PARIS (Reuters) -Sales at Kering’s flagship brand Gucci fell by 14% in the third quarter with overall group sales down 5% on a like-for-like basis, the French group said on Wednesday, beating market expectations.

In the first trading update under newly-appointed CEO Luca de Meo, hired to accelerate a turnaround after two years of falling sales, Kering said revenue in the July to September period reached 3.42 billion euros ($3.99 billion).

Analysts expected group sales to fall 9.6% with Gucci down about 15.3%, according to Visible Alpha data. Smaller houses Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta performed stronger than expected.

“Kering’s third-quarter performance, while representing a clear sequential improvement, remains far below that of the market,” de Meo said in a statement.

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