Wolford lowers full-year forecast as Q1 revenue falls

German hosiery brand Wolford has warned it will miss its revenue targets for the current financial year ending April 30, 2017. Revenue for the entire 2016/17 financial year is now expected to “stagnate” or “drop slightly below the prior-year level”, while operating results are expected to be in the negative low single-digit million euro range.

In a statement released on Friday, the Management Board said the company is unlikely to make up for the revenue decrease experienced in the first quarter (-18%). Wolford’s performance has been also hit by the ongoing market weakness in August and lower consumer spending due to negative events in core markets, such as political uncertainty in the US, fear of terrorism in France, Brexit.

In particular, Wolford’s high margin retail business reported a 9% drop in revenue in the first quarter of the 2016/17 financial year in comparison to the prior-year period.

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Against this background and additional to negative currency effects, Wolford’s EBIT for the first quarter totalled negative 8.3 million euros, compared to negative 3 million in the previous year.

Wolford is implementing a programme designed to increase revenue and enhance profitability, which it said its proceeding on schedule. The German brand is also carrying out a creative realignment of the company.

Wolford will announce its full results for the first quarter of 2016/17 on September 9.