The French clothing supplier SMCP increased its sales in the 2023 financial year as expected. However, the profits of the parent company of the Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac brands collapsed. This emerges from current results that the company published on Wednesday evening.
In Asia, sales are growing in double digits
Accordingly, sales in the past year reached 1.23 billion euros, which corresponded to an increase of 2.1 percent compared to 2022. On an organic basis – i.e. adjusted for currency effects and changes in the Group portfolio – revenue increased by 2.9 percent.
The growth engine was the Asia-Pacific region with a sales increase of 10.6 percent (organic +12.5 percent) to 255.2 million euros. In France, revenues were 413.2 million euros, slightly below the previous year’s level (-0.1 percent), while in the remaining countries in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they rose by 3.1 percent (organically +3.2 percent) to 388.8 million euros. Sales in America fell by 6.0 percent (organically -3.0 percent) to 173.4 million euros.
Ongoing uncertainties: The group is foregoing annual forecasts
Higher rents and increased personnel costs weighed on the result. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) adjusted for special effects fell by 11.3 percent to 236.4 million euros. Due to high value adjustments, operating profit fell by 45.4 percent to 50.5 million euros. The annual surplus attributable to the shareholders fell by 78.2 percent to 11.2 million euros.
For the current year 2024, management expects the “difficult macroeconomic environment” to continue, particularly in the first six months. Because it is currently not foreseeable when demand will turn around, the company will not make any annual forecasts, the group said.