The Havaianas parent posted a 93 percent improvement in Q1 Ebitda year over year to 207.3 million Brazilian reais (€32.3m)
Net sales for Alpargatas increased by 17.5 percent to BRL$1,082.1 million (€168.0m) with 51 million pairs sold in Brazil and another 5.8 million in international markets.
The Brazilian footwear group said it continues to make strides to regain operational scale. To that end, the firm has been focusing on a few initiatives, including pricing corrections and resuming its marketing activity.
In Q1, gross margin rose by 720 basis points to 64.8 percent as total pairage stepped by 10.1 percent to 56.7 million, led by 14 percent year-over-year growth in Brazil. Pairage outside of Brazil tumbled by 15.9 percent to 5.8 million pairs despite 5.3 percent pairage growth in Europe to 2.9 million pairs. Alpargatas said the growth across Europe was related to a slight recovery in the brand’s competitiveness across the market, ending a three-year declining trend. US volume decline of 500,000 pairs was driven by lower sales to off-price channels during the period.
At Rothy’s, the segment reported Ebitda of $0.8 million versus a year-ago quarterly loss of $1.5 million as sales expanded by 26.6 percent to $43.4 million as the brand launched new products and increased its presence in stores and the B2B channel. The segment was not impacted by the US-China tariff developments. Rothy’s is said to have inventory on hand to support sales through Q2 while it actively pursues alternatives to diversify its sales channels and supply chain.
