Luxury group Prada achieved approximately $1.8 billion (€1.065 billion) in net revenue for the quarter ended March 31, an increase of 22% year on year (YOY), reports Footwearbiz.

The group’s footwear cutting laboratory at its Levanella plant in Arezzo, Tuscany.

Across the board, footwear sales were up 20% on the year previous, bringing in just under $192 million (€176 million) at retail, with leathergoods also rising by 14% as a category. Ready-to-wear collections performed best, however, experiencing group-level growth of 38% YOY over the three months.

Flagship brand Prada brought in 85% of sales, followed by Miu Miu (14%) and Northampton shoemaker Church’s (1%), which the Italy-based group acquired back in 1999.

Asia-Pacific, the company’s largest market by a significant margin, rebounded strongly, Prada said, showing a 22% improvement YOY in terms of retail sales. Chief executive, Andrea Guerra, who officially took the helm on January 26, pointed to the return of Chinese consumer spending following the easing of zero-covid restrictions in December, calling the country a key “engine of growth” in the region.

Broken out separately, Japanese retail sales increased by 55% YOY. Japan is the group’s fourth-largest market, responsible for 12% of sales in the first quarter. Asia-Pacific takes a 38% share of this total, followed by Europe at 27% and the Americas (18%). Middle East-based customers, meanwhile, provided 5% of sales during the period.

The group was up 28% in Europe, 15% in the Middle East and 5% in the Americas.

“Our priority for the year remains increasing store productivity [and] focusing on retail execution,” Mr Guerra added. “We will continue to invest in our brands, our stores and our infrastructure for the growth of tomorrow.”

Prada plans to recruit 400-plus new hires by the close of the year, more than half of which will be trained in shoemaking, leathergoods manufacture and ready-to-wear production by its own academy.