Switzerland's Fenix Outdoor's sales dip in 2024, profit margin shrinks

EBITDA declined to €95.3 million from €113.7 million, while operating profit dropped to €37.4 million (~$39.27 million), compared to €55.0 million in the prior year. The result before tax declined to €35.3 million, compared to €47.6 million in 2023. Earnings per B-share fell to €1.09, down from €2.37, Fenix Outdoor said in a press release.

The company achieved external net sales of €31.9 million from €34.4 million as it was negatively affected by the held back orders due to credit risk in North America and some challenges in the Korean market. Lower sales to own brand retail also affected the operating result negatively. The joint venture (JV) in China outperformed almost every other market and had a very good quarter.

The North American brand retail showed promise on a like-for-like basis, where the company, in the US, has closed six locations. The better sales were also driven by a digital billboard campaign in Times Square in New York.

Fourth quarter (Q4) financial

For the fourth quarter (Q4) from October-December 2024, net sales stood at €174.6 million, slightly down from €180.2 million in the same period of 2023, a decrease of 3.1 per cent. EBITDA remained stable at €17.2 million, compared to €17.5 million in the previous year. The operating profit improved to €2.6 million, up from €0.4 million, while the profit margin rose to 1.5 per cent from 0.2 per cent.

“The quarter started promising, but a delay in winter weather meant it slowed down before improving again towards the latter part of the quarter. We did run into shortage of some winter merchandise due to more conservative purchasing because of the large inventory last year. We then did not anticipate the decrease of winter goods in inventory during Q1 2024, due to the cold weather and the higher-than-expected demand in the Nordics,” said Martin Nordin, chairman of the board, Fenix Outdoor.

“We are still facing a challenging market in 2025. In terms of orderbooks for 2025 we do see an improvement for both fall and winter. There are still signs of retailers being cautious of taking risks in inventory. They are counting more on reorders from the brands. This means there is an increase of risk in our business, especially in purchasing, as we must take a larger risk to enable us to capitalize more in reordering. The supply chain as well as the political environment is also factors playing in,” added Nordin.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)