The US clothing group Guess Inc. presented mixed figures for the first quarter of the 2022/23 financial year on Wednesday evening. Sales rose surprisingly sharply, but earnings missed market expectations.
In the months of February to April, group sales totaled 593.5 million US dollars (553.9 million euros). It thus exceeded the level of the same quarter of the previous year by 14 percent. The strong development of the US dollar slowed the pace of growth: Adjusted for currency effects, revenues rose by 21 percent. In its own retail business in America, the clothing supplier achieved an increase of seven percent to 166.5 million US dollars, in the local wholesale business sales even increased by 50 percent to 68.4 million US dollars and thus exceeded expectations. In Europe, revenues grew by 14 percent (+26 percent at constant currency) to USD 276.0 million, and in Asia by one percent (+8 percent at constant currency) to USD 56.2 million. Royalty revenue was $26.4 million, up 23 percent from the prior year.
The company was also able to improve significantly in terms of operating profit: it rose by 37 percent to 36.4 million US dollars. Adjusted for special effects, it was even 61 percent above the level of the same quarter of the previous year. However, higher one-off financial charges caused net income attributable to shareholders to slip 34 percent to $7.97 million. Adjusted for special factors, the surplus grew by ten percent to $15.2 million, but still fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Despite the “challenging environment” in the coming months, CEO Carlos Alberini continues to expect an increase in sales for the entire financial year. Specifically, the management is now assuming growth of around four percent compared to the previous year. Adjusted for currency effects, revenues are expected to increase by ten percent. The target for the operating margin is 10.1 percent.