Safilo Group continued to recover economically in Q1 2021 after a poor sales performance in 2020, with new brands compensating for licences terminated at the end of 2020, online business contributing significantly to group sales, as well as a streamlined cost structure.
Safilo Group published its economic and financial key figures for Q1 2021, reporting net sales of €251.4 million in the first quarter of this year, up 20.0% at constant exchange rates compared to Q1 2020, which was affected by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic.
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More significantly, Safilo’s Q1 2021 net sales also grew compared to the same quarter in 2019, up 6.0% at constant exchange rates, thanks to the strong performance of the group’s own brands and core licences, as well as the significant contribution of the new brands in the portfolio, which effectively compensated for the licences that ended at the end of last year.
The geographical drivers of the Safilo Group’s sales performance in the first quarter of 2021 (Source: Safilo)
From a commercial perspective, the positive revenue performance (e.g. strong growth of the online business at 13% of Group revenue), combined with the ongoing cost reduction measures and leaner overhead structure resulting from the Group’s structural savings in recent years, led to a significant improvement in Safilo’s operating performance, also compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Safilo Group’s adjusted EBITDA amounted to €25.8 million in Q1 2021, compared to €5.8 million in Q1 2020 and €20.0 million in Q1 2019, and the adjusted EBITDA margin reached 10.3% in the period, compared to 2.6% in Q1 2020 and 8.1% in Q1 2019.
Commenting on the figures, Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer of Safilo, said, “2021 represents a fresh start for our Group, having spent the past two years building a strong and resilient business model with a diversified brand portfolio and a supply chain aligned with market realities. We are pleased with this very positive start to the year, with our revenue and economic results in the first quarter of 2021 exceeding those of the first quarter of 2019. These results are particularly relevant to us as they have been achieved in what has become a continued challenging healthcare and business environment in some countries and distribution channels, and provide an initial, encouraging testimony to the growth the Group can target thanks to its new business levers. Despite a still mixed macro picture in Europe and uncertainty about how the summer season will unfold, we are on track today to deliver a solid second quarter, driven again by the strength of the US, the online business and progress in some emerging markets.”
Safilo second quarter outlook
In the month of April, Safilo’s sales trend remained strong, still driven by excellent growth in the US, online business and progress in some emerging markets. Retail restrictions and uncertainties around shop reopenings in some countries instead prevented a significant upturn in Europe.
Based on the current state of the order book, the Safilo Group expects total sales to normalise in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the exceptional Covid-19-related decline in the second quarter of last year, and aims to slightly outperform the second quarter of 2019 at constant exchange rates.
