Driven by Bonita brand sales, revenue in the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 rose 3.4 per cent year over year at German apparel marketer Tom Tailor Group.
“And also despite a challenging environment, we were able to hike sales by 3.4 per cent to €215.7 million in the first quarter of 2015 as compared to €208.7 million in the corresponding quarter in 2014,” it said.
“By contrast, first-quarter sales in the German textile market were down by 5 per cent year on year”, the apparel marketer informed in a press release.
In the first quarter of 2015, Bonita brand achieved sales growth of 5.8 per cent over the year ago quarter to reach €72.4 million.
According to Tom Tailor Group, key factors behind this positive trend were improved product and design quality, as well as shorter procurement times.
On a like-for-like basis, Bonita sales were up 7.4 per cent in the period under review as against 8.7 per cent negative growth recorded by the brand in the same quarter of last year.
Compared to the very strong prior year quarter, Tom Tailor Retail recorded a more moderate start in the first two months in 2015, while in March; the segment experienced a clear upward trend.
Consequently, sales of €58.9 million in the reporting quarter were slightly below the €59.2 million from the first quarter of 2014.
On a like-for-like basis, sales were down by 4.6 per cent compared to a strong growth of 9.6 per cent it posted in the quarter from a year earlier.
Tom Tailor Wholesale followed the encouraging trend from the fourth quarter of 2014 and achieved a year on year 4.2 per cent sales hike to touch €84.5 million.
Compared to recent strong developments in the wholesale channel, the Company expects growth in this segment to slow down over the course of this year.
In March, the apparel marketer entered into cooperation with Indian ecommerce portal Jabong, which will give Tom Tailor brand a presence in the rapidly expanding Indian market.
In the first three months of 2015, gross profit margin decreased to 55.3 per cent from 56.9 per cent in the first three months of 2014.
The Group attributed the decline to the slightly lower gross profit margin of Bonita to the seasonal promotions at the beginning of the year.
Recurring EBITDA in the first quarter of 2015 was down to €9.1 million compared to €11.1 million from the previous year, reflecting higher operating expenses such as costs related to increase in retail areas.
For the reporting quarter recurring net loss at the clothing marketer was flat at €4.0 million from the same quarter of last year.
Reported net loss for the quarter of 2015 totaled to €-6.9 million, slightly higher than €6.7 million it posted in the prior year fourth quarter.
As of March 31, 2015, net debt stood at €232.0 million, down €5.7 million from €237.6 million at March 31, 2014 and the equity ratio at the end of the reporting period amounted to 29.6 per cent.
