The Hong Kong protests could hurt Burberry. The impact on the British luxury firm in the short term could be painful and the year to April 2020 might see sales plummet. Burberry’s exposure to the ready-to-wear clothing market has put it under more pressure than some rivals to shift current season stock. For many luxury brands in Hong Kong, accessories make up a bigger percentage of the mix and these can be less seasonal than ready to wear is. So Burberry might need to introduce markdowns pretty soon and divert stock that would have been destined for Hong Kong. That could mean more product being diverted to mainland China. On the plus side, around half of the losses could be recovered via higher sales elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region and by ongoing sales rises in Europe. Burberry generates around eight per cent of its total sales in Hong Kong, where it has ten stores.

Luxury sales overall in Hong Kong have been down by as much as 60 per cent in the quarter to September. The problems in Hong Kong have led some companies to start negotiating with landlords in order to try to get reductions on the territory’s traditionally sky-high rents.