The Rottendorf-based clothing supplier S.Oliver Bernd Freier GmbH & Co. KG also suffered severely from the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic in the 2021 financial year. This emerges from an annual report prepared in February 2022, which was published in the Federal Gazette last week.
Accordingly, consolidated sales fell by 6.1 percent to EUR 914.3 million compared to the previous year, which was already heavily influenced by the pandemic. “With continued very challenging overall economic development in 2021 and an expansion of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business of the S.Oliver Group was also heavily burdened in all European markets but also in the procurement markets in Asia,” the company admitted in the annual report.
However, the group made progress in terms of earnings. The clothing supplier explained that special regulations related to the pandemic, such as “the instrument of short-time work” and “various comparable state support programs”, made a “significant contribution to the operating result and to improving liquidity”. In addition, “negotiations with landlords about rent deferrals and rent reductions” have been intensified. The group of companies was able to reduce its net loss, which had been EUR 59.3 million in 2020, to almost EUR 7.1 million.
In view of the adverse general conditions, the company’s conclusion was positive: “In view of the unforeseeable expansion of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, the course of business can be assessed as satisfactory,” the group explained. However, the original forecast for the operating result was based on “a largely Covid-free business development in 2021” and was therefore not achieved.