Wholesale change almost complete
Wholesale turnover dropped 24.7 % in the first quarter and to get a better hold of its portrayed image, the company wants to focus more on sales through its own stores, so it has anticipated the drop in sales. Prada expects that the rationalization should be finalized by next year.
The sales in its 551 own stores improved 2.8 % to 697.8 million euro and at like-for-like exchange rates, it would have been a 7.7 % increase.
If the exchange rates are taken out of the equation, Japanese turnover grew the most (+30.5 %), followed by America (+ 16.5 %). Asia Pacific (+ 3.9 %) and Europe (+ 1.1 %) still grew, but not as much.
European market struggles
Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore pushed Asian numbers down and eliminated the advances China and Macau experienced. Europe still struggles because of the economic crisis and the strong euro meant that European products favoured by the Chinese population became more expensive.
If each brand is evaluated, British shoe label Church’s grew 13 %, while Prada grew 7.8 % (mostly in Japan and America) and Miu Miu went up 7.3 % (with more than 10 % growth in each region except for Europe).
Profit lower than expected
Negative exchange rate fluctuations have impacted company profits, which reached 156.3 million euro (20.1 % of total turnover). Net profit reached 105.3 million euro, 13.6 % of total sales and 24 % less than the same period last year and also lower than what analysts had expected (129.7 million euro).
When it divulged its financial numbers, the Prada stock dropped 6.9 % on the Hong Kong stock exchange, its biggest drop in 2 years.
