Wolford hit by market weakness, expects full-year loss

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jan 15, 2019

Austrian hosiery brand Wolford has warned that it will make a full-year loss despite the positive impact of a cost-saving programme, blaming the ongoing market weakness and its Christmas trading performance.

Shares in the company fell almost 9% on Tuesday on the Vienna Stock Exchange (VSE).

Wolford has been struggling to revert sliding sales in recent years, but a restructuring programme helped it narrow its losses in the first half of the year to €5.92m from €6.18m.

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Despite the revenue decline, the business hoped to return to profitability in the current 2018/19 financial year, after two years of losses. However, the previous forecast has now been revised to anticipate a loss.

Several measures have been implemented  with the aim of turning around the struggling business over the last year, including a new brand strategy, and the sale of a majority stake to Chinese conglomerate Fosun.

The new majority owner is now preparing to expand the hosiery business in China.