Aeffe’s revenue down 25.4% in Q1, net income virtually wiped out

By

Laura Galbiati

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
May 16, 2020

Like the industry as a whole, Italian fashion group Aeffe, the owner of Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini, Moschino and Pollini, has been dealt a blow by the crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. In Q1 2020, Aeffe generated a revenue of €76.2 million, down by 25.4% at current exchange rates (and by 25.5% at constant rates) compared to Q1 2019. EBITDA fell by 67.7%, to €8.6 million, while net income crashed, down to a mere €4.000, as opposed to nearly €12 million the previous year.

Aeffe’s ready-to-wear division was the worst hit, its revenue falling by 30% to €54.4 million, while the footwear and leather goods division managed to limit the downturn to single digits, losing 7.9% with a revenue of €30.7 million. The commercial campaign for the Fall/Winter 2020-21 has ended with a sales decrease of 6.5% compared to the same season a year ago. Aeffe thinks this is a positive result, given the critical state of the global economy.
 
Predictably, all of Aeffe’s regional results have been negative: revenue in Italy, which accounts for 47.8% of the total, lost 21%, falling to €36.5 million, while the rest of Europe (whose share of the total is 27.2%) lost 10.7%. Russia, the UK and Germany were the top-performing countries. In Asia and the rest of the world, Aeffe generated a revenue of €15.4 million, equivalent to 20.3% of the total and to a 44.2% downturn. In Q1, revenue for the Greater China region lost 42%, but in the last few days there have been positive signs there in terms of sales, and store footfall is on the rise. Sales in America, which account for 4.7% of the total, recorded a decrease of 31.4%.

Distribution-wise, the wholesale channel, which accounts for 72.9% of Aeffe’s total revenue, lost 26.6%, while the direct retail channel (worth 23.5% of total revenue) lost 23.2%. The e-tail channel alone posted satisfactory results. Finally, royalty revenue fell by 16.1% compared to Q1 2019, and accounted for 3.6% of Aeffe’s consolidated revenue.