Lanvin Group sales edge up as brand performance varies

Lanvin Group released its full-year results on Wednesday and talked of “resiliency” being key, although the preliminary figures show revenues being up only 1% year on year.

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The company said unaudited revenue reached €426 million but despite challenging conditions, it was up a healthy 8% in Asia Pacific. 

And the aforementioned resiliency was seen through the “creative transition at the Lanvin brand [that] helped improve [the] sales trend in the second half of 2023”.

The owner of the Lanvin brand as well as Wolford, St. John, Sergio Rossi, and Caruso, also saw positive signals in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel, including e-commerce, and said that this is proving the effectiveness of its overall strategy.

Looking at the results in more detail, its CEO said it was a year “full of macroeconomic headwinds and global challenges”.

But Eric Chan added that “2023 was also a year that our group and our brands proved their ability to manage through adverse market conditions and execute their strategy. A softening second half saw the luxury fashion industry in a position it has not been in [for] quite some time. Therefore, I am pleased to report that Lanvin Group maintained growth for the year. And I am confident in our management’s ability to continue to build upon the foundation we have built on our path to profitability”.

By brand, Lanvin revenues actually dropped 7% to €111.7 million. But it showed improving results in the second half even against the backdrop of that weaker overall market and despite being hurt by softer wholesale. The establishment of its Leather Goods and Accessories department, and Lanvin Lab (with the first Lanvin Lab capsule successfully launched in a deal with Grammy-winning artist Future in Q4), started to have a positive impact in H2. This impact is expected to continue during 2024. And while the brand ended the year 7% down in total, the improving H2 trend was clear given that H1 had seen an 11% revenue fall.

Sergio Rossi also fell — in this case by 4% — to €59.5 million, but all of the other brands saw higher revenues. Caruso has to be called out for a particular mention given that its revenues rose 30% to €40 million. The increases were much smaller at St. John, which rose 5% to €90.4 million, and at Wolford, which was up only 1% at €127 million. But they were still credible in the circumstances of last year’s difficult luxury market.

Despite that tough backdrop, the company said continuous improvement to its retail network and expansion of its e-commerce footprint, as well as successful product launches and marketing campaigns, helped carry it through and “generated brand heat”.

That “improvement” to its retail network included the company rationalising its store footprint and it saw an overall reduction in its store base by a total of 12 locations. But this was clearly the right way forward because, despite the smallest store base, group DTC sales didn’t fall and remained flat on a comparable basis. And as far as individual labels were concerned St. John and Sergio Rossi posted strong store like-for-like growth, up 13% and 16%, respectively.

In e-commerce, revenue continued to grow at group level with a 3% rise. Notably, St. John saw 14% growth and Sergio Rossi 5% growth, although Lanvin and Wolford were flat for the year.

Regionally, the company said that it saw stability in North America and EMEA, and that growth in APAC despite economic challenges. Management “successfully navigated an increasingly challenging market to maintain revenue growth for 2023”. 

“North America grew slightly while EMEA decreased slightly” and the 8% increase in the Asia Pacific region came despite a slow start to the year in China. Overall, greater China saw 8% growth for the full year.

As for 2024, the group anticipates that while continued softness in the overall global market will impact the business, “regional economies will fare better and present opportunities for growth”. 

The APAC region also “shows opportunities for market share gains [and] the group plans to pursue tactical growth opportunities in 2024”.

Planned marketing initiatives and product launches are expected to “drive sales in 2024 which will lead to improving scale as the group capitalises on the operating leverage it built in 2023”.