Revenues in North America fell 45.1% in the nine months to 120.6 million euros and were down 24% in the third quarter, recovering from the previous quarter. Le Divelec Lemmi addressed the effects of the pandemic and of the political unrest in the third quarter but said the region had seen positive traction in October.
Revenues in Central and South America in the nine months decreased 47.5% to 29.3 million euros and were down 31.9% in the third quarter.
Le Divelec Lemmi declined to provide projections for the fourth quarter given the ongoing uncertainties in Europe and the U.S.
In the nine months, all product categories saw a decrease. Sales of shoes fell 39.7% to 253.2 million euros, representing 41.4% of the total. Leather goods and handbags were down 33.8% to 259.8 million euros, accounting for 42.5% of the total. Ready-to-wear sales decreased 39.2% to 32.2 million euros.
Revenues from fragrances fell 56.6% to 26 million euros, also due to the postponement of the launch of new products in the wake of the lockdowns. Corsi said he expected the category to improve by the end of the year.
The company on Tuesday also approved the merger by incorporation in Salvatore Ferragamo SpA of the 100% owned Ferragamo Parfums SpA effective Jan. 1. The merger responds to the need to simplify the Italian structure of the Salvatore Ferragamo Group, optimizing the management of its resources and creating a more efficient organization and synergies to support its business development, the company said.
In the nine months, sales in the retail distribution channel were down 35.3% to 415.9 million euros. As of Sept. 30, the group counted 646 points of sales, including 393 directly operated stores and 253 third-party-operated stores.
In the third quarter, retail revenues decreased 23%, with a 22.8% decline in like-for-like performance. But its e-commerce channel registered a strong acceleration. Indeed, Le Divelec Lemmi touted the investments in the company’s digital transformation as it will continue to focus in 2021 on a customer-centric business model, “nurturing the relationship with customers,” seeing this as “a key factor,” bridging the gap between physical and digital.
She said that for the holiday season, the company is working to offer customers “full service of gift-giving by leveraging the online service and the [power] of the sales associates’ relationship with customers.”
The executive said Ferragamo will increasingly invest in creating a “full-fledged experience for Chinese customers, leveraging their attitude to buy in their own market,” expecting the uncertainties connected to traveling to continue in 2021 and more local shopping to take place.
Responding to a question about Farfetch, in the wake of the new initiative coming out of its $1.15 billion deal with Alibaba, Compagnie Financière Richemont and Artemis, Le Divelec Lemmi said Ferragamo has been working on developing virtual concessions in new markets by the end of the year, mainly in Europe and, on a smaller scale, in the U.S. and Latin America.
In October, it further consolidated its e-commerce business in China, adding a new digital store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion to the existing digital store on JD.com.
At the end of October, global online revenues accounted for 8% of revenues, said Le Divelec Lemmi.
In the nine months, the wholesale channel saw a 44.5% fall in revenues to 187.9 million euros mainly penalized by the performance of the travel retail channel and of fragrances. In the third quarter, wholesale revenues were down 8.7%.
As of Sept. 30, investments amounted to 15 million euros, down 62.5% compared with the first nine months of 2019, as the company focused only on projects considered essential and a priority, such as the launch of the new e-commerce site earlier this year and its digital initiatives.
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
