Levi Strauss & Co net revenue up 4% to 1.45 bn in Q3 2019

The company's direct-to-consumer business grew by 12 per cent on a constant-currency basis in the third quarter, primarily due to expansion and performance of the retail network and e-commerce growth. Net revenues from the company's wholesale business grew 1 per cent on a reported basis and 2 per cent on a constant-currency basis, reflecting growth in Europe and Asia.

In the Americas, net revenues declined 3 per cent on both a reported and on a constant-currency basis due to a decline in the wholesale business, offset in part by growth in the direct-to-consumer business. Direct-to-consumer net revenues growth of nine per cent reflected the Levi’s brand’s strength in the region. The decline in wholesale primarily reflected a Dockers line reset in the second half of 2018, reduced shipments to the off-price channel in 2019, and the impact in 2019 of a pending acquisition of a South American distributor.

In Europe, net revenues grew 14 per cent on a reported basis and 18 per cent on a constant-currency basis, reflecting continued broad-based growth in both direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels across the region. In Asia, net revenues grew nine per cent on a reported basis and 12 per cent on a constant-currency basis, reflecting strong performance across traditional wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels across the region. Revenue growth was broad-based across most of the region's markets.

For year-to-date, the company’s direct-to-consumer business grew 13 per cent on a constant-currency basis due to performance and expansion of the retail network and e-commerce growth. Wholesale net revenues grew 3 per cent on a reported basis and five per cent on a constant-currency basis reflecting growth in all regions.

"We delivered strong third-quarter results and remain on-track to achieve our full-year expectations," said Chip Bergh, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. "Our strategies to diversify to faster-growing, high-opportunity, high gross margin businesses continue to drive momentum, as we again grew revenues double-digits internationally, in our direct-to-consumer business, and in the women’s and tops categories. And our global wholesale business grew two percent in constant-currency, despite US wholesale facing what we expect will be the toughest comparison of the year. As for the fourth quarter, we again expect strong performance in international, direct-to-consumer, women's and tops, and improved comparisons for US wholesale. We'll stay focused on what we can control as we grow this business over the long-term."

For the full-year of 2019, the company expects net revenue growth of five-and-a-half to six per cent on constant-currency basis; this incorporates the impact of the South American distributor acquisition announced in August this year.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)