Today, KMD and PMV are publishing their FY 24 results. Good opportunity to have a look at the clothing retail sector.
PMV apparel brand* : . - 6.4 % for FY 24 sales (- 4.5 % during H2 24 and gross margin increase vs H2 23), . further sales improvement (vs H2 24) during the first 7 weeks of FY 25.
KMD : . - 11 % for FY 24 sales (H2 improvement but still negative for Rip Curl and Kathmandu), . gross margin FY 24 : - 20 bp, . first 7 weeks of FY 25 sales : + 2.1 % for KMD Australia, - 23.1 % for KMD NZ, - 5 % for Rip Curl DTC. Wholesale : single digit decrease vs double digit decrease in FY 24.
Obviously, this is a tough sector at the moment, in particular for independants. As usual, this is a very dynamic sector, where we can identify winners and losers.
One company which stands out in this sector : Universal Store (UNI). Even if they are affected like others by the weakness of independant stores (via their whole sale business), it remains a small part of UNI which continues to have a unique performance in this sector. During the last 10 years, UNI had on average a lfl sales growth of 10.7 % per year.
Universal Store group : . + 9.7 % for FY 24 sales (- 0.3 % lfl for US store format, but with + 6.6 % for US store format during H2 24), . gross margin : + 110 bp in FY 24, . first 7 weeks FY 25 sales : + 15.3 % for US sales (+ 12.5 % lfl), + 18.9 % for PS sales (+ 24.2 % lfl) and + 13.3 % for CTC DTC (+ 22.4 % lfl).
* Just Jeans, Jay Jay, Portmans, Dotti and Jacquie E.
