The clothing supplier Gerry Weber International AG sees itself on course after the first three quarters of the 2022 financial year: Despite difficult general conditions, sales were significantly higher than in the same period of the previous year, and the loss was significantly reduced.
CEO Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus was correspondingly satisfied when the current figures were presented on Thursday: “After the first nine months, Gerry Weber is on target in all three sales channels,” she explained in a statement. “Our ageless collections are very well received by our customers.” The company also realizes that “the consumer climate is becoming noticeably cloudier due to high inflation,” Schindler-Obenhaus admitted. “Here we take countermeasures, among other things, with strict cost discipline throughout the group.”
Sales grow by around thirty percent
In the year to date, the Group has benefited from the fact that stationary retail, which had previously been impacted by the protective measures against the Covid 19 pandemic, was able to reopen continuously. Sales in the months from January to September were 247.4 million euros and thus 30.2 percent above the corresponding level of the previous year.
Gerry Weber was able to grow strongly in all three sales channels. In the company’s own stationary retail business, revenues increased by 34.4 percent to EUR 116.0 million, in e-commerce by 35.6 percent to EUR 41.5 million and in the wholesale business by 23.0 percent to EUR 89.8 million.
The group also made progress in terms of earnings. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to EUR 36.9 million, exceeding the previous year’s level by 56.4 percent. On a normalized basis – i.e. adjusted for the effects of the IFRS 16 accounting standard – EBITDA improved from EUR -2.2 million to EUR 11.1 million. The reported net loss shrank from 24.3 to 10.2 million euros.
The annual forecasts remain unchanged
In view of the figures available, the company confirmed its forecast for the year. It thus continues to expect sales in the range of EUR 315 to 340 million and normalized EBITDA “in the negative single-digit to positive single-digit million range” for 2022.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Florian Frank warned of future challenges, but sees the group as well positioned. “Even Gerry Weber cannot avoid higher costs for personnel, material, transport and energy. So far we have been able to pass these cost increases on to customers to a large extent in the form of price increases,” he explained in an interim statement. “Our liquidity position remains stable. We continue to work intensively on options for the upcoming refinancing in the coming year and are consistently implementing further optimization measures.”