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Ferragamo said second-quarter revenues fell 11.8 per cent year-on-year to €253 million. Revenues for the first half of fiscal 2025 fell 7.1 per cent to €474 million. Shares for the company, which is still without a CEO following Marco Gobbetti’s February exit, fell 5.6 per cent on Thursday.
The half-year decline was primarily due to a big dip in wholesale, with revenues down 14 per cent year-on-year to €105 million, while direct-to-consumer (DTC) revenues saw a smaller decline of 5 per cent to €357 million in H1. Ferragamo attributes this to worsening performances in Europe and Japan, driven by lower tourist purchases. The brand’s executives also pointed out weak performance in the Asia-Pacific region that dragged down overall sales. “The luxury sector continues to face a challenging market environment, which further deteriorated in the second quarter,” executive board member Ernesto Greco told investors.
By region, EMEA revenues fell 3.7 per cent in the second quarter. North America also saw a 3.3 per cent decline due to a wholesale drag. Asia-Pacific revenues fared the worst, down 18.6 per cent year-on-year; the Japanese market was down 12.6 per cent, mainly due to the harder comparison base versus last year and lower Chinese tourist purchases.
On the call, executives outlined Ferragamo’s new strategic turnaround plan. Greco said Ferragamo has undertaken a “comprehensive diagnostic” of its brand positioning since the second quarter, and has started implementing changes. Executives expect to see the impact of these changes later this year, and more potently in 2026. “As you can imagine, such an action plan starting from a clear brand position in a statement is quite articulated,” Greco said. The top three priorities are improving Ferragamo’s product offering, rebalancing the route to market, and reviving marketing and communication.
Product improvements including establishing more recognisable, refined aesthetics and a focus on shoes and leather goods. “We are working on recognisable aesthetics of a sophisticated, timeless Italian elegance, leveraging our heritage symbols and codes from our extensive archive to appeal to different customer archetypes,” Greco said. The company’s rebalanced route to market involves fewer SKUs, and an optimised pricing architecture and store network. Ferragamo will also improve its marketing and storytelling via local amplifications, better digital targeting, more 360-campaigns and a strengthened marketing calendar. Greco said the company has realised it should spend less on influencers and fashion shows, and more on digital, in-store events and “storytelling initiatives”.
The strategy was devised by a group of professionals including internal management and external consultants, Greco said. “Everything started from analysing the current situation,” he said, attributing Ferragamo’s recent struggles to its recent revenue losses as the wider luxury industry grew. “We have done a detailed analysis on all the activities, which were implemented in the last two or three years — some of them were quite right, others didn’t show what we expected. We are keeping what’s positive and giving us results, and changing what [didn’t].”
The CEO search is still underway, Greco confirmed.
“While the geopolitical and the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we will continue to strengthen our strategic position to convey a clear brand image consistent with our client expectations, ensuring the alignment of style, product and communication tools,” Greco said. “We will keep on executing with operational flexibility and financial discipline, optimising our cost structure to reflect current business needs without compromising our own future growth.”
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