Gucci giving discounts of up to 50% in China as it clears stock

Paris

GUCCI is offering discounts of as much as 50 per cent in China as the Italian fashion house seeks to clear out merchandise designed by its former creative director, prompting lines of shoppers to form since sunrise.

The sales, which began on Wednesday, are a normal end-of-season practice and unrelated to China's decision to cut import taxes, a spokesman for Kering SA's biggest brand said on Tuesday.

A store assistant at a Gucci outlet in Shanghai's Pudong financial district, who asked not…