Buff is projecting sales of €56 million for the current year, begun in April, for a 10 percent year-on-year rise, reports Modaes. This will nevertheless fall 34.1 percent short of the figure for 2020, a historic year for the Catalonian brand, when pandemic measures drove sales up by 50 percent.
According to CEO David Camps, who spoke with Modaes, “rises like that happen once in a lifetime, like big declines; we’re not looking to repeat that year” – especially with the uncertainties of the coming months. In any case, “we’ve had a worse time of it in bad winters than in big recessions.” Buff generates the bulk of its sales in winter.
Camps says Buff’s strategy to recover lost margins is to raise prices for spring/summer 2023. Otherwise, it is to delve into the athleisure market. “We’re interested in appearing on the radar of customers who aren’t necessarily athletes but who skate to work.”
Last year the brand set up subsidiaries for direct distribution in France and Italy, and will be repeating the operation in two more, as yet undisclosed, European countries – the continent accounting for 65 percent of Buff’s sales. Similar operations already exist in the U.S., Canada and five other countries. (North America accounts for 35 percent of sales.)
Online Buff has consolidated its country-specific websites into one, while continuing to sell through Amazon and Zalando.
There are no plans to open more own-stores, which account for little of the brand’s revenues. Buff operates several points of sale in airports, and its products are carried by some 20,000 retailers in 70 markets.
