The clothing supplier Gerry Weber has once again had an eventful year.
In April, the parent company Gerry Weber International AG had to initiate restructuring proceedings based on the law on the stabilization and restructuring framework for companies (StaRUG). At the same time, the German retail subsidiary Gerry Weber Retail GmbH filed for bankruptcy, followed by the Austrian national company in July.
The restructuring plan, which was confirmed by the Essen district court in November, contained drastic reforms and cost-cutting measures and meant the end of Gerry Weber International AG. As part of a capital cut, Luxembourg-based GWI Holding S.à.rl, as a restructuring investor, subscribed to all of the company’s new shares. The group was then taken off the stock exchange at the beginning of December and converted into a GmbH.
In 2022, the group will slip deep into the red
On Wednesday, the group of companies looked back again. The long-pending annual report for the 2022 financial year was published, and management also gave an outlook on the figures for 2023.
Accordingly, group sales from continuing operations – i.e. excluding the shares of the activities in Russia that have now been sold – amounted to 313.7 million euros in 2022. This corresponded to an increase of 20.9 percent compared to the previous year, when business was still heavily impacted by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, higher material, freight and personnel costs as well as more extensive discount campaigns weighed on the result. The normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to -6.4 million euros, after being clearly positive at 28.8 million euros in the previous year.
The reported operating loss was 25.6 million euros. In 2021, Gerry Weber achieved an operating profit of 17.1 million euros. The bottom line was a net loss of 35.1 million euros. A year earlier there was a surplus of 23.0 million euros.
After restructuring measures: Management expects lower revenues and a high operating loss for 2023
The current year 2023 was now largely dominated by renovation measures. Based on the figures available in November, management expects a decline in sales to between 278 and 307 million euros and a normalized EBITDA in the “negative low double-digit million euro range”, not least due to the recent “optimization of the branch portfolio”.