The Board of Directors of Safilo Approves Financial Results of First Half of 2020

Wednesday, August 12 2020 | 10 h 23 min | News

The Board of Directors of Safilo Group has reviewed and approved the results of the first half of 2020.

Angelo Trocchia, Safilo Chief Executive Officer, commented: “As we had anticipated to the market in May, our second quarter sales and economic results were heavily impacted by the massive shutdown of commercial activities across the world in April, and the very gradual and patchy reopening of stores for prescription frames and sunglasses starting to occur in May as lockdowns were eased in many countries. In these two months, this business context resulted in a sales drop of approximately 75% compared to the same period last year, and in an unprecedented deleveraging of costs and negative economic performance.

In June, store traffic and conversion rates started to clearly rebound in markets like Italy, France and Germany, while the recovery of the Chinese market, which began in April, further strengthened. On the other hand, we did not experience a sales rebound yet in North America where re-openings came a bit later than Europe and were temporarily impacted by social disruptions. The growth of the US market materialized for us in July.”

In North America, Q2 2020 net sales equaled Euro 44.1 million, down 45.3% at current exchange rates and 46.1% at constant exchange rates compared to the same quarter of last year. Safilo’s wholesale revenues declined around 65% in quarter, reflecting the slower pace of re-openings which occurred in the region between May and the beginning of June, with the social turmoil affecting the country temporarily delaying the restart of commercial activities.

The newly acquired businesses of Privé Revaux and Blenders Eyewear, the latter completed on June 1st, 2020, added a total of Euro 15.7 million to the quarterly sales of North America, more than doubling their respective sales compared to their prior year business.

On the positive side, also the quarterly performance of the brand Smith, whose e-commerce business in US surged around 40% in the period, allowing for a more moderate total brand decline of approximately 9% at constant exchange rates. In June, the reopening of the brick and mortar sport customers contributed to Smith double-digit sales growth compared to the same month of last year.

In North America, H1 2020 net sales totaled Euro 128.5 million, declining 24.2% at current exchange rates and 26.0% at constant exchange rates compared to H1 2019.

Click HERE for the full press release.

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