(Alliance News) - Geox Spa reported Thursday that it closed 2022 with a sharply reduced net loss to EUR13.0 million from EUR62.1 million in 2021 liabilities.

Revenues improved to EUR735.5 million or 21 percent from EUR608.9 million in the previous year thanks to excellent performance in all major distribution channels. Fourth-quarter performance was also positive, with revenues of EUR166 million, reporting growth of 14% over the same period in 2021, thanks to the company's newfound supply chain reliability, which enabled it to fully meet product delivery requests from customers.

Revenues from multi-brand stores, accounting for 50 percent of the group's revenues, stood at EUR369.5 million; revenues from franchises, accounting for 9 percent, rose 47 percent year-on-year toEUR63.6 million; revenues from directly operated stores increased to EUR302.4 million or 17 percent.

Gross marigne grew to EUR349.2 million from EUR284.3 million while operating income rose to EUR4.3 million from the negative figure of EUR44.9 million in 2021. Pretax loss also decreased to EUR8.4 million from EUR53.3 million a year earlier.

The combination of rationalization actions taken, the positive sales performance, the control of working capital and the hedging carried out on exchange rate and interest rate risk, made it possible to keep the Net financial position under control, which, at the end of December, stood - before IFRS 16 and after the fair value of derivative contracts - at minus ER49.8 million from the negative figure of EUR64.3 million at the end of December 2021. Net liabilities to banks stood at EUR75.7 million from EUR82.9 million a year earlier. As a result, the fair value of outstanding hedging transactions as of Dec. 31 is EUR25.9 million positive.

Management confirms the guidelines of the strategic plan to 2024. More in detail, expectations for 2023 are for revenues to grow around 6-8 percent from 2022 and gross margins to improve by around 100-130 basis points from 2022.

Geox's stock closed Thursday up 1.2 percent at EUR1.15 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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