Germany based apparel marketer Tom Tailor Group reported a 6 per cent year over year growth in the six months to June 30, 2015 driven by good dynamics across all segments. In a press release, the group said its sales grew 3.8 per cent to €441.5 million in the first half of 2015 as against €425.2 million in the same period of previous year. The apparel marketer added that the 6 per cent growth was achieved contrary to the German textile industry recording a 2.0 per cent decline in sales during the same period. Dieter Hcolzer, CEO of Tom Tailor Holding AG said, “We remain fully focused on our targets for the full year and will continue striving to boost sales on a like-for-like basis and increase our earnings power.” In the reporting period, sales of Bonita brand rose 3.4 per cent year on year to €159.0 million and accounted for a 36.0 per cent of overall sales. On a like-for-like basis, Bonita registered sales growth of 4.5 per cent compared to a decline of 8.7 per cent in the previous year’s first half. The number of Bonita stores also increased by five to 1,018. The group informed that after a difficult start into the year, the Tom Tailor brand achieved a pleasing 4.1 per cent increase in retail sales in the second quarter. For the first half of the current year, sales for Tom Tailor brand Retail were up 1.9 per cent €126.1 million vis-à-vis €123.8 million. “However, the like-for-like sales increase in the second quarter was not quite sufficient to offset the negative trend at the beginning of the year,” it noted. Consequently, Tom Tailor brand Retail experienced a slight 0.8 per cent drop in sales on a like-for-like basis during the period under review as against a 5.5 per cent increase in last year’s first half. According to the group, the strongest growth impetus over the first half of the year came from the Tom Tailor brand Wholesale business, which surged 5.9 per cent year over year to €156.3 million. Gross profit of the group drove up €3.2 million to €252.5 million in the first half of 2015 from €249.3 million in the same period of earlier year. But, gross profit margin declined 1.4 percentage points to 57.2 per cent, which it said reflects the lower gross profit margin for Bonita resulting from product investments. Recurring earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) however fell to €26.3 million in the first half of the current year from €30.5 million from the prior year first half. The recurring net loss for the period rose higher to €2.4 million compared to a net loss of €0.3 million in the first half of 2014. Accordingly, recurring loss per share (EPS) amounted to €0.16, double from recurring loss per share of €0.08 in the prior year’s first half.
