Dr. Martens reports a decline in sales for the 2025 financial year and also presented a new growth strategy that takes the typical boots of the brand out of the spotlight.
The British shoe brand recorded a 10 percent drop in sales compared to the previous year, said Dr. Martens on Thursday. This result corresponds to the forecasts and is due to a “challenging macroeconomic environment and consumer climate” in several core markets.
In the preliminary results for the 52 weeks until March 30, 2025, Dr. Martens from £ 877.1 million to £ 787.6 million (936 million euros). The adjusted profit before tax decreased from £ 97.2 million to £ 34.1 million in 2024, while winning £ 93 million from £ 8.8 million.
The shoe brand, which welcomed the new CEO IJE NWOKIOR in January, added that a “significant profit growth” in the consensus area of £ 54 to 74 million is expected for the 2026 financial year as soon as the turnaround strategy applies.
The results also give rise to optimism: Direct sales (DTC) in America returned to growth in the second half of the year, the newly oriented marketing approach continues to concentrate “consistently on the product” and the company has achieved annual cost savings of £ 25 million.
“Our only focus in fiscal year 25 was to give Dr. Martens again,” said Nwokorie. “We have achieved this by bringing our direct sales back to growth in America, realizing our marketing approach to consistently concentrate on our products, achieved cost savings and have significantly strengthened our balance sheet.”
Dr. Martens optimistic about return to growth
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the company reported a drop in sales by 11 percent –10 percent currency -adjusted – driven by the UK, which is described as a “challenging market”. Sales in America also decreased by 11 percent-10 percent currency-adjusted-while the region of Asia-Pacific (APAC) achieved a “good performance” thanks to Japan and China and sales decreased by only 1 percent by currency.
As expected, the DTC turnover fell by 4 percent-2 percent of currency-adjusted-and wholesale sales by 20 percent –18 percent of currency). Within the DTC area, retail sales fell by 6 percent-3 percent currency-adjusted-and e-commerce turnover by 3 percent-1 percent adjusted to currency.
With a view to the 2026 financial year, Dr. Martens that the company wants to reduce the discounts in America and EMEA both in the e-commerce channel and wholesale in order to increase full-price sales. The company adds that it has a “positive” autumn/winter large trade order in EMEA and that the order in the United States is currently “largely corresponding to that of the previous year” before the advantages of post-orders in the season come into play.
Dr. Martens expects negative exchange rate effects for the new financial year, which will estimate the group sales of around £ 18 million and profit before taxes by around £ 3 million.
Dr. Martens evaluates persistent US tariffs “carefully”
With regard to the tariffs, Dr. Martens that the United States is an “important market”, but it is a really global brand that is sold in more than 60 countries worldwide. In the United States, the spring/summer collection 2025 is already on the market, and by the beginning of July the majority of the autumn/winter collection 2025 will be either on the market or in transit. Dr. Martens adds that the company assumes strong product breeding scenes, which is helpful, “because tariffs are raised at the expense and not on the sales price”. The shoe brand adds that you will continue to check the “situation carefully”, but can confirm that it will leave the average prices in the market for FS25 and HW25.
Dr. Martens announces strategic plan “Levers for Growth”
Dr. Martens also presented a new strategic plan to gain more consumers: to create more buying events, to curate the right distribution in every single market and to simplify the operating model in order to promote efficiency, scalability and speed.
At the center of the strategic plan “Levers for Growth” is the departure from the narrow focus on boots to fully exploit the advantages of the offer of shoes, sandals, bags and leather goods and to expand the target group to “everyday use: inside”. The product sales of Dr. Martens on boots (57 percent), shoes (26 percent), sandals (12 percent) and bags and other (5 percent). The shoe brand adds that it wants to promote growth in product families such as Buzz, Zebzag and Lowell in order to diversify their product sales base.
The company also wants to pursue a tailor-made approach for sales channels, with less focus on its own DTC channels such as its own shops and websites, towards a mixture of DTC and wholesale in order to be more reactionable and implement a more “partnership” approach. Another important goal for growth in the 2026 financial year is the development of new markets through a “capital -friendly structure”.
“Today we present our ‘Levers for Growth’ that will expand our possibilities by leading the company to a consumer -oriented way of thinking from a channel -oriented man,” says Nwokorie. “We will give more people more reasons to buy more of our products, be it our legendary boots and shoes, newer product families such as Zebzag and Buzz and BUZZ or adjacent categories such as sandals, bags and leather goods. And we will cut the distribution on every market, combine DTC and B2B, optimize brand reach and ensure better use of capital.
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