The textile group SMCP achieved record sales in the first half of the year and increased its net profit twenty-fold. This is now back to pre-Corona levels, meaning the owner of the Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac brands can confirm its forecasts for 2022 despite the effects of Covid in Asia.
Between January and the end of June 2022, the French fashion group, which falls somewhere between “affordable luxury” and “fast fashion”, recorded sales of 565.4 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of 24.7 percent. A “record level”, as Isabelle Guichot, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement on Monday.
SMCP: “Good performance in Europe”
These sales mainly reflect a “good performance in Europe, supported by local demand and the gradual recovery of tourism” – with an “excellent” second quarter, in which sales returned to and even exceeded pre-pandemic levels – and a “substantial growth in the Americas region”. There, the fashion company generated 28.1 percent more sales compared to the first half of 2021 and 16.3 percent more compared to 2019, according to the announcement.
These figures are also the result of the group’s new strategy, which consists of “deliberately reducing the proportion of discount campaigns” and “significantly lowering the discount quota”.
These two trends offset the poor performance of the Asia region, which was “strongly impacted by the Covid restrictions” in Hong Kong and China. Prolonged store closures and the full closure of the group’s warehouses in China, which also impacted digital orders, resulted in a 24 percent drop in sales in the region that SMCP aims to make its largest market by 2025.
The group also increased its net profit twentyfold, from 0.9 million euros in the first half of 2021 to 20.7 million euros in 2022. This value also follows the pre-pandemic level of 20 million euros in the first half of 2019, but without reaching a record .
“Although the current geopolitical and macroeconomic environment creates some uncertainty, if the situation does not deteriorate further, we reaffirm our guidance for the full year 2022,” Ms. Guichot added.
The group said earlier this year that it is targeting double-digit sales growth compared to 2021. (AFP)
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ