Burberry - 448p Burberry is a well-known household name and is recognised as one of Britain's most prestigious and symbolic fashion houses. Since Sir Thomas Burberry founded the business in 1856, it has become a well-established fashion house, whose name is synonymous with quality and prestige around the world.

Burberry made its debut on the Stock Market in July 2002 after the retail-to-business services group GUS floated a minority stake in the company.

Since 2002, the Burberry Group has enjoyed exceptional growth and has been rewarded with a steadily rising share price and last December GUS disposed of its remaining holding in the group.

Burberry generates revenue from three areas of business - retail, wholesale and licensing. Retail revenues come from sales through the group's directly operated store network, which at September 30 consisted of 177 locations, comprising 62 Burberry stores, 90 concessions and 25 outlet stores.

Wholesale turnover is derived from sales of men's and women's apparel and accessories to wholesale customers around the world, principally leading and prestige department stores and speciality retailers.

Licensing revenues come from royalties which are received from Japanese and product licensing partners. Burberry products are sold in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Russia.

In its latest results, which cover the six months to last September, group turnover rose by two per cent to £355m, with pre-tax profits before exceptional items increasing by the same amount to £81.1 m. Earnings per share on the same basis were five per cent ahead at 11.3p and the interim dividend was raised by 25 per cent to 2.5p.

The group continues to expand its retail operations and during the period it opened four new and replacement stores and six concessions. The group also acquired its distributors in Taiwan, which resulted in a sales shift from wholesale channel to retail, and this is a trend that will continue going forward.

In a recent trading statement, the group revealed that underlying retail sales increased by 16 per cent in the fourth quarter, helped by a favourable response to spring merchandise, particularly womenswear, and a strong advertising campaign.

A new chief executive, Angela Ahrendts, is to take over in July and it is hoped that her experience at the US clothing group Liz Claiborne will help to transform Burberry into a global operation.

Although the shares have performed well over the last few months we still consider them to be SOLID VALUE.

WARNING: Opinions expressed are the writers' judgments at the time of writing. The information does not constitute a personal recommendation and readers should seek their own professional advice as to the suitability of the investments.