China's love of luxury goods boosts Burberry

The upmarket brand also reported a "material improvement" in gross margin in its first half, believed by analysts to be 400 basis points.

Over the second half of its financial year Burberry will increase its selling space by 25pc, of which about 15pc will be in China. This is partly because Burberry acquired its Chinese retail operations from its franchise partner last month.

Stacey Cartwright, Burberry's finance director, said that the retailer's largest customer group in the UK is now Chinese consumers visiting the country. This group has overtaken Middle-Eastern shoppers as the largest customer group over the last year.

Burberry said that adjusted pre-tax profit for the full year is expected to be in the top half of market expectations, which are currently£240m to£270m. Shares in the retailer, which has been one of the strongest performers on the FTSE this year, fell 31 to£10.08 on profit-taking.

Analysts at broker Charles Stanley said that the results were strong: "We continue to regard luxury goods as a structural growth industry, driven by rising disposable incomes in emerging markets, the growing number of high net worth individuals, increasing spending power of working women and a growing propensity to travel."