Hugo Boss sees Q1 sales jump as all brands, regions and categories outperform

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 4, 2023

Hugo Boss had a good first quarter with currency-adjusted group sales up 25% at €968 million as it saw double-digit improvements across both brands, all regions, and all channels.

See catwalk

With quarterly sales tantalisingly, close to the €1 billion mark, the company’s EBIT jumped 63% to €65 million in Q1. As a result, it has raised its outlook with sales expected to grow this year at around 10%, reaching €4 billion. EBITDA should increase between 10% and 20% to a range of €370 million-€400 million. 

“We look back on an excellent start to the year, as we further accelerated brand momentum around the globe,” said CEO Daniel Grieder. “Following our strong performance, we remain all the more confident in [our] continued success. We will make 2023 yet another record-breaking year for our company, as we aim to achieve our mid-term sales target of €4 billion already this year, thus significantly earlier than expected.”

The company said that the quarter generated “significant top- and bottom-line improvements” with its sales figure strongly exceeding pre-pandemic levels (+44% currency-adjusted).

It added that it saw “momentum further accelerating as compared to the final quarter of 2022”.

This was driven by its growth strategy (dubbed CLAIM 5), “which provided substantial tailwinds throughout the quarter. As a result, growth was once more broad-based in nature”.

A year after it relaunched its rebranded Boss and Hugo brands, their SS23 collections were “once again very well received by both consumers and wholesale partners worldwide”. 

Thanks to the accompanying global brand campaigns, as well as key fashion events, “both brands were able to create further buzz throughout the quarter”. 

“Fuelled by the ongoing strong brand momentum”, the company said it recorded “significant double-digit growth in currency-adjusted sales for Boss Menswear (+23%), Boss Womenswear (+28%), and Hugo (+31%)”.

There was “ongoing robust consumer demand” in the period and in EMEA, currency-adjusted revenues increased 21% year on year, “reflecting robust double-digit growth in key markets such as Germany (+28%) and France (+17%), as well as a particularly strong performance in growth markets such as the Middle East”. 

With revenues up 38% currency-adjusted, momentum in the Americas was faster than ever “as all of the region’s markets continued their strong double-digit sales trajectories”. In the US, currency-adjusted sales were up 31% overall. 

Asia/Pacific “also recorded a powerful start to the year with sales returning to strong double-digit growth of 31%”. This was driven by “sustained double-digit improvements in South East Asia & Pacific as well as a significant uptick in consumer sentiment in China following the market’s reopening in late 2022”. In fact, sales in China came in 25% higher, currency-adjusted.

The company also said that its digital business saw currency-adjusted sales up 22%, "reflecting strong double-digit improvements across all digital touchpoints”. Revenues generated via the digital flagship hugoboss.com “increased noticeably”, supported by the relaunch of its  app in February. 

Physical stores also “had an excellent start to the year” with revenues up 26%. It was strong in physical wholesale too with sales up 26%.

As mentioned at the start, EBIT was up 63% “despite ongoing investments into the business”. The EBIT margin increased by 160 basis points to 6.7% and its new outlook of 10%-20% EBIT growth for the full year easily beats the previous 5%-12% forecast.