The Italian fashion group Salvatore Ferragamo SpA suffered significant losses in sales in the first nine months of the current 2023 financial year.
According to an interim report published on Thursday, group sales in the period from January to September amounted to 844.2 million euros, falling short of the previous year’s level by 8.3 percent. Adjusted for exchange rate changes, it fell by 9.2 percent.
Not least due to the declining demand in the third quarter, sales in its own retail sector fell by 10.2 percent (-7.3 percent adjusted for currency effects) to 599.5 million euros. In the wholesale business, sales even fell by 16.6 percent (-15.3 percent adjusted for currency effects) to 217.2 million euros. The company justified the significant decline with the targeted “rationalization” of the sales network, losses in duty-free business due to declining international travel and the current weakness of the US market.
The increase in sales in Europe cannot compensate for the losses in America and Asia
The group was only able to increase in the first nine months of the year in Europe: there sales rose by 3.1 percent (currency-adjusted +3.0 percent) to 208.5 million euros. In North America, revenue fell by 20.1 percent (currency-adjusted -18.2 percent) to 221.1 million euros, in Japan by 11.6 percent (currency-adjusted -2.7 percent) to 64.4 million euros and the rest Asia-Pacific region by 16.4 percent (currency-adjusted -11.7 percent) to 263.9 million euros. In Central and South America, sales were 58.8 million euros, 3.1 percent (currency-adjusted -9.6 percent) below the corresponding previous year’s level.
However, CEO Marco Gobbetti emphasized that the group had made “progress” in implementing its “strategic priorities”. The “full potential” of the ongoing reform measures will become visible in the coming year. Despite the “increasingly uncertain” market situation, the clothing supplier is sticking to its medium-term goals, emphasized Gobbetti.