Calida’s 2022 results driven by e-tail, renewed focus on lingerie category

On Friday, Swiss textiles group Calida, owner among others of lingerie label Aubade, published extremely buoyant results for 2022, driven by e-tail and a renewed focus on the lingerie category.

The group’s net profit soared by 43.4% compared to the previous year, reaching CHF21.8 million (€21.8 million), said Calida in a press release. The group has recently sold its sportswear and mountain apparel businesses to focus on underwear.

Revenue increased by 8.5% to CHF323.9 million, equivalent to a 14.4% growth excluding exchange rate effects, slightly below expectations. Analysts interviewed by Swiss press agency AWP were on average expecting a revenue of CHF326.6 million.

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Growth was stronger during the first half of the year, “since purchasing power declined sharply in H2 as inflation began to bite,” the group said in the press release.

However, the group managed to “gain further market share” in an “extremely challenging environment which significantly affected consumer sentiment,” said managing director Timo Schmidt-Eisenhart, quoted in the press release.

The group, well-known in Switzerland for the pyjamas commercialised by its long-established brand Calida, continued to strengthen in the e-tail channel, one of its growth drivers, which accounted for a 27.7% share of sales in 2022, compared to a 26.9% one a year earlier.

In 2022, the group made two acquisitions, buying German sustainable underwear brand Erlich Textil and US brand Cosabella, which markets made-in-Italy lingerie in the USA. These acquisitions contributed 6.7% of total revenue.

Cosabella recorded double-digit growth in online sales, but the wholesale side of the business slumped due to “high pandemic-related inventory, which slowed down additional merchant purchases,” stated the group.

Erlich Textil was instead “affected by sharply lower consumer spending among its disconcerted young clientèle, due in particular to the war in Ukraine and record inflation in Germany,” according to Calida.

With regards to 2023, the Swiss group said it was “well equipped” to pursue its growth strategy despite “economic and geopolitical uncertainty, (...) inflation and the resulting loss of purchasing power.” Calida is aiming for organic sales growth between 4% and 6%.