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Aeffe returns to profit in 2024, but revenue drops 21.2%

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Translated by

Nicola Mira

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March 17, 2025

As was announced in January, when preliminary data for fiscal 2024 was published, Italian fashion group Aeffe (owner of Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini, Moschino and Pollini) generated a revenue of €251 million in fiscal 2024, down 21.2% at constant exchange rates compared to the previous year.

aeffe.com

 
The good news is that Aeffe is back in the black, having recorded an operating profit of €19.3 million, as opposed to the €32.1 million loss posted in 2023. Other profitability indicators also improved markedly in 2024. EBITDA was €84.7 million (as opposed to €5.8 million the previous year) and EBIT was €48.5 million, compared to a loss of €27.1 million in 2023.
 
“While we await with confidence for the international markets to bounce back, our group is working with a clear, well-defined strategic vision to reap the benefits of the company’s reorganisation process and of our brands’ repositioning, which I am convinced will be extremely rewarding for us,” said Massimo Ferretti, Aeffe’s executive president, in a press release. “The fashion week that recently ended [in Milan] gave us a great injection of optimism, as the collections by our brands Alberta Ferretti, Moschino and Pollini were received with much enthusiasm. We hope that the current geopolitical instability will be followed by a phase of renewed equilibrium and growth, which I believe will give a significant boost to the fashion and luxury sector, a strategic and central asset for [Italy’s] economy,” he added.

Product category-wise, Aeffe’s ready-to-wear division reported a revenue of €166.1 million, equivalent to a 21.8% decrease at current exchange rates compared to 2023. Footwear and leather goods generated a revenue of €106.2 million, equivalent to a 25.3% downturn.
 
Revenue in Italy (which accounted for 42.4% of the total) fell by 20.6% to €106.4 million. Revenue in the rest of Europe was €76.5 million (down 22.4%), while revenue in Asia and the rest of the world fell by 20.8%, and revenue in the Americas by 20.2%.
 
The group’s wholesale revenue (accounting for 63.8% of the total) fell by 25.1% to €160.2 million, while direct retail recorded a smaller downturn, dropping 12.5% to €82.7 million.

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Dune London’s CEO talks bags, sports, and global growth

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A thriving bags business has been the focus for many fashion apparel and particularly footwear labels in recent years. But today, that business needs to do more than thrive, it needs to be one of the key drivers of company growth.

Nigel Darwin – Photo: Sandra Halliday

We’ve seen that happening at Kurt Geiger where the footwear brand that also sells bags is in some ways now a bags brand that also sells shoes!

At Dune London, meanwhile, that’s not the case yet, but the affordable, fashion-focused footwear brand’s bags business is strong, growing and is a key focus for the label.

We spoke to CEO Nigel Darwin about how Dune is ramping up its bags business as well as about how it’s faring in sports and its global plans.

FashionNetwork.com: You’re known as a footwear brand but as your campaigns and stores demonstrate, bags are clearly a growing category for you.

Nigel Darwin: The third big growth platform for us [apart from the UK and international businesses] is the category piece. We already have a big business in ladies’ footwear, men’s footwear, and then there’s bags. For a long time we’ve had a bags business, but we’ve always been a footwear brand with some bags. Where we are now is absolutely focusing on bags. It’s a category that works all year round, that works very powerfully for a brand from a storytelling perspective, so it’s not surprising that brands go in that direction.

FNW: What sort of work are you doing around growing that accessories business?

ND: Everything! We’ve looked at the assortment and we’ve really elevated it in terms of the materials were using, the design, we’re much more thoughtful, I believe, about styles and style families. We used to have a little bit more of an item focus with too many different bags. We’re much more coherent now about how the brand works across both footwear and bags [via] a select number of a very curated group of families. 

FNW: We’ve seen how for some companies the bags category can actually grow to be bigger than footwear. How big is the bags business for you at present?

ND: It varies from market to market. Somewhere like the Middle East it can be over 40%, but for us overall it’s around 20%-25%. We certainly see a lot of opportunities for growth in all of our categories but bags can really be a big business for us. We’re seeing good take up here in our home market in our stores and with our partners, but also in global markets we’re seeing a lot of interest. It can be easier to tell your brand story with bags.

 

FNW: Clearly the UK is your core market, do you feel you’re at saturation point there?

ND: These are very exciting times, we’ve got a lot of exciting growth aspirations both in the UK and globally. In our home market [it’s] really about bringing together our stores a digital presence, both those that we do ourselves and those of our partners and making the most of all of those channels.

We’ve got about 50 standalone stores in the UK, [plus concessions] and we’re with Next, with John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, so a broad distribution. But we think we’ve got a lot to do still to reach the core customer base within the UK, whether they’re shopping online and whether they’re shopping in stores. So a big UK piece.

Dune London's Westfield White City store
Dune London’s Westfield White City store

FNW: I assume the opportunity outside the UK is much bigger though?

ND: There’s a big global piece for us with two areas of focus. We’ve got a large business already in the Middle East that we’ve had for 10+ years. We’ve got around 50 stores and a digital presence there and we see a lot more growth opportunity there.

The US is a much more recent adventure for us. [We entered it] a couple of years ago and we work with partners to really grow our brand presence and our distribution. 

We have other international markets as well, but the US and the Middle East are where we really see the ‘scale’ opportunity.

In the US, we’re working with Nordstrom and Dillards in particular, but also other partners that we’re adding, to understand their customers. We’re increasingly clear and confident about our brand and how that translates through both on the footwear and the bags side. We’re confident in that DNA, but when you meet new customer bases with new partners you want to learn from them. They know their customers far better than we do

FNW: How big is the US business for you at the moment and do you see potential in Europe too?

ND:  Today [our US business is] very small because we’ve only been there two years but we see there’s potential for it to grow quite dramatically. 

We have some strong European markets already, a strong presence in Ireland and in the Netherlands. But we do have a lot of markets where we don’t have very much of a presence other than through digital partners like Zalando and others. It’s absolutely an opportunity, I think, very much building on the digital partnerships that we’ve got, seeing where demand really spikes and deciding where we want to put more resource, more effort, before we put stores on the ground. 

I can imagine a point where we might have stores in Europe, absolutely, but I think it’s important to sequence these things well, and these days when you’re working with digital partners that can go an awfully long way in [telling you] where those hotspots are. As we all know, stores are a costly investment these days and you need the demand to be there before you spend. 

FNW: You’ve just unveiled your SS25 campaign that’s all about travel and London, is your marketing approach specific to individual markets or more global?

ND: Almost all the marketing activity we do is with a global hat on rather than just a UK or US one. Whether we’re working with influencers, with celebrities, or just telling our story, we’re always trying to find a hook that will work globally, as recently with Bella Hadid, which will work here and in the US and Middle East.

But in the Middle East for Ramadan, we will do a separate shoot working with our partner, making sure that’s very focused on their markets there. 

FNW: Given your US ambitions, are tariff threats an issue for you at the moment?

ND: Clearly there’s uncertainty but we’re in the fortunate position that we have a market that’s currently relatively small in the US. I’m sure by the time we’re at scale there we’ll have found ways of mitigating the uncertainty as all brands are doing at the moment! 

The SS25 campaign
The SS25 campaign

FNW: And talking of potential problems, what about the weather, are you vulnerable to that? 

ND: I wouldn’t use the word vulnerable but we sell a lot of sandals in summer and we sell a lot of boots in winter! So the timing of those things absolutely impacts us. Very consciously over the last couple of years what we’ve been trying to do is make ourselves less susceptible to the vagaries of the weather. But part of what I was saying about bags is that there’s a big standalone opportunity for them and they’re much less of a seasonal category for us.

FNW: Is your growing sports business part of that process of protecting yourself from seasonal issues?

ND: We used to have a 5%-6% sports business but we’ve seen that the category has grown dramatically. It’s not such a seasonal product, it’s a bit more year-round. It’s well into double-digits now. We see that continuing to grow for us and if you’re going to stores at certain times of year, it may be that 20% of the store is about sports, all of it with a Dune touch. We’re not a sports brand but we can do sports in a very Dune way. 

FNW: It seems to be something to which the consumer is responding positively. What sort of vibe are you getting from shoppers at present?

ND: We’ve had a reasonably consistent vibe from the consumer for the last two or three years. People have got money to spend and when people fall in love with a product, they will spend. However almost everyone at every level is cautious on their spending and so the product they fall in love with has got to be [special] — either something new or something right of the moment, or that speaks to them through colour or materials. If you’re trying to sell a product that’s very similar to what they may have seen last year that’s a hard sell!

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Billionaire Cheng family in talks with Louis Vuitton on mega Hong Kong store

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Bloomberg

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March 17, 2025

New World Development Co., the Hong Kong real estate company controlled by the billionaire Cheng family, is in talks with luxury giant Louis Vuitton to open a mega store in one of the developer’s signature malls, according to people familiar with the matter.

Louis Vuitton – Fall-Winter2025 – 2026 – Womenswear – France – Paris – ©Launchmetrics/spotlight

The new store would occupy about 40,000 square feet at the K11 Musea mall, making it one of Louis Vuitton’s largest in Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The store could feature a museum, a cafe and a lounge for the brand’s VIP customers, they said. Details over rent remain unclear. 

Discussions are at an advanced stage, but details could still change and the deal could still fall apart, the people said. 

New World didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for LVMH declined to comment.

If an agreement is reached, the expansion of fashion conglomerate LVMH’s largest brand would inject some confidence into Hong Kong’s retail industry and help its ailing commercial property sector. It would also be a boost for New World, which has been struggling with debt woes and uncertainty over its leadership. 

Located near the city’s famous Victoria Harbor and with a fashion-forward design incorporating arts and culture elements, K11 Musea is a popular destination for tourists. Its exclusive private members clubs have also attracted a group of wealthy clientele through the Cheng family’s networks. 

LVMH’s plan to open a mega store in one of Hong Kong’s most upscale shopping malls, with significant space reserved for non-retail and VIP elements, underscores luxury brands’ efforts to wring more growth from the ultra-rich at a time when China’s economic slowdown has sapped demand for discretionary consumption among middle-class shoppers. Fashion houses are designing more unique shopping experiences to develop personal connections with customers, and are focusing more on clients less affected by the downturn.

While Hong Kong has been suffering from declining retail sales and a slow recovery in tourism, the city has the highest concentration of millionaires in the Greater China region and ranked No. 9 on a list of wealthiest cities in the world, according to a report published last year by investment migration company Henley & Partners in partnership with intelligence firm New World Wealth.

K11 Musea is accelerating its pivot to luxury shopping with Prada SpA opening a new store in the mall and other high-end labels, including LVMH’s Loewe and Kering SA’s Saint Laurent and Balenciaga upgrading their facilities. The mall also hosted Louis Vuitton’s first ever fashion show in Hong Kong in 2023. 

Facing mounting pressure over its debt burden, New World has proposed pledging some of its most-prized properties valued at a total $19.1 billion, in order to refinance its loans, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year. K11 Musea, located on a site where the Cheng family has owned properties since the 1970s, is seen as a heritage asset for the clan. The family is the center of an ongoing succession saga with patriarch Henry Cheng saying he was still looking for someone to take charge of the family business.



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UK business minister Reynolds to visit Washington for trade talks

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Reuters

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March 18, 2025

UK business minister Jonathan Reynolds will meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Tuesday to advance discussions on a bilateral trade agreement, the British embassy said.

Reuters

Reynolds will discuss deeper UK-U.S. ties to benefit industry, business and consumers, building on discussions first launched by U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during an Oval Office meeting last month, it said.

“The UK and U.S. share a fair and balanced relationship, one that has benefited both sides for many decades,” Reynolds said in a statement, calling his visit the latest step in the UK’s “pragmatic and positive engagement with the new administration  to agree a wider economic deal in both our interests.” 

Britain, unlike the European Union, did not immediately retaliate after Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect March 12, hoping to negotiate a trade deal and stave off a broader round of reciprocal tariffs that Trump says he will announce on April 2.

Trump said last month the two countries might reach a bilateral trade deal that would avert duties.

Britain and the U.S. engaged in five rounds of trade negotiations toward such a deal during Trump’s first term in office, but failed to reach an agreement before he left office. The work was shelved by his successor, former president Joe Biden.

Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, said the two allies hoped to set up a “full spectrum technology partnership” building on critical U.S.-UK collaboration on nuclear technologies during World War Two and joint work developing the internet.

In a commentary published on Monday in the Hill newspaper, Mandelson underscored the importance of continued collaboration – now on artificial intelligence – given today’s intense rivalries with adversaries in that sector.

He mapped out potential partnerships in biotechnologies, including genomics, protein design and engineering, as well as joint work on advanced data centers, the world’s first advanced quantum computer, and nuclear technology.

“The U.S. and UK are natural allies to work together to deliver generational advances,” he said. “America and Britain can achieve more together than they can do apart.”

The U.S. is Britain’s single largest country trading partner, with more than $1.5 trillion invested in each other’s economies across key sectors including financial services, energy and technology. 

© Thomson Reuters 2025 All rights reserved.



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