Gucci sales were hit hard early in the coronavirus crisis due to the fashion group’s reliance on Chinese customers, owner Kering said on Tuesday, adding that it was premature to say how quickly China sales would rebound. The health crisis first hit China – a major market for high-end goods – late last year before spreading elsewhere, and several European countries, including Italy and France as well as the United States, have since gone into lockdown to try to cope. Kering sales fell 15.4% to 3.2 billion euros ($3.47 billion) in the first quarter, impacted, like its rivals, by store closures and also by the shutdown of production sites in Europe.
