Luxexperience is on the way to establish itself as a leading player in global luxury e commerce. After the takeover of Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) by Mytheresa, which was completed on April 23, the newly formed parent company is already the largest provider in terms of the corporate dimension. But the group, which previously operated under the name Myt Netherland’s Parent BV, is now faced with the enormous challenge to prove that it can not only run a successful luxury e-commerce business, but several.
Analyst received a first insight into how the company wants to tackle this ambitious task and what ambitious goals CEO Michael Klinger has set: Inside on Thursday in a conference call.
Luxexpirience is aiming for four billion euros in sales
Right at the beginning of the analyst: Interior conference makes Klinger the ambitions of the company clear after the takeover. In the medium term, Luxexpirience is striving for combined sales of four billion euros with a return on sales of seven to nine percent. This would achieve an operational result of over 300 million euros. As early as 2026/27, Luxexpirience expects a small positive amount before interest, taxes and depreciation before the desired margin of seven to nine percent is to be reached by 2030.
At the center of the profitability strategy is the consolidation of business areas as well as synergy effects in technology and logistics. Due to a stringent cost control, savings of around 150 million euros are to be realized annually in the administrative costs – a central pillar to increase profitability.
Mythheresa remains the group’s flagship. Hardly surprising, because in recent years the company has clearly exceeded the tense multi-brown retail trade and e-commerce market as well as the NET-A-porters now taken over. Despite concern, the company was able to announce solid growth for the current financial year with a view to the current trade conflicts on Wednesday. Mythheresa revenues rose by 3.8 percent to 242.5 million euros compared to the same period in the third quarter.
For Net-A porters and Mr.Porter, on the other hand, the focus is initially on extensive restructuring. Since 2023, the platforms have been pursuing a “volume-to-value” strategy that aims at margin strength, high-priced customers: inside. Although this led to a conscious decline in sales, this could be compensated for by improved profitability. In the coming years, the platforms are to be brought back to growth course, with the aim of reaching an EBITDA margin of seven to nine percent in the medium term-three to six percent are planned for a short time. For the off-price segment with YooX and The Outnet, Luxexperience continues to expect sales declines at short notice, but is striving for double-digit growth and an EBITDA margin of seven to nine percent in the long term.
For the implementation of the transformation, Luxexpirience is planning investment of 200 to 250 million euros in one -off restructuring costs, distributed over two to three years. In addition, 150 to 200 million are to be used to cover the negative surgical cash flow during this period – a total of 450 million euros. However, these expenses are fully covered by the existing liquidity of around 780 million euros, including unused credit lines.
Cannibalization or differentiation
For the success of the merger expected by the company, however, CEO Klinger does not only focus on the restructuring and integration of the platforms taken over, but also refers to the considerable growth potential of the global luxury market-especially in the online area.
“We have an outstanding market chance,” said Klinger. “Digital will continue to grow – and we will benefit disproportionately.” In fact, market analyst forecast: inside that the global luxury market will grow from around $ 360 billion to around $ 480 billion by 2030-the lion’s share of growth will come from the digital channel. In the coming years, the digital luxury market should more than double from 70 billion to around $ 150 billion.
But Klinger sees the chance of undertaking not only in the market volume, but also in the unique positioning of the group. “We have extremely valuable assets – strong brands, a global range and, above all, a top -class customer: interior base that gives us a unique size in luxury shopping,” said the CEO.
However, size alone does not guarantee size, Klinger made it clear. Rather, it is the diversity of the portfolio that gives Luxexperience a decisive advantage – from the regional range to the mix of offers in the high price segment. In combination with the ambitious transformation plan, the group sees itself in a unique position to rise to the most relevant platform in the digital luxury retail trade.
Klinger decidedly rejected the concern about possible cannibalization of the offers-especially between Mytheresa and the platforms Net-A-Porter and MR Porter, which has been taken over since the takeover. “Can’t we do it? We don’t compete in exactly the same space for exactly the same:” inside, the CEO asked rhetorically into the round to answer them immediately: “No. Both are luxury, but with different composition.”
The CEO also demonstrated the clear separation in numbers. Only 9.5 percent of the customers: inside and only 8.2 percent of the particularly powerful customers: inside overlap between Mytheresa and Net-A-Porter and MR Porter. A similar picture is also evident in the off-price segment. Despite a respectable average order value of 274 euros, the off-price business with YOOX and The Outnet is clearly in a different league than the first-price offers of the other platforms. This is not only shown in the shopping baskets, but also in the customer: internal base. Of the overall customers: Inside the luxury platforms Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter and MR Porter, only 7.5 percent of the customers: the inside last year also bought from Yoox or The Outnet.
According to Klinger, this clear differentiation is an essential pillar of Luxexperience strategy: “With our different platforms we address different luxury customers: inside and can thus cover the market under the shared roof of the group,” said the CEO. “This is one of the crucial reasons why we are convinced that we can develop Luxexperience into the most relevant platform for digital luxury worldwide.”
Merging of administrative areas
Despite all of this, the ambitious growth and profitability goals of the company cannot be achieved without a profound transformation of the group- and this is known to Klinger: “It is known that these shops have to be transformed,” emphasized CEO Klinger in the telephone conference and made it clear: “We are on the right track, but there is still a lot of work ahead of us.”
Luxexperience relies on five central principles when realigning: strengthening the brands, reducing complexity, optimizing infrastructure, technological consolidation and using the comprehensive customer: interior data base. The aim is to establish an operating model that lives up to the different characters of the brands- and at the same time benefit from synergies on the cost and infrastructure page.
While Mythheresa, Net-A-Porter and MR Porter will be controlled by independent teams in the future-including separate purchasing, performance marketing, content and personal shopping-central functions such as technology, logistics, HR or finance are to be merged. The off-price platforms, on the other hand, will continue to operate with their own backend infrastructure. “This is another business model with other margins – and demands a different cost structure,” says Klinger.
The group pays particular attention to the optimization of the operational infrastructure. By merging the logistics networks and the better utilization of existing capacities, productivity should be reduced by 20 percent and costs per customer: internal contact by 30 percent. Klinger also sees savings potential of up to 40 percent in the production of photo content. “These benchmarks are not based on scale effects, but on the expertise that we bring in as Mytheresa,” clarified the CEO.
In the area of technology, Luxexperience is aiming to migrate on the existing Mytheresa infrastructure in the long term. This should not only enable better user experience, but also reduce technology costs by up to 70 percent. Another lever is the use of the database: With over four million announcements: Luxexperience in the world, according to its own information, has one of the most richest databases in the luxury segment. Due to the increased use of AI and personalized offers, the group not only wants to increase the relevance for customers: but also become even more attractive for brands as a partner. “Our data not only offer us deeper insights in luxury shopping behavior, but also open up new opportunities for monetization and increasing efficiency,” said Klinger.
The CEO sees the clear separation of brand identities paired with centralized backend structures as the decisive success factor: “Strengthen the brand, give the teams autonomy and responsibility-and at the same time benefit from centralized synergies,” summarized Klinger the basic logic of the transformation plan.