Geox: Declining wholesale business depresses sales

Adverse conditions continued to pose challenges for Geox in the first half of the financial year.

The Italian shoe retailer suffered a 9.4 percent drop in sales to 320.4 million euros, Geox announced on Thursday. Compared to the same period last year, sales amounted to 353.6 million euros.

The operating result also fell significantly in the first half of the year. While the company recorded a profit of 3.6 million euros in the first six months of the 2023 financial year, the loss before interest and taxes (EBIT) in 2024 was now 5.5 million euros. The net loss, in turn, increased from 9.6 to 15.4 million euros.

The reason for the drop in sales is in particular the ongoing negative development of the wholesale business . Compared to the previous year, a decrease of 16 percent to 156 million euros was recorded, which was mainly due to a negative double-digit SS24 initial order intake and repeat orders during the season, which increased slightly compared to the previous year. In addition, revenues in the stores run by franchise partners also fell by 15.2 percent to 23 million euros.

Despite solid development in the first quarter, the company's own retail business also shrank in the first half of the year. The numerous store closures could only be partially offset by the positive performance on a like-for-like basis and led to a year-on-year decline in sales of 5.4 percent to 110 million euros. Only in its own e-commerce was Geox able to achieve a significant year-on-year increase in sales of 29 percent to 31 million euros.

The decline in sales recorded by Geox is negative across the board, regardless of market region. In Italy, sales fell by 9.9 percent to 89 million euros, while in the rest of Europe they fell by just 1.7 percent to 146 million euros. In North America, sales fell by 13.7 percent to 12.0 million euros, while in the remaining global markets they totaled 73.0 million euros, 20.6 percent below the level of the same quarter last year.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.DE, translated and edited to English.