The fashion group SMCP (Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac) recorded a net loss of more than 23 million euros due to poor business on the Chinese market and despite an upward trend in the second half of the year.
China burdened
In three of the four regions in which the group works, sales grew: +1.1 percent in France, +3.7 percent in Europe – without France – the Middle East and Africa and +5.4 percent in the America region. In the Asia-Pacific region, however, the proceeds fell by 18.5 percent.
“If we are isolating Chinese business development, we have an annual balance that is positive, even more positive in the fourth quarter,” the managing director of the group, Isabelle Guichot, told the AFP news agency. During this period, sales rose by 1.9 percent and 4.7 percent when you exclude the Chinese market.
SMCP has been working on the optimization of its shop network for several years and has made 80 own shops by 2024, 65 of them in China. “Since Chinese consumer behavior will no longer be the same in the coming years, we undoubtedly had a too large network (…) that we have adapted to the potential of the Chinese market,” said Guichot.
A transition year for SCMP
On the brand side, Sandro best cut off with stable sales (+0.6 percent), followed by maje (-0.9 percent). Claudie Pierlot and Fursac’s joint sales, on the other hand, decreased by 11 percent. Isabelle Guichot found that “the more global, stronger brands with a larger geographical footprint in a difficult environment”. In particular, Fursac, which “focuses more on France”, suffered from the time of the Olympic Games in Paris.
“It was an important year for us, a transition year, in an economic situation that remains complex and that we are quite proud of because we demonstrated the robustness of our group,” she added and recalled that the group’s debt has dropped by 49 million euros to 237 million euros by the end of 2024.
SMCP, a group for affordable luxury, is represented in 49 countries and has a network of more than 1,600 shops around the world.