INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Lancel sales rise as Adjani bag sells out

* Lancel CEO says retail sales up 0-5 pct since Jan

* To open 40 stores this year, to refurbish 20

* Adjani bag sold out last month

(Adds details, CEO comments, share price)

By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) - Lancel, the upmarket handbag maker owned by luxury group Richemont , has seen a slight rise in comparable retail sales since January as a new bag by French actress Isabelle Adjani sold out, its head told Reuters.

The 133-year-old French leather goods house is shifting towards the high end of the market and stepping up worldwide expansion with 40 store openings this year despite the consumer downturn, Chief Executive Marc Lelandais said in an interview.

"Lancel has seen a slight increase in like-for-like sales since the beginning of the year," Lelandais said on Monday. "Of course, it is no euphoria but we have seen a sustained small growth, I would say between zero and 5 percent."

In comparison, Hermes leather goods sales, which include shoes and saddles, rose 10.2 percent on a like-for-like basis during the first quarter. Leather goods made by the Gucci brand, owned by PPR , rose 8.3 percent.

Fashion and leather goods sales at LVMH , a good part of which come from Louis Vuitton, rose 4 percent on a comparable basis during the first quarter.

Retail sales, or revenue generated by the company's boutiques, make up the bulk of Lancel's total revenue. Wholesale turnover is down about 20 percent since the start of the year, compared with the same period last year, Lelandais said.

Trading overall since the beginning of the year has been buoyed by sales of the new Adjani bag, designed and promoted by the French actress and which ran out in April, four months after its launch, Lelandais said.

He compared the bag's popularity to Hermes' best-selling Kelly and Birkin bags, named after actresses Grace Kelly and Jane Birkin.

Lancel's trapezium-shaped multi-pocketed Adjani bag, which starts at 800 euros ($1,078) and can reach 8,000 euros in genuine crocodile leather, is one of its most expensive.

"Our strategy in the crisis is to be different and to launch a 1,000-euro handbag," Lelandais said. "And it works."

He expected to sell more than 10,000 Adjani bags in France by the end of the year, having sold about half of that already, or the "equivalent of two years' stock in three months".

"We are changing the positioning of the brand, we are moving more towards the high end," Lelandais said.

He said Lancel would open shops in Tokyo in June and in Moscow and Dubai in July.

Lancel, which owns 120 shops worldwide but is not present in the United States, plans to refurbish some 20 stores this year.

Most of its handbags are made in Spain and Italy.

Richemont shares were up 1.24 percent at 22.88 swiss francs by 1219 GMT, roughly in line with the DJ Stoxx retail index <.SXRP>, which was up 1.60 percent. ($1=.7422 Euro) (Editing by James Regan)