Hugo Boss Ag S/Adr

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our full year 2025 financial results presentation hosted by Daniel Grida, CEO of Hugo Boss and Yves Miller, CFO and COO. Today's conference call will be structured in three parts. Daniel will begin by outlining the key strategic milestones we achieved in 2025. Yves will then walk you through our financial performance for the past fiscal year and elaborate in detail on our outlook for 2026. Before I hand over to Daniel, allow me to remind you that all revenue-related growth rates will be discussed on a currently adjusted basis, unless otherwise specified. During the Q&A session, please limit your questions to a maximum of two. So let's get started, and over to you, Daniel.

Thank you, Christian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Let me begin by saying that 2025 unfolds against a challenging industry backdrop. Macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility kept uncertainty high and consumer sentiment cautious across many key markets. This led to reduced traffic as well as increased price sensitivity among consumers. In such an environment, it was essential to stay agile and act with clarity and determination. Throughout the year, we focused on the levers within our control acted with discipline, and took deliberate decisions to set the right course for long-term business success. And while 2025 clearly does not reflect the full potential of Hugo Boss, I'm proud of how our teams have navigated the highly volatile market environment and delivered on our commitments for the year, both on the top and bottom line. In 2025, we generated sales of 4.3 billion euros up 2% year over year and broadly in line with the global apparel industry. Our bottom line development was especially strong with EBIT up 8% to 391 million euros and earnings per share up 17% to 3 euros and 61 cents. In addition, we delivered robust free cash flow of 499 million euros, underscoring the cash-generative strengths of our business model. Yves will provide more details on this shortly. But what is equally important to me lies beneath these numbers, the strategic progress that reinforces our confidence looking ahead. This includes the continued strengths and appeal of our brands, the sustained consumer relevance of both menswear, the initiated refinement of both womenswear and yugo, and the decisive choices under claim five touchdown to realign our business in 2026 and prepare for profitable growth thereafter. Let me briefly reflect on these highlights. In times of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, the decisions often centers on efficiency measures. Our most important asset remains the strength of our brands and the relationship we build with our customers. This is what sets us apart from others and what will define our long-term success. Throughout the year, we continue to create brand moments that truly inspire consumers and deepen their emotional connection with Boss and Hugo. I'm especially encouraged by the progress made with our loyal customers. In 2025, our membership space grew by 20%. Our loyalty program, Hugo Boss XP, meanwhile counts 30 million registered customers, and we are making further strides in reengaging and activating members over the long term. This achievement was possible because we continue to invest in our brands, keeping our marketing spend more or less stable at around 7% of sales. With powerful, authentic, and highly personal campaigns, we further elevated our storytelling. Our BOSS Winter 2025 campaign, Be the Next, featured talents such as Ishan Katter, S Cubes, and Amelia Gray, who all shared their individual journeys of ambition and success. At the same time, our BOSS Holiday Extive campaign combined elevated design with a warm and playful narrative. The strong resonance of these activations, both off and online, contributed to our successful final quarter in the meaningful way. The second aspect is our boss menswear business, which grew 3% in 2025, representing around 80% of our group sales. Boss menswear remained the core of our company and continues to demonstrate its leadership in the upper premium menswear market even in a challenging environment. With a strong and consistent brand identity, the brand remains the go-to destination in modern tailoring, while also winning across casual and activewear. Our successful 24-7 lifestyle positioning continues to resonate strongly with consumers and was a key driver of our growth. Across brand lines, we saw healthy demand patterns, underscoring the versatility of Boss Manswear across multiple wearing occasions. Additionally, our partnership with David Beckham further strengthened brand relevance. The global response to this collaboration has been very encouraging, driving strong engagement and reinforcing Boss Manswear as a global player. Now let me turn to both Women's Wear and Hugo, which disliked 5% and 4% in 2025, respectively. This development reflects the deliberate brand and distribution measures we have initiated during the year to set both brands up for long-term success. Our focus has been on simplifying assortments and refining distribution to strengthen brand identity and sharpen positioning. These steps are essential to ensure greater product consistency and stronger resonance with our target consumer. For me, 2025, therefore, marked a turning point here, not because of the financial outcome, but because of the strategic direction we have set. With our new powerhouse structure and the new leadership teams established, we have built the organizational foundation required to drive this transition with conviction. Yet, the refinement of both womenswear and yugo is not an isolated initiative. It's an integral part of the strategic choices we made to strengthen our foundation. While 2026 will continue to be shaped by these measures, we are executing with clarity and focus. I'm confident that by the end of this year, we will operate from a strengthened position. All of the mentioned decisions are laying the groundwork for GLEAM 5 Touchdown, our execution framework through 2028. While our overall direction remains consistent with GLEAM 5, our emphasis now shifts from scale to quality of growth with a sharper focus on profitability and cash generation. This is why we focus on three fields of excellence, brand, distribution, and operations. Strengthening these pillars will reinforce brand equity of Boss and Hugo and enhance the efficiency and financial quality of our business. With an organization fully aligned towards execution and delivery, this sets a clear path towards renewed growth from 2027 onwards. A key outcome of the increased focus on quality is the acceleration of free cash flow. Over the touchdown period, we target an average of around 300 million euros per year in free cash flow after leases. This will allow us not only to continue investing in our brands and platform, but also to create greater optionality in how we return capital to our shareholders. At this discipline, balanced capital allocation approach remains firmly embedded in our strategic way forward. Against this backdrop, launching a share buyback program of up to 200 million euros in a logical next step for us. The program, to be completed by the end of 2027, underscores our strong financial position and reflects our confidence in the long-term value creation potential of Hugo Boss. Importantly, this evolution in our capital return mix does not change our overall commitment to shareholder returns. It gives us a greater flexibility in the current market environment, enabling us to allocate capital where it creates the most value, while continuing to invest in strategic initiatives that will drive sustainable, profitable growth. Before we turn to the numbers, let me briefly outline a few brand and product initiatives that will support our momentum during 2026. We kicked off the year with the BOSS Fall Winter 2026 fashion show in Milan two weeks ago. The collection paid tribute to our heritage and craftsmanship and tailoring, repeated with a modern purposeful edge. The next highlights will be the third drop of our Beckham by BOSS collection and the launch of the Yugo Summer 2026 campaign tomorrow, which brings Yugo's refreshed brand narrative to life in a clear and contemporary way. And with this, ladies and gentlemen, I will now hand over to Yves for a more detailed look at the financial performance. Yves, over to you.

Thank you, Daniel, and also from my side, a warm welcome to all of you. I will now walk you through our operational financial performance for 2025, followed by our expectations for full year 2026. As Daniel outlined, 2025 was marked by a challenging consumer environment with muted demand and softer traffic across many of our key markets. Against this backdrop, our priorities were clear, sustaining brand and product momentum to support the top line while protecting profitability and cash flow through strict cost and capital efficiency. Supported by impactful brand initiatives and a strong finish to the year, we delivered on our financial commitments. Group sales reached €4.3 billion, up 2% year-on-year. At the same time, disciplined cost management and operational focus translated into strong bottom-line improvements. EBIT increased by 8% to €391 million, while our EBIT margin expanded 80 basis points to 9.2%. This margin progression reflects structural efficiency measures continued sourcing gains, and tight expense control across the organization. Importantly, it also demonstrates our ability to grow earnings even in a muted demand environment. Our full-year performance was supported by a robust fourth quarter with clear acceleration in both revenue and earnings, despite a significantly tougher comparison base. Group sales increased by 7%, with growth across all channels. Notably, brick-and-mortar retail returned to growth, including a modest increase in comp store sales. Brick-and-mortar wholesale and digital also delivered robust growth, supported by higher deliveries to partners, including a timing shift of around €20 million from Q1 2026 into Q4 2025. The top-line acceleration translated into a meaningful improvement in profitability. EBIT rose by 22% to €154 million, and EBIT margin expanded 190 basis points to 12%, reflecting operating leverage on higher volumes, together with continued tight control of operating expenses. With this, let's now take a closer look at the regional top-line trend. In EMEA, revenue increased by 2% in 2025, driven by growth in Germany and France. In the fourth quarter, the region accelerated to 9% growth, supported by a successful holiday season, underscoring the resilience of our core European markets. In the Americas, revenues grew 3% for the full year, reflecting sequential improvements in the important US markets throughout 2025, and double digital sales increases in Latin America. In the fourth quarter, growth accelerated to 6%, with solid momentum in the US, supported by targeted brand activations and the broad appeal of our 24-7 lifestyle offering. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific declined by 5% for the full year, primarily due to subdued demand in China. This was partially offset by a resilient performance in Southeast Asia and Pacific, including strong contribution from Japan. In the fourth quarter, regional revenues were down 1%, still weighed by continued softness in China, although trends improved sequentially. Let's now turn to our performance by channel. In brick and mortar retail, full year revenues remained stable. Importantly, performance improved gradually over the course of the year, with momentum building sequentially and ultimately resulting in 2% revenue growth in the fourth quarter. This was supported by a successful holiday season and several brand and product initiatives. At the same time, we started to streamline our store portfolio, initiating the planned net reduction of around 50 stores by 2028. The modest decrease in selling space in 2025 marks the first step, resulting in a leaner network with broadly stable sales productivity despite lower footfall. Brick-and-mortar wholesale on the other side increased 2% in 2025, driven by successful collection deliveries and continued expansion of our global franchise business. In the fourth quarter, growth accelerated to 14%, benefiting in part from the positive timing shift I mentioned before. Last but not least, digital revenues grew 7% for the full year and accelerated to 12% in Q4. Growth was primarily driven by digital partners. In contrast, revenues with HugoBoss.com remained below prior year levels, reflecting our deliberate focus on full-price sales, which weighed on conversion but supports brand equity over time. As this concludes the top-line discussion, let's turn to gross margin. For the full year, gross margin came in at 61.5%, down 20 basis points versus 2024. This menu reflects external headwinds, including forex impacts, the promotional market environment, and adverse channel mix effects. These factors more than offset continued sourcing efficiencies and lower freight rates, which improved structural support to margin quality and underline the resilience of our operating model. In the fourth quarter, gross margin amounted to 60.8%, down 160 basis points year-on-year. This primarily reflects deliberate inventory measures, including higher wholesale deliveries, as well as the targeted use of our controlled outlet business to clear excess merchandise. All measures were fully aligned with our objective of entering 2026 with a clean and healthy inventory base for the successful execution of Claim 5 touchdown. Despite these initiatives, we continued to realize sourcing efficiencies, which partially mitigated the margin impact in the quarter. Let's now move on to our operating expenses. where we demonstrated strong financial discipline throughout the year. In 2025, operating expenses decreased by 3%, contributing to our bottom-line improvements. In percentage of sales, OPEX accounted for 52.4%, which reflects a 100 basis point improvement versus the prior year and underscores our progress in driving structural efficiencies. This development was supported by a disciplined approach to selling and marketing expenses, which declined 3% year-over-year. Within retail, we continued to optimize operations by more closely aligning rent-to-sales and pay-to-sales ratios with evolving traffic trends. Consequently, brick-and-mortar retail costs declined by 5% to 22.1% of sales. In marketing, investments decreased by 2%, to 7.1% of sales, reflecting our strategic focus on driving marketing effectiveness. At the same time, administration expenses remain broadly stable, demonstrating our commitment to cost control and functions not directly tied to commercial performance. Our sharpened focus on operational excellence and cost discipline translated into robust bottom line improvements. Effort increased by 8% to 391 million euros resulting in an EBIT margin of 9.2% up 80 basis points year-over-year. Below the operating line, our financial result improved by 23%, supported by lower interest expenses and a more favorable forex development. In addition, the effective tax rate decreased to 25%, further enhancing bottom-line performance. As a result, net income after minorities rose by a strong 17% translating into earnings per share of €3.61. Let me now turn to our balance sheet, starting with inventories. I am particularly pleased with the progress we achieved in 2025, especially in the fourth quarter. On a currency-adjusted basis, inventory decreased by 10% year over year, ending the year at 21.5% of group sales. a reduction of 340 basis points compared to 2024 levels. This strong development reflects our disciplined inventory management, including the targeted measures I mentioned earlier, which ensured a healthier, cleaner stock position heading into 2026. The improvement in inventory quality was further enabled by a more focused assortment and a more precise buying approach. Overall, these efforts provide a much more efficient and productive starting point for the important realignment year ahead. With that, let me now broaden this perspective to overall working capital. On a four-quarter moving average basis, trade net working capital amounted to 20% of group sales, slightly above the prior year level. This primarily reflects higher trade receivables and lower trade payables, which more than offset the reduced inventory position. CapEx, on the other side, totaled €195 million in 2025, down 32% year-on-year. At 4.6% of sales, this reflects our increased focus on investment efficiency following elevated investment levels in previous years. In 2025, we prioritized maintenance investments, targeted retail refurbishments, and selective digital initiatives while exercising discipline in all other areas. This consistent approach not only supported free cash flow, but also marked clear progress towards our midterm ambition of CapEx of around 3% to 4% of sales under Claim 5 touchdowns. Taking together all these factors formed the foundation for our strong cash flow performance. Free cash flow before leases amounted to 499 million euros, broadly in line with the prior year. Importantly, free cash flow generation was particularly strong in the fourth quarter, up 20%, partly reflecting a pull forward of cash flows from 2026 into 2025, linked to the higher year-end deliveries. As a result, free cash flow in 2026 is expected to come in someone below our midterm average. However, Our ambition to generate an average of around 300 million euros per year between 2026 and 2028 of the leases remains unchanged, supported by structurally improved margins, disciplined working capital management, and efficient capital expenditure. Equally important, we closed 2025 with a net financial position before leases of plus 48 million euros effectively making us debt-free before leases and underscoring the strength of our financial basis. With this strong foundation in place, let me turn to our expectations for fiscal year 2026. As Daniel emphasized earlier already, 2026 will serve as a deliberate year of brand and channel realignment, streamlining our assortments, refining our distribution footprint, and preparing our business for renewed growth from 2027 onwards. In a consumer environment that remains demanding, these actions are both strategically necessary and value-accretive as they will strengthen the quality and resilience of our revenue base. For full year 2026, we continue to expect group sales to decline in the mid- to high-single-digit range on a currency-adjusted basis. This reflects our deliberate realignment of the business towards higher quality growth. In this context, we are pursuing a more selective distribution approach, including a moderate net reduction of brick and mortar retail space, as well as enhancement in distribution quality across wholesale and digital with a clear focus on full-price sales. At the same time, We will further streamline product assortments, particularly at BOSS Women's Wear and Hugo, to sharpen brand positioning and strengthen brand relevance. Together, these measures will temporarily weigh on volumes, but they will structurally elevate the quality and sustainability of our revenue base moving forward. Importantly, the quarterly cadence will not be linear, both the first and the fourth quarter are anticipated to experience a more pronounced decline in sales compared to the full year trajectory. Besides overall tough comparison basis, this is primarily due to the aforementioned delivery shifts into Q4, which will inevitably weigh on volumes in the first quarter of 2026. From a geographical perspective, We anticipate broadly similar patterns of mid to high single-digit declines in 2026 across all three regions, consistent with our globally aligned product and distribution strategy. In EMEA, the expected decline is primarily driven by targeted enhancements to distribution quality, particularly across physical and digital wholesale. In the Americas, the development mainly reflects targeted productivity and quality improvements across key consumer touchpoints. And in Asia Pacific, the anticipated decline results from brand and channel elevation measures in retail, including selected store closures, combined with a prudent view on the pace of recovery in Chinese consumer demand. Moving on to our bottom line. For 2026, we forecast EBIT in a range of 300 to 350 million euros, reflecting the lower top-line leverage as well as our commitment to supporting brand elevation throughout the year. As with the top-line, profitability will be more heavily impacted in the first and fourth quarter given the volume effects mentioned earlier as well as anticipated negative currency effects at the beginning of the year in 2026. At the same time, we expect notable gross margin tailwinds in 2026 from ongoing sourcing efficiencies selective price increases, and stronger full price execution. Combined with continued OPEX discipline, these measures are expected to support our margin profile during the year. Let me now turn to our capital allocation framework, which remains a core pillar of our long-term value creation agenda, as Daniel made already clear. Thanks to our strong balance sheet and high cash generating capabilities, we are well positioned to continue investing in our business while also delivering attractive shareholder returns. Our overall priorities remain unchanged. First, to fund our strategy and safeguard the investments required to elevate brand equity. Second, to increase shareholder value in a disciplined and sustainable way. Third, to maintain financial resilience and protect our investment grade ratings. And fourth, to retain sufficient flexibility to pursue M&A opportunities over the medium to long term. Against this backdrop, and supported by our successful performance in 2025 and the strong fundamentals of our company, we have announced a share-by-back program of up to 200 million euros. This initiative, to be completed by the end of 2027, reflects our confidence in the long-term potential of Hugo Boss, and underscores our commitment to strengthen shareholder value. The program will be fully financed through ongoing free cash flow with repurchased shares intended for cancellation, reducing the number of shares outstanding and enhancing earnings per shares over time. The buyback underscores our conviction in the strengths of our brands, the resilience of our financial foundation, the strategic agenda we are pursuing for the years ahead. At the same time, reflecting the deliberate nature of 2026 as a year of realignment and our disciplined capital allocation approach, we will propose to the AGM a statutory minimum dividend of $0.04 per share for fiscal year 2025. This ensures that we maintain the financial flexibility required to execute our strategic priorities, fund targeted investments, and reinforce our balance sheet in a still highly volatile environment. With this, ladies and gentlemen, let me hand back to Daniel for his closing remarks. Thank you, Yves.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude with three key messages before we move on to the Q&A session. First, as we close 2025, we do so from a position of operational and financial strength. Despite a challenging market environment, we delivered on our commitments protected brand equity, and generated robust profitability and strong cash flow, which provides us with strong foundation for the next phase of our journey. Second, 2026 marks the deliberate year of brand and general realignment under Claim 5 Touchdown. By sharpening distribution, streamlining assortments, and elevating brand positioning, we enhance the quality and structural earnings power of our revenues and lay the groundwork for a renewed growth from 2027 onwards. Third, our long-term ambition remains unchanged, sustainable profitability growth and strong cash flow generation to drive attractive shareholder returns. The announced share buyback of up to 200 million euros reflects the commitment and our confidence in the long-term value creation potential of Hugo Boss. Thanks to our targeted approach in 2025, we entered the next phase of Hugo Boss with a clean inventory base and strong financial flexibility to execute Touchdown with focus, discipline, and determination. And with our two iconic brands, a clear strategic roadmap, and highly committed teams worldwide, we are confident in delivering higher quality revenues, structurally stronger earnings and significant long-term value for Hugo Boss. And with this, we are now very happy to take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. you will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume of the webcast while asking a question. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to two questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question comes from Dar Manjari from RBC. Please go ahead.

Good morning, team. It's Manjaro Dhar, RBC. Two questions from me, please. The first question, I was just wondering if you could give a little bit more colour on the phasing of the actions that you're taking on to deliberately reduce sales this year and improve the product and quality measures. I just thought, how should we think about when through the year they could hit and how is that going to impact the quarterly performances? And then my second question, even though you talked about gross margin increase, but I just wondered if you could give a little bit more color on the ambition of where that could get to this year. I know that in the past you guys have talked to sort of 62% and potentially moving beyond that, but should we expect it to move beyond that this year? Thank you.

Peter, Majari, perhaps your first question because the line was not so good. I was more referring to product initiatives regarding phasing over the time, or was this the question?

Yes, sorry. It was how we should think about the quarterly phasing of your initiative this year.

Sorry, we still weren't discussing the background of your question. So regarding the phases, the phasing of the measurements, so what we expect for the year is that for Q1 and Q4 for 2026, we expect actually that the overall decline will be more pronounced. But definitely, I think what has become apparent visible now that we are in execution mode in terms of our Frame 5 strategy, that we actually take deliberate steps in many aspects in terms of our product assortment, in terms of the distribution, all these steps are now taking. So we are really pursuing high-quality revenues. I think this has become also transparent with the clean start of our inventory that we are taking. And if you look now at the pacing, of course, definitely in Q1 and Q4, we have, if you compare this to 2025, we have a higher comparison base. We have also a currency effect that will become transparent in Q1. And on top of this, I highlighted also somehow this kind of technical effect of pre-deliveries that have been shifted to Q4 2025 of around 20 million euros. Then, regarding the second question for the expectation for the gross margin for this year, I think there are several effects that will drive the gross margin. So, first of all, if I look back at the gross margin in 2025 with the slight decline of 20 basis points, I think we have now a very sound starting base when we talk about the inventories. And there are several measures that will drive and that will lead to a kind of improvement in gross margin. So first of all, the sourcing efficiencies and freight cost reductions, those two initiatives, we have seen them over the course of the year 2025, and they will also prevail in the year 2026 by vendor consolidation, by more volumes behind one sourcing order. So this streamlining, the collection complexity reduction, the product assortment realignment, this will all help us from a sourcing perspective, to get the necessary sourcing efficiencies, point one. Further, as we always said, we are now at a high single-digit air freight. We want to get it further down. Air freight should be kind of exception going forward, and this is also a positive driver of the gross margin. Secondly, so this was more related to the Cox sourcing efficiency and freights. The second big effect is be aware that we took a price increase also in Q4. So as we add to low to mid single digit price increases, they will prevail also in the year 2026 going forward. And on top of this, we will also take selective price increases going forward, just in alignment with the kind of elevation that we are doing in terms of our brand positioning. And thirdly, and I think we should keep this also in mind, is we are, at the end, we are guiding a mid to high single-digit decline from a top-line perspective because we take the deliberate move to have higher full-price sell-through that we want to achieve with less discounts, so this means we are looking for high-quality revenues, and this will also drive gross margin going forward. So these are the three major effects that we see, besides all the other technical effects that come into play, if it's forex or all the other things, or tariffs. I think these are the three major things that we focus on.

Thank you. The next question comes from Jürgen Kolbe from Kepler-Chevreux. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much, gentlemen. Just a few questions from me. How far have you already, or other way around, any update on the Hugo restructuring, i.e. the collection streamlining, red and blue? Is that something that you think you can already achieve in the first half, or is that something that may take you longer throughout the year? And just one housekeeping question. The air freight share, is that expected to come down to basically zero or just in necessary times? Or is that still going to be inflated so that we still have a little bit of remaining effects in 2027? Thank you.

Hi, Juergen. Thanks for your questions. Let me first talk about Hugo. So we already have taken action in the second half of this year. And as you have seen, we have taken two deliberate steps. First, we built two powerhouses. One is a man's powerhouse and second is a woman's powerhouse, where we put both brands, Boss and Hugo, into the man's powerhouse and Boss and Hugo into the women's powerhouse. that clearly will drive a new area on women's wear for the total company for both brands. And that is a major step, and a major step that we also did is we hired Kerstin Dorst, who is a real individual who has a lot of experience in women's wear, and is now just started two months ago. So we believe that These two powerhouses are set for success in the future. Now, coming back to Jugo, as we always said, we had in the past experienced Jugo to put more into the Gen Z area and the younger, and we also adjusted the collection to the younger audience, and we were now adjusting also to put more contemporary collection into the assortment where we also show more suits, suits opportunity for men and women. And since we already adjusted the collection to this, we see a clear tension and better results on the point of sales. So this is really something that we have looked into it, and we actually go back to the heritage of Yugo, where, as you remember, the first suit that somebody was wearing when they came out of the university was a Yugo suit, and then after moved into Boston, that's what we took back. And this contemporary suiting in Yugo, that's what we underlined, and so far already started, and the success sales rule that we have with it is really promising. So that is already in motion, and that's what we expect to further extend and scale in the coming months. That within the collection in that blue and red, we further optimize the size and we further optimize the efficiency of the collections. Also from a collection point of view, but also from a distribution point of view, again, because we build those two powerhouses, We adjust there slightly the collection and optimize the assortment for red and blue.

Yes, and the second question, good morning, Jürgen, to the air freight. As I was indicating, so we reduced the air freight share 25 over 24 from a kind of mid-teens number to high single digits. So that was the effect that we have seen actually in 2025. And strategic-wise, the logic should be mid to long-term to have an air freight share of zero and just manage the expectations, just manage the exceptions and have an air freight as an exception as it is. But on the other side, I have to say, since we are now Going further down, we have already achieved this high single-digit numbers. These kind of effects get less pronounced for P&L, but still we are seeking for more improvements, but they will be less pronounced than in the years before 25 and 24. Got it.

Got it. Thank you very much, guys. Best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Thomas Chauvet from Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. The first one on retail and current trades, you've delivered a plus two brick and mortar retailing into four positive LFL. So quite a good achievement. Sounds like you had a good holiday season. What was the retail growth in December? And how do the first eight, nine weeks of the year compare to that plus 2%? And any, you know, guidance on your revenue guidance by channel this year would be useful between the three sub-channels. My second question on inventories and promotions, I mean, you've successfully cleared inventory and outlets. And it sounds like in the wholesale channel in Q4, irrespective of these actions, you had said in prior calls that the promotional environment was quite intense. Are you generally seeing in the premium apparel market the consumer trading down in the U.S. and Europe, favoring outlets over full price? And can you comment on the mid-single-digit pricing implemented there? on spring 26. How has the consumer responded to that? Are you planning similar kind of increase on automotive collection? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Thomas. I will try to take the questions. So first of all, we are actually very happy regarding the sequential improvements that we have seen in retail brick and mortar. So if you take the four quarters in 2025, It was minus four, minus one, zero, and plus two. So we have seen actually a kind of coming from negative turning into positive side. And we really have to say that we try to have a very, let's say, successful holiday season. We have the campaign, be the next, be the next boss. We had the collaboration also with Stife, and we tried to actually especially celebrate also these kind of commercial moments, because if you compare the Q4 to the previous three quarters, it's actually between 25% and 30% higher in terms of net sales. So there you can see with Black Friday, Singles Day, holiday seasons, you have big commercial moments. And we really wanted to have the right collections and products in place for the seasons. And we could really see this kind of sequential improvement going forward. So we are happy with this development overall in Q4 that we have seen. Now, talking about the channel logic for 2026, we still have overall regarding retail a kind of overall approach as we go into the year. But in terms of the development, in terms of the channels, the overall guidance that we have given will be less pronounced definitely from a regional perspective, but we also have to keep in mind that we have reduced the space now. You might have seen the numbers. The space is now down year over year. At the end of the year, by minus 2%. So we, of course, have a kind of space effect here also going into the next years. And regarding the inventories, you were talking about promotional activities. So like I already said, there was a kind of, let's say, similar performance between full-price business and outlets. Of course, we used this kind of commercial season also to clear our inventories. At the end, we have to say, if you just compare our balance sheet year over year in terms of euro numbers, we more than decreased our inventories by 150 million euros. We always said we want to achieve an inventory to net sales of 20% to net sales. We have now made a big step of almost 350 basis points year over year. We are standing now at 21.5%. And that was deliberately our, was a deliberate intentional move somehow to reduce our inventory position to get clean into the year 2026 because 2026 marks our execution of claim five touchdown where we are seeking high quality revenues. So that was a deliberate decision. And we did this for retail. We did this in full price and outlets and also for wholesale partners.

Yeah, maybe I can add a few things on the retail side. So What we definitely focused and emphasized in the second half year of 2025 was also that we actually enlarge and actually improve customer experience in all our stores. So we deliberately, because traffic went down, made all effort to actually put the customers in the center of everything we do in the stores and optimize from there. the journey in the store through the assortment in the store, and that really helped. And as Yves already said, with the holiday program, the window, so we optimized on every touchpoint that we have with the customer to improve also the experience and get better sales per customer. On top of that, I don't want to also underline that we have our XP platform, program in place, which is really helping us to activate our members more than in the past. And as we have seen, that member base has grown by 20%. And very importantly, they also spend 57% more than non-members. So we did a big activation to optimize all that retail stores. and the result in the retail stores with less traffic. So the conversion rate has increased because all these activities we have taken place. And then I also want to add something about the inventory. Yes, we have cleaned the inventory and we are sure that in the future we can optimize inventory because want to also mention that we have a much better planning because we use much more data and therefore we have a much better overview of our orders that we place, optimize with our customers the flow of delivery of the merchandise. So also there, it's not just a one-off delivery, inventory optimization. It's a long-term step that we have taken with all the AI and digital campus we have in place to get also the data in place. So just to underline that as well.

Thank you, Daniel. Just coming back to my first question on current trading, how does the first nine weeks of the year compare to the plus 2% you've reported in Q4, please?

Thomas, I just tried to understand your question because the line was not so good. The start of the year was actually in line with our expectation. So this is how we concluded. I think on the other side, you also have to keep in mind that we have given the guidance already last year, on the 3rd of December, for the year 2026. Since then, there have been two things. One was that I think we had a strong Q4 at the end, which gives us a higher base going into the year 2026. And secondly, of course, we have the Middle East conflict. Notwithstanding of those two effects, because we had, of course, on the other side, the positive momentum and retail on the other side, we confirmed this kind of guidance as of today. I think this is enough comment regarding our current trading.

Okay, and just on pricing for autumn-winter, mid-single-digit is what you intend to pass on as well.

Say it again, Thomas? Sorry, we didn't get your question. Please repeat it.

Yeah, apologies for the line if it's bad. Price increase with mid-single-digit on spring-summer. What about autumn-winter? Is it the same kind of magnitude that you are anticipating?

Yes, Thomas, you are right. So we have the price increase of the spring campaign is low to mid single-digit increase, and this increase will prevail going into 2026. So this has been a kind of step up of the prices since the start of the spring 26 campaign, and this will prevail for the year 2026, like I explained, so for the gross margin.

Super. Thank you.

My pleasure.

The next question comes from Daria Nashledieva from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. This is Daria from Bank of America. Thank you for taking my questions. I will ask two as allowed. So as you already mentioned, 2026 outlook is unchanged versus December, considering a stronger than expected Q4. Have any recent events, particularly in the Middle East and ensuing implications, changed your thinking around any line items at all constituting the outlook? Just want to understand if how much of latest volatility is also now part of the outlook, or it's more of a wait and see mode. And my second question is, in terms of underlying consumer behavior, are you seeing any sort of hyper seasonality of consumption around promotional events? You were mentioning Black Friday, Singles Day, et cetera. So basically just trying to understand, given your focus on full price sell through into next year, how much should we be expecting rebates to impact gross margin? and just to understand the seasonality of sales. Thank you.

Thank you for your question. I start and then Yves can add wherever he wants. Talking about the guidance that we gave beginning of December, we said it's mid to high single digit. We continue to confirm that high single digit, including the situation now in the Middle East. However, it is too early to say what the impact of the Middle East will be. Clearly, we look close and every day on the situation because there's every day also a different situation. Most of the time it has an impact or at the moment it has an impact on the store opening. where we have to adjust. If the shopping center is closed, then we have also to close the stores. But in terms of delivery, we are not yet, until now, affected on this. So it has a direct impact on store opening and store performance because there is no many tourists or less tourists shopping. That's clear. That has an effect. on the whole and on the shopping centers and so far then for all the brands, but then on the line again for delivery, so far we are not impacted on that. Therefore, we again confirmed the high to, mid to high single digit. And if anything, no, okay. And then the second question was about the consumer behavior. Actually, we had very good Christmas business, as we said, because we've made a lot of initiative. We also had a strong Black Friday, but we were less promotional on the Black Friday. And then also to mention that Chinese New Year actually also turned out into a positive number for our site. And, however, the Chinese New Year had an impact in December, but has a positive impact in January. So, so far, all these events that we had were, for us, a positive number. So consumer sentiment, it's a bit early to say, but it, at least at the beginning of, at the end of the year, in December, has gotten better. And now with this situation, it's a bit unclear, and it's a bit unclear on every day. So we are adjusting our moves, our business, our actions from day to day and maneuver, as we always say, fly on site to see how this situation is development. But one thing is clear, it has an impact on consumer behavior and consumer sentiment. because everybody is also waiting and see.

Thank you so much. And can I quickly follow up around the Middle Eastern implications? Because is there any thinking around freight or COGS impact at all, or this is yet to be determined? Because to be honest, we don't know where it all will end up.

At the moment, as I said before, on the freight and delivery, it doesn't have yet, we don't see the impact. But I'm sure it might have, depends how long that this war is going on. But for us at the moment to make clear statement is too early.

Thank you very much. Helpful.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Michael Kuhn from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. also two from my side. Firstly, starting with womenswear. You built the new powerhouse structure over the past few months. Now, Kerstin Dawes has started at the beginning of the year. Let's say, when will we see her handwriting and when should we expect womenswear to ideally outperform menswear and BOSS, let's say, not punching below its weight in womenswear anymore? And secondly, briefly on capital allocation, switching from dividends to buybacks, is that something that you would foresee for the, let's say, transition period, restart 26, 27, and maybe switch back to dividends again, or is that too early to say? Thank you.

Thank you, Mike. I start with the woman's share. and Kerstin who just started two months ago. So first of all, the powerhouse gives us clearly the focus on Women's Wear that we try to implement into a boss and the company since years. I just want to underline that over the past few years, we tripled the sales in Women's Wear, so it's still a step that we have done into the right direction. However, we now want to sharpen our handwriting, and therefore we took her because she is a very experienced individual that really can help us, you know, building the future for womenswear in the company. That has a big potential. Now, she already made some analytics and analyzes about the collection, what she sees in the future and what she needs to change and how it will be changed. And the handwriting now that you see in the stores, of course, is not yet from her, but that will come in the next two collections. You see partly takeover from her handwriting. What we also intend to do is a quick response that we can implement as just a few items in the end of the Of the year of this year that will help us to already show The direction we are going so a bit early but clear signs that we have a clear plan because we specialize this powerhouse for women and for men and we with that new direction and new organization in place for both and for you commands and for you go a women's wear and post women's wear we are confident that this will have a positive impact and hopefully we can you know move more to the potential of women's wear that we are seeking for this brand so we are optimistic on that and the second question is on capital allocation so Yes, it's too early, as you said, to say what we are going at the moment. We are very confident on the move we have done. It gives us flexibility, especially in this situation, and it gives us the moment also to refocus and refine and realign on our business in 2026. That's what we have implemented, touchdown. So we... have with that flexibility all opportunities to go either way and that's what we also will do so a bit too early to comment on that but we'll come back as soon as we have news on that all right thank you the last question for today is from andreas riemann from oddo bhf please go ahead

Thanks for taking my questions. First one specifically on the US business. In H225, many brands implemented price increases in the US. So how would you describe the development of promotions and volumes in the US market specifically after all those price increases? That's question number one. And number two, on the brands in 26, it sounds like you want to continue to streamline womenswear in Hugo. So are there also adjustments to BOSS menswear this year? Or if not, would you say the BOSS menswear performance in 26 is a good proxy for the underlying development of your company? That's the second question. Thanks.

So in the U.S., First of all, we have shown good results, robust results in the U.S. We feel with all the initiatives we have done last year, we had very positive results. We also continued our distribution to extend our distribution, not only with BOSS, but also with Yugo. We got much more space with our subline in BOSS, but also with Yugo. So therefore, we felt very comfortable so far with the development in the U.S., Particularly, I want to say that, yes, U.S. is very discount-driven, but we deliberately took a step in the other direction and be less discount-driven. So, therefore, even with a less discount-driven approach, our results is actually showing even more promising results, and this is also our way going forward. And then you said about the women's and men's potential, yes. We see, first of all, we are very strong with our subline. So the both black line continues to show very strong results. We optimized our collections and also product with a much better price value. If you remember, We invested a lot into our products and therefore we have not just increased the price with the same level of product, we increased the price because also the quality of the product got better. So Boss Black remains very stable, very good sales through and a very promising collection. Then we added, as you know, also Boss Camel and Boss Camel shows a big interest of our customers to add an additional line from us next to our more affordable luxury competitors. So also that line is performing very well. And then Boss Green is probably the one that we have extraordinary results because it's just a moment of more at leisure wear. And we had Boss Green always as a leisure collection in place. We also underlined there our structure within Boss Green that we have tennis wear, we have golf wear, and we have at leisure wear in there. So this is at the moment a great and big market trend. And then last on top of Manswear is also BOSX, Beckham, that shows positive results as he's an ambassador for us, not only for BOSX and Beckham, it's also for BOSX, an ambassador that is so relevant globally, no matter if you go into the U.S., no matter if you go to the U.S. and Asia, he is relevant wherever it is for us. both genders and young and old. So there, first of menswear, we add also the shoes and the accessories, so we can only show consistent growth, we can show consistent results and positive results, and that's what we continue to do. This is our DNA, that is our focus And we have this also underlined with our fashion show in Milan that we really have the format for menswear that we add the suiting, the heritage of our brand, and this works very successfully. Now, all this success we have in men's, that's what we now try to also develop for women's. And we have shown with our story, Be Your Own Boss, it's not just a man's story. It's a story that also resonates for women because in the meantime, all the women want to also be a boss. So Be Your Own Boss is a perfect storytelling subject that really is resonating for men and for women. So we are at this moment really go to the potential of Women's Wear. Of course, it's still small, but we are very positive with all the action we have taken into the organization and into the product that we will get this optimization and also get to the potential of Women's Wear for BOSS and for Yugo.

Excellent. Okay. Okay.

Thanks, Andreas. Thank you, Daniel. Ladies and gentlemen, that actually completes today's conference call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the Investor Relations team. Thanks for your participation, and we look forward to reconnecting with many of you over the next days and weeks. Thanks, and goodbye.