Italy's Geox Group reported a 2024% year-on-year decline in sales in 7,8, to €663,8 million. Only in the fourth quarter did sales rise slightly, by 0,5% year-on-year, at current exchange rates to €138 million, writes Worldfootwear.com.
"2024 has been a challenging year for the Group, marked by persistently challenging market conditions that impacted both business performance and sales volumes. The decline in sales of approximately €56 million (-7,8%) compared to the previous year was partially offset by disciplined cost management and investments, resulting in significant operating savings of approximately €20 million," said Geox Group CEO Enrico Mistron.
Sales declined in all segments except for the company’s own online stores, where they increased by 20,1% year-on-year to €61,6 million. Wholesale sales fell by 12,5% year-on-year to €325,5 million, franchise sales by 17,3% year-on-year to €49,8 million, and in own retail by 3,9% year-on-year to €226,9 million.
Geographically, Geox sales in 2024 were down 6,6% year-on-year to €187,5 million in Italy, down 1,4% year-on-year to €300,3 million in Europe (Austria, Benelux, France, Germany, UK, Iberia, Scandinavia, Switzerland), down 11,9% year-on-year to €23,9 million in North America and down 18,7% year-on-year to €151,9 million in other countries.
The decline in full-year net sales resulted in adjusted gross profit falling by approximately €27 million to €337,6 million.
“In response to these challenges, management implemented an efficiency plan aimed at containing and reducing the operating cost structure, resulting in savings of approximately €20 million compared to 2023,” the company said.
As a result of this plan, the company's adjusted EBITDA decreased to EUR 26,2 million last year from EUR 37,0 million in the previous year, adjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 8,8 million.
Geox reported an adjusted net loss for the full year of €17,3 million, compared with a net loss of €6,5 million in 2023. This result includes the impact of extraordinary items of €13 million related to the company's ongoing strategic transformation process.
“The Group incurred extraordinary one-off costs of approximately €13 million related to the business transformation and optimization of the distribution network, the closure of certain subsidiaries (USA and China) and internal organizational restructuring,” commented Mistron, stressing that the company had also entered into a new partnership agreement with a relevant international player in the Chinese market.
The company plans to expand its interaction with online marketplaces in 2025. At the same time, the company's retail network will remain largely unchanged, the group will focus on improving the quality of the multi-brand distribution network.
The Company expects sales in 2025 to decline slightly compared to 2024 and adjusted EBIT margin to decline by approximately 80 basis points year-on-year.
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