US brand Guess' net revenue up 3% to $664.5 million in Q2 FY24

Europe revenues increased 9 per cent in US dollars and 8 per cent in constant currency. Retail comp sales, including e-commerce, increased 11 per cent in both US dollars and constant currency. Americas retail revenues decreased 8 per cent in US dollars and constant currency. Retail comp sales, including e-commerce, decreased 6 per cent in both US dollars and constant currency. Americas wholesale revenues decreased 13 per cent in US dollars and 16 per cent in constant currency. Asia revenues increased 19 per cent in US dollars and 22 per cent in constant currency. Retail comp sales, including e-commerce, increased 2 per cent in US dollars and 5 per cent in constant currency.

“We are very pleased with our second quarter performance, which exceeded our expectations for top line growth and delivered a significant beat in operating earnings and earnings per share for the period. Our international businesses continued to perform strongly with robust revenue growth and our Americas retail business achieved a sequential improvement in performance compared to the first quarter, as we drove better customer conversion in stores. Most of our businesses delivered better than expected operating results, driven by solid revenue performance, strong gross margin results and effective cost management, which contributed to an operating profit of $65 million and a 9.7 per cent operating margin for the period, well ahead of our expectations,” Carlos Alberini, chief executive officer, said.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2024, the company recorded Gaap net earnings of $39.0 million, a 63 per cent increase from $24.0 million for the same prior-year quarter. Gaap diluted net earnings per share (EPS) increased 69 per cent to $0.59 for the second quarter of fiscal 2024, compared to $0.35 for the same prior-year quarter. The company estimates a positive impact from its share buybacks of $0.04 and a negative impact from currency of $0.05 on GAAP diluted EPS in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 when compared to the same prior-year quarter.

“Our teams’ efforts to elevate our brands have been powerful and transformational for our company. This initiative touched almost every aspect of our business from the products we offer to the marketing we employ and the customer experience we provide and impacted all channels and markets around the world, including our stores, our websites and all wholesale points of distribution. I strongly believe that this work puts our company and our brands in an optimum position to capitalise on the multiple growth opportunities that lie ahead of us,” Paul Marciano, co-founder and chief creative officer, said.

“Our strong performance this year gives us confidence for the second half of the year to deliver on our plans. We have a clear strategy and our teams are executing well and achieving solid results. Today, we are increasing our outlook meaningfully for both operating margin and earnings per share for the year while maintaining our revenue outlook. We remain committed to managing our capital efficiently and expect to generate strong cash flows this year. I believe that our highly diversified business model, the strong momentum of our global brands and our great teams represent a significant competitive advantage and position us well to grow our business and deliver strong value for our shareholders,” Alberini concluded.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)