Björn Borg’s own e-commerce sales increased by 25 percent in Q3, with own comparable store revenues increasing by 16 percent but down 4 percent overall due to planned store closures. Within e-commerce, sports apparel sales grew by 58 percent year-over-year, bag sales rose by 59 percent, and footwear sales stepped up by 171 percent. Wholesale channel revenues, meanwhile, increased by 19 percent in the period ended Sep. 30.
The Sweden-based company’s consolidated net sales increased by a reported 5.4 percent, or 1 percent on a constant currency basis, to 262.1 million Swedish kroner (€22.8m). But sales to distributors, mainly due to lower purchases from Norway, fell by 62 percent. While gross margin improved by 440 basis points to 52.6 percent from 48.6 percent, operating profit widened by 34 percent to SEK 40.9m (€3.6m). Adjusted gross margin, accounting for currency impact, was 52.5 percent. Year-over-year net profit rose by 44 percent to SEK 32.0 million (€2.8m) from SEK 22.2 million. Underwear (+15%) and sports apparel (+11%) sales rose, but year-over-year sales of footwear (-11%) and Other products (-14%) both declined.
Regionally, in Q3, the group realized double-digit sales improvement in Sweden (+23%) and The Netherlands (+13%) and solid increases in Belgium and Germany. Sales declined in Finland and smaller markets. The Netherlands had the largest year-over-year sales increase over nine months, 16.4 percent to SEK 155.8 million (€13.6m). Elsewhere, revenues rose by 4.2 percent in Finland to SEK 92.3 million (€8.0m) and by 3.9 percent in Sweden to SEK 237.7 million (€20.7m) but declined by 3.6 percent in Germany to SEK 61.5 million (€5.4m).
