Wolford AG — Earnings Release 2003

Nov 7, 2003

News Details

Ad-hoc | 7 November 2003 08:30

Wolford AG english

Wolford stops downward trend in second quarter Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Wolford stops downward trend in second quarter The business trend in the completed second quarter of 2003/04 differed markedly from that of the first quarter. For the six months ended October 31, 2003, the first half of the 2003/04 fiscal year, Wolford posted sales of EUR 57.0 million, a decrease of 7.7% from the first half of the prior year. The declining trend of the first quarter, when sales fell by 9.8% compared to the year-earlier period, has thus been halted. Especially in September and October, new orders for immediate delivery saw gratifying double-digit growth. More than one-half (4.0 percentage points) of the sales decrease was caused by exchange rate movements. About one-quarter of the sales contraction is explained by the closing of unprofitable Wolford-owned retail outlets. Excluding these losses, the sales decrease was only 1.7%. On balance, Wolford held its own well in an economic environment that was less than conducive to consumer spending. In view of the welcome trend reversal, the target stated in the summer of maintaining last year’s sales for this fiscal year does not seem unattainable. Cause for optimism is found in the good sales figures for Magic Touch 12 and the popularity of the Wolford + Lagerfeld Gallery co-branding collection. Sporteve, the wellness collection brought to market in the summer of 2003, is also invigorating sales and the Wolford brand. The most notable development is the significantly better sales trend in the retail operations compared to the other distribution channels. In same-store terms, sales in the retail segment rose 4%. This proves the appropriateness of the strategy of controlling the entire business process from design to point of sale and thus ensuring a product mix and brand presentation worthy of the brand. The full-year target of repeating last year’s sales and raising profit remains in place. The full results for the first half of 2003/04 will be released on December 11, 2003. Contact: Fritz Humer, Chief Executive Officer, phone +43 (0) 5574/690 ext. 1250, http://www.wolford.com end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 07.11.2003 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 083400; ISIN: AT0000834007; Index: ATX Listed: Amtlicher Handel in Wien; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, München und Stuttgart 070830 Nov 03