"We were especially pleased with our ongoing strength in North America during the Holiday season," CEO Lew Frankfort confirmed.
“Our performance reflected the strength of our franchise, our broad and diversified product platform and our multichannel, international distribution model.”
For the quarter ended December 31, profits rose 15% to $347.5m/$1.18 a share, three cents ahead of analyst forecasts, from $303.4m/$1 a share, a year ago.
Total sales jumped 15% to $1.45bn, ahead of analysts’ $1.43bn.
Retail sales increased 17% to $1.28bn as same-store sales rose 8.8% in North America.
China, Coach’s “largest geographic growth opportunity”, saw double-digit same-store sales growth with Frankfort noting the country continues to post “excellent gains” and remains on track to generate at least $300m in sales this year.
Meanwhile Japan sales, on a constant-currency basis, remained flat.
Indirect sales were flat at $166m, hurt by the timing of international shipments.
Gross margin slipped to 72.2% from 72.4%.
Frankfort also singled out its fast-growing men’s business, which is on track to double in fiscal 2012, to over $400m globally, he said.
For the six months, net sales climbed 15% to $2.5bn as net income totaled $562m, up 14% from $492m a year ago, while EPS rose 17% to $1.90.
