecdotally in Europe specifically?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Okay. Thank you very much, Louise, for the questions. So just first of all, taking the first part relating to Asia Pac and China. Although -- very important to say this. Although the comp decelerated, the full-price in Asia actually increased. So it went from 21% in the fourth quarter to 23% in the first quarter. And the reason you saw the impact on the comp was entirely, therefore, due to the markdown exit. So we've got, just in terms of driving the growth, a very strong focus on locals. Within Asia, we've seen some very strong trends in both China and Korea. So China, we had growth of above 55%. Korea was above 90%, this is full-price data. And strong local trends, younger clientele coming in and the 2 categories that are outstanding are leather and outerwear.In terms of China, the full-price China, we still have very strong growth, up 55%. So we're very pleased with the China growth in terms of full-price. When it comes to the other regions within Asia, Japan was more challenged because of infection levels and the decision, I think, to go into lockdown ahead of the Olympics. Hong Kong, we're still under some pressure, again, largely due to levels of infection. And overall, I think in the other regions, we did see, as the quarter went on, an increase in infection levels, and therefore, local lockdowns were occurring to the more extent in the second part of the quarter rather than the first. Turning to Europe -- actually Chinese, you wanted me to comment on Chinese as well. So if we take the full-price business, the full-price Chinese, it was -- it represented growth in the third quarter versus 2 years ago. However, due to the markdown loss, we did see a slightly negative in Q1, whereas we were up in the fourth quarter, but it's entirely due to the markdown. So if you take a look at full-price Chinese, it was up in the first quarter, which is a very good trend. Coming on to Europe. So Europe, of course, is our most challenging region. And the reason for this is largely because we've -- it used to be, in the first quarter 2 years ago, it was a 60% tourist business. And now, of course, it's very, very little in terms of tourists. The other thing that Europe was contending with in the first quarter was that we had 1/4 of the stores closed in the first quarter. So therefore, our strategy is very much on driving local clientele, local activations. We have the Olympia pop-ups and the campaign, and we also had the opening of Sloane Street just recently. So -- and one of the offsets to this, of course, is the digital channel, while lockdowns are occurring. In terms of recent trading, we opened up -- basically towards the end of the quarter, Europe was beginning to reopen. And now we're pleased to say we've only got 3% of the stores closed globally. And Europe has been a big contributor to that change. So we're really pleased with how it's now opened up. And hopefully, we will start to see a significant improvement as we now enter the second quarter.

[Operator]

Our next question is from the line of Thomas Chauvet of Citi.

[Thomas Vincent Chauvet, Managing Director]

A couple of questions, please. Firstly, on China. In your media interview, you said the impact of Chinese cotton issue has been minimal. Obviously, that's quite different from a number of international brands, particularly sportswear brands, which are still down in May and June on a year-on-year basis. Do you think the bulk of this controversy is over for Burberry? And as part of your ESG commitments, have you made adjustments to your sourcing strategy? I know China is not a big sourcing country, but any changes worth mentioning? And secondly, on management transition and particularly the commentaries you made earlier this morning on Riccardo being excited about Burberry, that you're confident about his commitment to the company. If we go back a few years, 2013, when Angela Ahrendts left Burberry for Apple, and the Board at the time, different times, but felt the need to give an extra role to Christopher to retain him. And obviously, he was made CEO, as we all know. What do you think you need to maybe change in Riccardo's role to give him that maybe support he may need? Is it some input in the CEO search process? Is it a slightly broader role? Is it a seat at the Board, so that in a way, he doesn't maybe miss Marco Gobbetti too much who obviously brought him to Burberry in 2018?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Thank you very much, Thomas. So taking China first. Yes, we've seen a minimal impact in terms of the controversy at the beginning of the year, and we're in a very different position, I think, to sportswear brands. I mean we see a really strong growth rate in China. As we mentioned, full-price is up over 50%, 55%. And we have had a lot of focus in terms of local clientele, the Olympia campaign went live in May very, very successfully. And there has been some minor rephasing of activity from the beginning of the year, but nothing really to call out in a major way. And as mentioned, in terms of the full-price business, the Chinese were up in the first quarter. In terms of sourcing strategy, no change to the sourcing strategy. It is absolutely as it was before. And we obviously take sustainability into serious consideration when we're assessing our suppliers. In terms of the management transition, Riccardo is very, very bought into Burberry. In terms of his commitment to Burberry, as you saw from the men's fashion show he did recently, he's had an incredible reception. He obviously is sorry to see Marco leave, but he respects his decision and desire to be closer to his family. He remains wanting to inspire customers with his imprint on Burberry's identity. He's been very reinforced by his response to the latest collection. In terms of no additional support needed because he's committed to the brand.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Antoine Belge of Exane BNP Paribas.

[Antoine Belge, Research Analyst]

It's Antoine Belge at Exane BNP Paribas. Three questions, please. With regards to the impact of the markdown exits, which you called out being low double digits, I think you had indicated it would be high single digits. So can you explain why it was a greater-than-anticipated impact? And second question relates to the leather goods category. I think Burberry put a price increase early May on a lot of SKUs. So can you maybe comment about how volume reacted to that? And also any sort of more anecdotal comments about the recent trend in leather goods? And the third question relates to wholesale, where you increased the guidance. So can you maybe comment which region you saw the improvement and also maybe on which product category driving most of the increase in the guidance?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Okay. Thank you very much, Antoine, for the question. In terms of, first of all, the markdown, yes, we guided to a high single-digit negative impact, and it's actually come in at a very low double-digit impact. The amounts are very small in practice. It's just high in terms of percentage because of the base effect. There's absolutely no change to the full year guidance. We still anticipate markdown -- the markdown exit to be a mid-single-digit headwind against comparable store sales versus last year. And the largest impact is going to be felt and has been felt in the third quarter. We're anticipating a less-pronounced impact as we go through Q2 and Q3. And then the impact will be negligible in the fourth quarter. So that's how we see that transitioning. In terms of leather goods, very, very pleased with the leather goods performance. So we've got over a 20% growth rate in terms of full-price over 2 years ago. We put the price increase through in May, and we've had the opportunity to look at the response to this. And again, no adverse reaction at all. The volumes have proved to be very strong throughout -- since the price increase in May and through to June. And we've also done a number of important activations in terms of leather goods, both in terms of the Handbag Hub on digital but also the Olympia campaign that we launched just recently also in May. In terms of wholesale guidance, the wholesale guidance has improved from 50% to 60%, and this is largely across the 3 major regions. So we've seen it across Americas, Asia and also Europe. In Americas, it's just a strong performance of the market. In Asia, there's an impact there from travel retail. And in Europe, it's department stores and digital. So those are the reasons for the increase.

[Antoine Belge, Research Analyst]

And maybe a follow-up on the question regarding Riccardo. Should we expect at some stage maybe an announcement about a bit of a -- something around his contract or commitment that would be more official in the next couple of weeks or months?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

I don't think so at all because Riccardo is very committed to the brand. He's completely understanding of Marco's decision. And obviously, I think, as Gerry's mentioned, Riccardo's contract goes a way beyond Marco's transition. Marco will be with us until the end of December, very much leading the company. And we've got a very strong -- an outstanding leadership team and we know exactly what we need to do because the strategy is absolutely crystal clear. So we're very confident in terms of the foundations in place, and we are in execution mode at the moment.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Rogerio Fujimori of Stifel.

[Rogerio Fujimori, Director & Analyst]

I have 2 questions. I think first on China, I think you talked about the impact from the controversy being minimal, and you can see from your strong full-price sales performance. And you talked about the increase in WeChat engagement in the last 2 years in China recently. But I was just wondering if you could say a word or 2 about the brand heat momentum remaining intact, and given that you don't have local brand ambassadors, I think, at the moment. And to what extent the use of global ambassadors, the global campaign for Olympia, has been enough to offset the absence of local ambassadors and sustained brand heat in China? And then the second is just a question about phasing of profits H1 and H2. If you could say a word or 2 about the phasing of profits in H1, H2 that you anticipate relative to a normal year. Anything you want to share in terms of gross margin, OpEx inflation for H1 in particular?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Okay. Thank you. So taking China first. We've seen good response in terms of Chinese platforms. We look at earned mentions reach, which grew double digits in Q1 versus last year, strong growth there. And it's largely being driven by shows and activations from other markets. For example, ITZY for Harper's BAZAAR Korea, and also Billy Eilish was extremely popular. So we've really seen minimal impact overall. Clearly, we have made the decision to rephase some activity where it makes sense to do so from the beginning of the period. But the brand heat is still very strong, and we've compensated with other activations while we pause on the ambassadors. So nothing of major concern in that front. The focus is very much also, and it has been because of the travel restrictions, on locals and localization, so local clientele activations. In terms of the phasing of the profit, we normally have around 35% to 40% of our profit that occur in the first half. And we're really seeing or expecting sort of normal trend with regard to that. So looking at the consensus, phasing seems to -- it seems to be in that realm. So that's okay. In terms of the operating cost inflation levels, under normal course of business, we normally see operating costs rising. OpEx inflation pressures are normally around the 3% mark. But obviously, we haven't got a normal base at the moment because of the impact of COVID. So in terms of our operating cost growth this year compared with last year, we're seeing about 10% of the growth in the cost is driven by variable. We've then got around 40% of the growth in the cost is driven by, what we call, normalization because we couldn't do normal activities last year. We had to suspend some of the marketing campaigns. And then about 50% of the growth in the cost is down to choices that we're making in terms of investment in the business. So we're prioritizing investment rather than letting that natural leverage drop through in full year '22 as we guided at the end of the year. So I hope that answers all your questions.

[Rogerio Fujimori, Director & Analyst]

That's great. And gross margin at 70% is -- it remains sustainable or the guidance for H1 as well?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Yes, absolutely. So the gross margin, we've got some drivers of gross margin improvement within the business such as the full-price business is certainly driving that strongly. We've had some price increase as well taken at the beginning of the year, particularly on leather. So they're positive. But offsetting that, we've got a couple of headwinds. We've got -- we're likely to have a headwind from stock provisions, as we've talked about before. And we'll also have a headwind from Brexit duties, which of course is going to be new this year compared with last. Those are the main headwinds. So yes, we're committed to keeping that gross margin stable around the 70% mark.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Luca Solca of Bernstein.

[Luca Giuseppe Solca, Research Analyst]

Luca Solca from Bernstein. Maybe a question about the CEO recruitment process and logic. I wonder if you could share with us the criteria that you're adopting, things like internal versus external candidates, things like sort of industry experience that you're seeking or anything else that you could potentially share that could help us understand the direction of your assets. And connected to that, what you think could possibly be the time horizon for you to complete this process and appoint a new leadership to the company? As a second question, I would very much like to know how you're proceeding in penetrating European domestic consumers. If you could give us any color by country with a specific focus to the U.K., where you have your base and your heritage, that would also be very useful, as we anticipate that tourists, as you said, are not going to come back to Europe anytime soon or at least for another year as the Chinese government anticipated.

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Thanks, Luca, for the questions. So first of all, in terms of the CEO transition. It's been clearly led by Gerry, our Chairman. And in terms of candidacy, there are both internal and external candidates being assessed. In terms of the qualities, clearly, the industry, managing creative organizations are key, together with commercial leadership capabilities. And as we mentioned, it's been led by Gerry and the Nomination Committee. And as soon as there's any information on that regarding timing or the appointment of a new leader, I know Gerry is very committed to making an announcement as soon as possible. The good thing is, as we mentioned, that Marco still remains leader of the business. He's had a transformative impact on the business. But we're very clear in terms of the leadership team, in terms of what we need to do. The strategy is clear. The strategy is working. The results of the company demonstrate that clearly with a 26% growth on full-price versus 2 years ago and double-digit performance in many of the product categories, with phenomenal performance when you look at Americas, Korea and China in terms of full-price business. So we're very confident of the future and committed to maximizing the potential of the brand. In terms of the European question, yes, Europe, as you've seen from the results, is the most challenging of all the regions, largely because there was such a significant part of the business dependent on tourists, which is even more heightened in Q1 because it was 60% tourist business in Q1 2 years ago. Our strategy is very much focused on localization activations. We're delighted, and the team are so energetic about the opening of Sloane Street just recently. Do go and visit, if you possibly can. And also the Olympia campaign has also been very successful. If you saw the image of the bag going down the Thames. So I think overall, the team are very engaged. And since Europe has started to reopen, I think as I mentioned earlier, we've now only got 3% of the stores closed worldwide. So it gives us a real opportunity to engage with our European consumers. The good news is, in terms of locals, we saw a return to growth of the European domestic, and we also saw a return to growth of the U.K. domestic compared with 2 years ago. I'm not comparing with last year, I'm comparing with 2 years ago. So yes, some early signs that are very promising.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Anne-Laure Bismuth of HSBC.

[Anne-Laure Bismuth]

Anne-Laure Bismuth from HSBC. Actually, I have 2 questions on the contribution from new space, which in Q1 was higher than anticipated. Actually, it was 8%. And my understanding was that you're on mid-single digits, and so how can you explain that? And the second question about the phasing of the contribution from new space, which is expected to be neutral for full year. How should we think about this phasing between the upcoming quarters or at least between H2 and H1, please?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Thank you very much, Anne-Laure, for the questions. So just in terms of space, the 8% growth is higher than maybe people expected. There was a base effect within that number. So because the base level is lower than usual, we have a relatively high amount of space. But it's really reflecting the openings over the last 12 months. We've done a number of refurbishments. We've also had the pop-ups, so the Olympia pop-ups, of which there were 70 across the world altogether, they've also influenced the space contribution. In terms of guidance, we're guiding space to be broadly stable on the full year. There's no change with regard to that. Clearly -- and the first quarter is probably the most pronounced impact. The rest of the quarters are fairly muted. Low singles probably in the second quarter and then moving to small numbers in the second half of the year.

[Operator]

And the next question is from the line of Elena Mariani of Morgan Stanley.

[Elena Mariani]

Just 2 small follow-ups for me, please. The first one is on the markdown impact. So you talked about the amount being very low, but the higher percentage due to the base. So I was wondering if you could help us understand a little bit better how you calculate this number because for us, it's a little bit difficult to get it. And then the second question for you, Julie. I was wondering whether you would be open to take the CEO role or whether this is something that you would exclude categorically.

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Thank you, Elena. So first of all, in terms of -- I'll take the easy one first, the markdown impact. Yes, in terms of the way we calculate the markdown, we look at the markdown level that we had in the prior period, compare it with this period. And obviously, we take the percentage over the base. And the reason -- we guided high single-digits impact in Q1. It's come out at a low double-digit impact, but it's a relatively small amount of movement actually in absolute terms. It's just the way the percentages have worked out, largely impacted by the base effect. In terms of the markdown impact as we go through the quarters, we always expected the first quarter to be the most pronounced just in terms of timing. And then in terms of Q2 and Q3, this is all versus last year. We're anticipating it being around about the mid-single-digit mark, and then very much neutral in the fourth quarter. We actually did a lot of markdown activity already in the third quarter. Third quarter will be a little bit higher than the mid-single digits, but that's how we see it working through. And there's no change to our full year guidance. We're expecting markdown to be negative mid-single digits for the full year. The important thing to say with it, just to emphasize, we have made a significant -- there's a significant difference now in the quality of the revenues you're seeing from Burberry in terms of the mix between markdown and full-price than you saw 2 years ago. So this is really the last stage of that transition, and most of it will be finished by the end of the third quarter. Did you want to follow up?

[Elena Mariani]

More follow-up -- one small follow-up. What is the percentage of full-price sales you have right now versus markdown sales? Given that you talked a lot about the growth in full-price over the total sales, is that something that you could share?

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Yes. We don't obviously disclose it, but it's a very different -- the business has got a very different composition to what it had 2 years ago. It's a very encouraging trend overall. And by the end of -- basically by the end of the third quarter, the markdown will be exited. It will then only be really a mix of the full-price in the mainline and digital stores together with the outlet. And as we improve the sell-through rate of the mainline stores, and it means there'll be continued pressure on the outlet as the result of that. But we're very encouraged. We've changed the mix of the business completely. The business is being driven by full-price. To have full-price growth now of 26% compared to 2 years ago, we're enormously proud of that. And then in terms of the second question about the CEO role and whether I'll be a candidate. Obviously, you wouldn't expect me to comment on that. It's a confidential process. It's led by the Chairman and the Nomination Committee. Marco will remain with us until the end of the year. So he's with us until December. And during that time, he will work closely with the leadership team on the transition. And we're just basically focused on executing the strategy, driving performance. And we're confident about the next phase. As you've seen, no change to guidance.

[Operator]

And this concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Julie Brown for any closing comments.

[Julie Brown, CFO, COO & Director]

Okay. Well, thank you very much for joining the call. It's very much appreciated. We hope that you'll be able to come and see us in Sloane Street. We're going to have a tour of Sloane Street probably in early September. So we'll look to inviting you to see that. And I wish you all an amazing summer. Hope you have a good break.