Fashion etailer Zalando sales skyrocket 125% in 2012

Zalando is Europe´s fastest growing company

Zalando is the fastest European company ever to reach more than one billion EUR in net sales only four years after being founded. Robert Gentz, Founder and Managing Director of Zalando, commented: “We are very proud of the remarkable achievements we made as a team. This development reaffirms our business model and our investors’ trust. Zalando is a true European success story.”

Zalando‘s sales grew at a rate of 125 per cent compared to 2011. This increase can be attributed to rising demand in all existing markets including Germany, as well as the addition of seven new countries in 2012, extending the company’s reach to 14 active markets overall. “By launching shops in several new countries we have now established a broad footprint. This will be the basis for Zalando’s growth for the years to come,” added Robert Gentz.

Zalando reaches break-even in its core region DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and continues to invest into international expansion

In 2012, Zalando proved its capability to combine very strong sales growth with a continued path to profitability. In the most established region DACH, which generates the majority of net sales, Zalando reached break-even (EBIT) while continuing to grow at high rates.

At the same time, Zalando invested into the international markets to further strengthen its leading position in Europe. As a result of this strategy, the Berlin-based company closed 2012 with an improved overall EBIT margin of minus eight per cent of sales (2011: minus twelve per cent).

“Set-up costs are taken into account and part of our strategy for all market entries. The important part is that we see a positive margin trend in all regions as customers are loyal and efficiency is improved,” explained Rubin Ritter, Managing Director at Zalando. “The fact that we reached break-even in our core region already in our fourth year proves the success of our business model and has encouraged us to invest even faster into building leadership in the international markets,” continued Ritter.

To drive future expansion, Zalando remains financially well-equipped. “In 2012, we further increased Zalando’s equity ratio to more than 50 per cent from 39 per cent back in 2011. We follow a fast growth path, and always have countered this with a very conservative balance sheet,” emphasized Rubin Ritter.