The American shoe and clothing provider Wolverine World Wide Inc. presented surprisingly strong results for the final quarter of the 2024 financial year on Wednesday. The group has thus “achieved all goals” in its comprehensive reform efforts, emphasized CEO Chris Hufnagel in a statement. However, the forecasts for the current year remained behind the market expectations.
The quarterly turnover from continued business areas increases by three percent
In the fourth quarter, which was completed on December 28th, the group turnover amounted to $ 494.7 million (474.6 million euros) and thus failed by 6.1 percent (adjusted to currency -5.8 percent) .
However, this was only due to the separation of numerous business areas in the course of the latest conversion measures. The turnover from continued business areas rose by 3.0 percent (adjusted to currency +3.3 percent). The group returned to the growth path after a longer track.
The Plus owed sales increases in the Merrell brands (+1.0 percent) and Wolverine (20.5 percent). These were more than compensated for than compensating for Saucony (-5.3 percent) and Sweaty Betty (-5.9 percent).
The group writes black again
Thanks to a higher gross margin, extensive cost reductions and lower disposable loads, the group returned to the profit zone: the net result due to the shareholder was $ 24.6 million (23.6 million euros) after a corresponding loss of the previous year 91.2 million US dollars had to be booked.
In the entire financial year, sales fell by 21.8 percent to around $ 1.75 billion. The net profit due to the shareholder was $ 47.9 million. The company had completed the previous year with a loss of $ 39.6 million.
The forecasts for 2025 remain behind the market expectations
For 2025, management expects sales from continued business areas between $ 1.795 and $ 1,825 billion. This would correspond to growth by 2.5 to 4.3 percent compared to the previous year. The wasted profit per share, which was adjusted for special effects, which last was $ 0.91, is to be increased to $ 1.05 to $ 1.20. The analyst: In the front, however, significantly more optimistic forecasts had expected, however,