Louis Vuitton Owner LVMH Closes Year-End Quarter With Weak Sales Growth
French luxury-goods giant’s results are a sign that shoppers weren’t splurging on its collections of high-end garments in the run-up to the holiday season.
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LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton wrapped up last year’s final quarter with sluggish sales growth, a sign that shoppers weren’t splurging on its collections of high-end garments and handbags in the run-up to the holiday season.
The French luxury-goods giant posted fourth-quarter sales of 22.72 billion euros ($27 billion), up 1% organically. Analysts had forecast €22.59 billion in sales and an organic decline of 0.3%, according to Visible Alpha.
LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division, which houses brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior, contributed €10.16 billion in sales, down 3% organically.
Sales at perfumes and cosmetics declined 1%, while the wines and spirits division reported a 9% contraction in sales. Selective retailing, the unit behind Sephora, fared better, with a 7% increase in sales, while watches and jewelry logged 8% growth.
For LVMH and the wider luxury-goods sector, the final quarter represents a key test of customers’ willingness to indulge on nonessential items in the run-up to Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Earlier this month, British trench-coat maker Burberry Group , Italian luxury-fashion house Brunello Cucinelli and Cartier owner Cie. Financière Richemont all reported higher sales for the quarter, raising the bar for industry bellwether LVMH.
Weak sales growth shows that LVMH’s collections aren’t appealing to clients and that the group is still contending with a slowdown in spending for luxury goods that has plagued the industry for years.
Demand weakened considerably after a postpandemic boom, especially among less affluent shoppers. The downturn has been particularly acute in China—a key market for LVMH and its rivals—as shoppers there have been holding back spending.
Last year brought a dose of uncertainty for LVMH and the sector as it took several months for the European Union to reach a trade deal with the U.S. after President Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs.
Luxury goods are particularly sensitive to trans-Atlantic trade frictions and the specter of tariffs has never fully disappeared despite that trade deal.
Last week, LVMH and other luxury stocks slumped after Trump threatened 10% levies on various European countries he said were opposed to a U.S. takeover of Greenland. He subsequently called off those tariffs.
LVMH closed 2025 with €80.81 billion in annual sales, down 1% organically. Analysts had forecast €80.65 billion in 2025 sales with a 1.8% organic decline, according to Visible Alpha.
The group said revenue declined in Europe in the second half of the year, while the U.S. benefited from solid demand.
Sales in Japan were down from 2024, but the company said it had seen a noticeable improvement in trends in the rest of Asia, citing a return to growth in the second half of the year.
In an earnings call, executives expressed confidence for 2026 despite an uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, saying the positive trends they started to see in the second half were still there.
Net profit slid 13% on year to €10.88 billion, while profit from recurring operations fell 9% to nearly €17.76 billion. Analysts had forecast net profit of 10.55 billion euros and profit from recurring operations of €17.15 billion, according to Visible Alpha.
The group said it would propose a dividend of €13 a share at its shareholders’ meeting on April 23, the same as the previous year.
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
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It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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