Dr Martens: Quarterly sales fall by 21 percent

British footwear supplier Dr Martens Plc suffered a significant drop in sales in the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year, not least due to weak business in the US and in wholesale. This was revealed in an interim statement published by the company on Thursday.

According to the statement, sales in the period from October to December amounted to 267.1 million pounds, which corresponds to a decline of 21 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations, revenue shrank by 18 percent. Sales in the company's own retail business fell by 5 percent (-3 per cent adjusted for currency effects), while sales in the wholesale business plummeted by 49 percent (-46 percent adjusted for currency effects).

Sales fell short of the previous year's level in all market regions. In the EMEA region, which includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they fell by 15 percent (currency-adjusted: -15 percent), in the Asia-Pacific region by 8 percent (currency-adjusted: -1 percent) and in the Americas by as much as 31 percent (currency-adjusted: -26 percent).

In the first nine months of the current financial year, sales totalled 662.9 million pounds, 12 percent (currency-adjusted -10 percent) below the corresponding figure for the previous year.

The company emphasised that the current results were in line with the forecasts updated in November and reaffirmed its outlook for the year as a whole. Management therefore continues to expect a currency-adjusted decline in sales in the high single-digit percentage range for 2023/24.