Week in Review

August 7, 2022

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Week in Review | Aug. 07, 2022

Even with what’s going on in the world, we really haven’t seen anyone back out of deals of note at all,” David Simon, chairman, president and CEO, Simon Property

FINANCE

VF Corp (USA) reported a net loss of $56 million for the quarter ended July 2. This compares with a $324.2 million profit a year ago. Revenue for the period increased 3% to $2.26 billion.

Top performer was The North Face, where sales jumped 31% to $481.1 million.
Timberland rose 8% to $269.5 million.
Vans, the company’s biggest brand by revenue, saw sales fall 7% to $946.8 million.
Dickies sales fell 14.5% to $170.4 million.

Amazon’s (USA) online retail sales fell 4.3% in Q2 to $50.9 billion, the second consecutive quarter they declined.

Next (UK) is in talks to acquire up to a 25% stake in Joules, another high street fashion and lifestyle chain. Joules has a value of £37 million ($44.6 million).

Alibaba (China) reported quarterly revenue growth was flat at 205.56 billion yuan ($30 billion) for the first time as the e-commerce group was hit by Covid lockdowns in China. However the result exceeded the 203.2 billion yuan forecast by 23 analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Hugo Boss (Germany) reported Q2 sales rose 34% to 878 million euros. First-half sales gained 42% to 1.65 billion euros. The company raised full year sales growth guidance from 10-15% to between 20% and 25%, with sales forecast to be in the range of 3.3 billion to 3.5 billion euros.

Tod’s (Italy) could be taken private as the Della Valle family plans to make a $342 million bid for a further 26% of the company’s shares, valuing Tod’s at $1.3 billion. Last year the company reported $893 million in annual sales with profits of $24 million.

PODCAST

Marketing Tactics for Growing Your Business – Even If You’re on a Low Budget

How can companies with limited budgets compete – even with bigger players?

In this episode I’m speaking with Christine Wetzler, Founder and President of Pietryla PR & Marketing, a specialty firm with an international reach.

Christine is an expert in helping emerging companies and startups go from zero to hero – even if they have limited resources.

What you’ll learn:

Strategies and tactics that any firm can implement – even low budget startups.
What to do when you are struggling with client growth.
How to build market credibility for your company and brand.
Why companies need to look beyond social media to grow a profitable business.

🎧 Listen to the podcast

RETAIL

GU (Japan), owned by Fast Retailing, will test the U.S. market’s response to the brand by opening a pop up show in New York in Q4. The shop will offer both womens and mens collections.

Poundland (UK), the discount retailer, is cutting the price of 1,000 products and opening 25 more stores as inflation hits household finances.

Simon Properties (USA), a major mall owner, said that Q2 occupancy rate was 93.9% at June 30, 2022, compared to 91.8% on June 30, 2021. Average base rent increased for the third consecutive quarter to $54.58.

Signed 1,300 leases for more than 4 million square feet in the quarter, and has signed over 2,200 leases for more than 7 million square feet through the first half of the year.
Nearly 40% of its total leasing activity in the first six months of the year has been new deal volume.

MARKETS

Germany’s retail sales dropped 8.8% YoY in June, its sharpest drop since 1994.

U.S. department stores sales were up 14% year-over-year in July, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse. In-store sales remain elevated, up 11.1% year-on-year and 13.9% over the pre-pandemic 2019. E-commerce was up 11.7% year-on-year.

Apparel sales rose 16.6%, outpacing inflation in the category.

UK-wide footfall for July had increased by 15.6% compared with last year, 2021, according to data from Springboard. Footfall was 14% below 2019 levels.