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Hugo Boss Sees Broadly Stable 2025 Sales, Flags Muted Demand in 1st Quarter

FILE PHOTO: Men's shoes are on display at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Men's shoes are on display at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
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Hugo Boss Sees Broadly Stable 2025 Sales, Flags Muted Demand in 1st Quarter

FILE PHOTO: Men's shoes are on display at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Men's shoes are on display at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo

Hugo Boss said muted consumer sentiment was having an impact on its business in the current quarter as it forecast 2025 sales broadly in line with last year's level on Thursday.
The upmarket fashion company has sought to boost the popularity of its brand through selected marketing investments, while increasing profits by limiting costs, despite weakening consumer demand and a polarization of consumer preferences towards either high-end luxury or cheaper fast-fashion offers.
It sees annual sales development between a 2% decline and a 2% increase, to a range of 4.2 billion to 4.4 billion euros ($4.57 billion to $4.79 billion), following 3% growth to 4.3 billion euros in 2024, Reuters reported.
"Macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility remains high, weighing on consumer sentiment and impacting our business performance since the beginning of the year," CEO Daniel Grieder said in a statement.
Analysts had estimated annual sales of 4.26 billion euros for 2024 and 4.44 billion euros for 2025, a company-provided poll showed.
The Hugo Boss shares were up 3.8% in early Frankfurt trade despite the cautious comments, with Baader Helvea's analyst Volker Bosse pointing to a solid outlook for operating profit.
The company expects full-year earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to rise between 5% and 22%, coming in between 380 million and 440 million euros, compared to a 12% decline to 361 million euros last year.
At its midpoint, the guidance would imply EBIT of 410 million euros, against analysts' estimate of 414 million euros.
The company also said sales growth was "particularly robust" in the last three months of 2024, boosted by a successful holiday season.
Group sales were 1.25 billion euros in the fourth quarter, beating analysts' expectations of 1.20 billion euros, with currency-adjusted sales in the Americas region rising 8% helped by a high single-digit percent uptick in the key US market.
"Sales in China remained below the prior-year level, reflecting overall muted local consumer demand," it added.

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Fashion

Zalando Says AI Drives Productivity and Expects Higher Profit, Shares Jump

FILED - 22 October 2013, Thuringia, Erfurt: A general view of the logistics center of online retailer Zalando in Erfurt. Photo: Marc Tirl/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 22 October 2013, Thuringia, Erfurt: A general view of the logistics center of online retailer Zalando in Erfurt. Photo: Marc Tirl/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
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Zalando Says AI Drives Productivity and Expects Higher Profit, Shares Jump

FILED - 22 October 2013, Thuringia, Erfurt: A general view of the logistics center of online retailer Zalando in Erfurt. Photo: Marc Tirl/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 22 October 2013, Thuringia, Erfurt: A general view of the logistics center of online retailer Zalando in Erfurt. Photo: Marc Tirl/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

European online fashion retailer Zalando said on Thursday its use of artificial intelligence was making its business more efficient and productive, as it forecast full-year adjusted operating profit to grow in 2026 and launched an up to 300-million-euro ($346 million) share buyback.

Zalando shares jumped 7% in early trading as investors welcomed the positive outlook, providing some succour to the stock that had tumbled sharply from peaks in 2021 when the pandemic boosted online shopping.

Zalando ⁠said AI-generated product ⁠images were saving money and time on ad creation and enabling it to publish 70% more content, while an AI virtual try-on was also helping shoppers pick their correct size, reducing size-related returns - a major headache for online shopping platforms.

Analysts said concerns had been growing over the risk to Zalando from AI, with some worried consumers could use large-language models like ⁠ChatGPT to research products and shop online, bypassing the company's platform.

The Berlin-based company, which sells clothes, shoes and accessories from thousands of brands including Nike, Hugo Boss, and Coach, expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 660 million to 740 million euros in 2026, compared with 591 million euros in 2025.

"We are providing our customers and partners with experiences and services that seemed impossible just a few years ago while making our own operations more efficient," Robert Gentz, co-CEO of Zalando, said in a statement.

Zalando, whose business-to-business arm sells services to other retailers and ⁠brands, also announced ⁠its software unit Scayle signed a deal with Levi's to run its worldwide ecommerce, which JP Morgan analysts said investors would welcome given the brand's status and size.

The company expects gross merchandise volume growth of 12% to 17% in 2026, after GMV - a key revenue metric measuring the value of all goods sold - grew 14.7% to 17.56 billion euros in 2025.

Zalando's active customer numbers increased to 62 million in 2025 from 51.8 million in 2024, while the average order value was 62.8 euros, up from 61 euros a year earlier.

The company said it would repurchase up to 20 million shares with a total price of up to 300 million euros.

Fashion

Zara Owner Inditex Posts Record Profit in 2025

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
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Zara Owner Inditex Posts Record Profit in 2025

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez

Zara owner Inditex, the world's leading low-cost fashion retailer, posted a record annual profit for the third year running on Wednesday, seeing off strong international competition.

The Spanish group, which includes top brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Bershka, reported a profit of 6.22 billion euros ($7.23 billion) in the fiscal year ending January 31.

That marked a six percent rise on the 5.9 billion it raked in in 2024, which was also a group record, Inditex said.

Fashion

Margot Robbie, Oprah Watch Blazy Transform Chanel with Color and Craft

Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
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Margot Robbie, Oprah Watch Blazy Transform Chanel with Color and Craft

Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)

Chanel 's Matthieu Blazy is still building. Six months into his tenure at the Parisian stalwart, the designer staged his second ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week Monday, where brightly colored cranes rose from a holographic floor — a deliberate signal that the construction is ongoing.

For Parisians who have spent years staring at the real thing above Notre-Dame cathedral, the set was perhaps less dreamy than intended.

The audience inside the Grand Palais suggested the foundations are solid: Margot Robbie, Oprah, Jennie, Kylie Minogue, Lily-Rose Depp, Teyana Taylor and Olivia Dean all turned up to watch the next floor go on.

Blazy took his cue from a quote from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel: “We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly.”

The collection was structured around that tension — plain against spectacular, function against fantasy — with a discipline his sprawling debut last October sometimes lacked.

The opening looks were austere by design. Black knit zip-ups, tweed blousons and boxy overshirts arrived with little more than four gold buttons to signal they belonged to Chanel.

In the vast runway space, they could read as underwhelming. But Blazy’s point was architectural: the suit, he said, is “the first brick” — and everything else rises from it.

That logic tracks to the founder.

In her apartment on Rue Cambon, a wall is covered in gauze painted gold — something poor made precious.

Chanel built a house on that idea, borrowing from everyday dress and elevating it. Blazy is doing the same with her codes, stripping the suit to a knit shirt jacket or pressed-tweed blouson before rebuilding it in silicone-woven fabric and metallic mesh.

The collection’s most provocative move was its silhouette. Blazy pulled waistlines dramatically low — belts slung to mid-thigh, pleated skirts starting where blazers ended.

The references were retro flapper filtered through a modern lens: drop-waisted twinsets, patchwork dresses with floral embroidery, vivid patterned knits with a twenties pulse.

A furry coat in bold geometric color could have been worn in a chic part of London's Camden.

Whether the ultra-low waistlines will land with the well-heeled clients who pack Chanel’s front rows is another question. Selling a radically new proportion to women with deep loyalty to the house is a different challenge than winning critical praise.

The final stretch answered that concern with force. Sequined plaid suits arrived in dazzling color. Beaded coats glinted with star-chart embroidery. Metallic mesh was woven to mimic tweed motifs, and several models wore pastel-tinted hair to match their looks.

Fabric flowers burst from bodices. Trailing ribbons, layered ruffles, and insect-wing detailing turned the runway into something closer to spectacle than commerce.

Blazy cast wide — teens through to women in their fifties — and let the show breathe, with a runway circuit that took models the better part of five minutes. He framed it all with seven pared-back black and cream looks, as if to say: whatever else changes, the Chanel you know isn’t going anywhere.

If this second outing holds — on the penultimate day of fashion week — Blazy has found something rare at a heritage house: a way to honor the founder’s voice without simply echoing it.