Good evening and welcome to the end-of-year update of the fashion house Brunello Cucinelli. Speakers will be Brunello Cucinelli, the Executive Chairman and Creative Director, Luca Lisandroni, CEO, Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO, Dario Pipitone, CFO, Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO Senior, and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director. In order to receive help from an operator during the conference call, press star followed by zero. And now I'd like to give the floor to Brunello Cucinelli.
So here we are. Good evening. It is a pleasure to have you back, investors, analysts, journalists. So this is the last call of the year, which we have been holding regularly since 2020, because you might remember that during the pandemic we decided to organize this call, because otherwise we wouldn't have had any contact with you from mid-October until March. So it's something that we have grown to enjoy.
It is an important call because in some way it represents a pre-closing of the year, so we would like to ask you the following: everything that we will be talking about, you should consider that it concerns absolute luxury. So we believe, and also ready-to-wear, because we are a ready-to-wear company and our fashion house is broken down as follows: 85% ready-to-wear and 15% accessories. This has always been the case since when we went public, so this is important that you bear this in mind, so there's all 10 of us here, and so how would we like the call to proceed? First thing first, we would like to provide you with the end-of-year focus for 2025. Just 15 days are left with excellent results, then, honestly speaking, this year we have been harvesting, so to speak, what we expected, perhaps even more.
A forecast of 2026 with a healthy growth. As you know, it's the figure, it's 10% and it's part of us. What are we working on and the strategies? This is a very, very, very favorable momentum for our company, for our lifestyle. We have many opportunities to seize. We were saying this morning at the board meeting, and we must be good at governing growth, trying to manage growth while remaining exclusive, high quality, highly artisanal, contemporary in our products, contemporary in our boutiques. We have completed all the factories dedicated to artisanal production, the inventory with detailed explanation. Luca will give you an overview of the global markets with the events planned for 2026, and Riccardo will be dwelling on the production. Awards and recognitions. This has been quite a good year, remarkable year.
Carolina, my daughter, Vice President, was listed among the 50 Women in Power 2025 in fashion retail by WWD. Riccardo was included in the TIME 100 Climate 2025 list. He went to Brazil to be presented with this accolade. On December the 1st, we were presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Fashion Council, and this is really one of a kind. A major event in London was held last week. The movie was premiered last on December the 4th. In mid-January, we will be launching the new e-commerce website. We believe that it will be very important, not just for the results, but also for those who join the website and understand more about our company. Let me read out the press release.
2025 is proving to be a record year for us, both in terms of numbers and brand image. Excellent sales throughout the year allow us to envision a revenue increase at constant exchange rates between 11% and 12%, higher than our expectations at the beginning of the year, with growth at current exchange rates of around 10%. The fourth quarter promises to be very, very positive, with truly pleasing feedback on the style and expected double-digit growth at constant exchange rates, in line with the trend of the third quarter, despite a decidedly significant comparison base. In November, we presented the Fall/Winter 2026 Women's Pre-collection to our multi-brand clients, receiving particularly flattering feedback. And also we presented it to the managers of our direct stores, receiving equally positive comments. And this collection was considered highly innovative, with a very high rate of creativity and innovation.
All of this follows a significant volume of orders already in our portfolio for the spring 2026 season. We therefore confirm a projected revenue growth of around 10% for the year 2026. 2025 represents a year of reaping great rewards in terms of image, both for our fashion house and for Brunello Cucinelli, for myself and my family. In April, I received an honorary doctorate in architecture from the Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. In September, Carolina, my daughter, was included by the prestigious magazine WWD in the list of 50 women in power. In the first days of November, our CEO, Riccardo Stefanelli, was included by TIME in the TIME100 Climate 2025 list.
On December the 1st, we had the event in London because with Harrods, we took over the 26 windows that will be displayed there until the end of January the 2nd, followed by the spring/summer collection, and then in the evening, on December the 1st, the British Fashion Council awarded us this so-called Academy Award of Fashion. The honorees were Lagerfeld, Prada, and Tom Ford last year, and then on December the 4th, there was the world premiere of the movie. And last night, it was the first time that it was released in its 250 theaters, and in mid-January, there's a scheduled launch of the new AI-based e-commerce site. And our friends in the Silicon Valley, they called it a true invention, so what about my comment?
As 2025 draws to a close, we can look back on a year of excellent results in terms of revenue, profits, and great image for the brand. The past year has been exceptionally generous to us, offering many blessings as a company and as individuals. We have received a range of truly special recognitions that have filled us with joy and optimism for the years ahead. Our gentle luxury has been recognized as a model of creativity through the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award, which I had the honor of receiving from the British Fashion Council. A documentary film telling the story of my life was brought to the screen with a masterful touch of Giuseppe Tornatore, who captured my lifelong vision and transformed it into poetry. He's a poet, I believe.
Beautifully accompanied by the moving score of Nicola Piovani, who was really able to translate all this in a very moving manner. Because we shared the very same childhood with them. My daughter Carolina was honored by Women's Wear Daily, so she was included among the 50 Women in Power 2025, while TIME 100 Climate recognized my esteemed CEO, Riccardo Stefanelli. Knowing that all this stems from our commitment to humanistic capitalism and human sustainability, while this fills us with immense pride and motivates us to continue our work with renewed energy. Finally, and with great excitement, we are thrilled to announce that in mid-January, we will launch our new AI-powered e-commerce website, which our friends in the Silicon Valley have described as a genuine innovation.
Concluding with a strong Spring/Summer 2026 order book and excellent Winter sell-out performance, we expect healthy revenue growth of around 10% for 2026. So how do we see the year-end 2025? So revenue growth at constant exchange rates of between 11% and 12%, current exchange around 10%. And as you heard before, we call it a record-breaking year. As to the exchange rates in our history, we have always had a, you see, a very low swing, so around 1%, perhaps something more this year, perhaps next year too. EBIT margins slightly improving compared to 2024 as planned. So we always seek a fair and balanced level of profit. And this concept is particularly strong, strongly felt among the younger generations. It is an important topic. So no client ever tells us you are extremely expensive, even though you know our price levels.
This gives us confidence and strength in believing that we are on the right path. And importantly, in all the recognitions we are receiving, there is always a reference to fair profit, fair growth, fair wages, workers' conditions. And this means that human sustainability is a very, very important and widely felt topic. Then sustainability. Riccardo, you will talk about this, but I already mentioned it. It's very important because we worked hard on this, and it is a great gift for Riccardo and everybody. Very important investments in artisanal production. And as you know, we have doubled the Solomeo factory. We are nearly, we are already operational. And the whole plan, you know, 2024 to 2025, 2026, we completed it this year, roughly six months ahead of schedule. So this year, we invested around 10.5% of revenues.
Clearly, when expanding factories, these are always plans with a 10- 15-year horizon if you want to have a balanced growth that we constantly pursue and believe in, so around 10%, of which 4% is price mix and 6% the number of pieces, and this idea of growing around 10%, we are always pleased with that so that the brand can remain exclusive, both in terms of stores we can govern, quality, craftsmanship, and manual excellence, so please make sure to include in your projections our 2026 investments at around 7% of revenues. There is still some tail of investment for production of this year, but in 2027, there will be 6.5%. You can factor this in because we will see it in the coming years since there are not many commitments in terms of production, but this is the organization for the coming years.
And this way, we feel pretty confident. So you see, we always need to be modern, modern in our product. We should never lose out on exclusivity, remaining true luxury. So a few days ago, we said, well, we met, we said, let's meet for 30 minutes, end of the year, maximum focus. So we were very focused, and we asked ourselves, so if we were to buy a brand in true luxury, by the way, consider we personally don't want to perform any acquisitions, mind you, but which brand would you choose? Where would you feel fulfilled? What do you feel is exclusive, well-crafted, long-lasting, sustainable for the next 10 years? Well, when this question was asked, well, no one actually answered. We could not single out a single brand.
This does not mean that there are no brands like that, but this means that exclusivity that we keep hammering about is still a very important topic. Then inventory is perfectly aligned with our model, around 28% of revenues from the IPO onwards. But if the inventory were old or obsolete, that would mean that stores would be obsolete as well. So we went public 13 years ago. And the most important thing is that at the time, we were 85% ready to wear. A bit more on the women's side, it was 60%-40%, whereas it's a perfect split 50%-50% women and men today. But we're still 85% ready to wear, and we do firmly believe in it. And there's not many others that do this, and 15% accessories. So going back to the idea of inventory, you know we do not really like evergreens.
We hardly ever talk about them, so today, for instance, if you wear a men's jacket, we were looking at the collection for Pitti for January this morning. So I mean, if you look at a men's jacket today, you can understand if it's last year's because it's two centimeters shorter, the buttons are a bit higher. So even a blue cashmere men's jacket cannot be an evergreen. It's got to be modern and contemporary at all times, so we're living through a good time and beautiful moment in terms of style, and this is also reflected in the quality of sales, and the year is about to close, in a year which we consider to be a great rebalancing for the entire fashion industry. For us, sales were very strong, both in quantity and quality, and above all in the style and identity of the brand.
I don't know whether we're right or not, but today we consider ourselves to be 75% ready to wear, and generally speaking, we consider the remaining 25% of what we do is lifestyle. Now, multi-brand and pre-collections. Ten days ago, we presented the pre-collection for women for Winter 2026, and we received very important judgments on the creativity and modernity of our collection, and this is a major issue, so of course, this puts us in a very good position also versus our mono-brand because not all of our store managers actually are extremely experienced in what we do, but when you know that for the next six months, you'll have on the market a contemporary collection, chic and fresh, you start off on the right foot. I mean, you know that the goods you have in the stores are very contemporary.
And so we're really connected to the 400 mono brands we have, multi-brands, sorry, we serve globally. They're very unique and prestigious. Now, for many of you, and maybe especially for the younger among you, when you hear multi-brand, you think of department stores, which is not necessarily the case because there are specialty stores globally that are absolutely beautiful. They have century-old stories, and they're very knowledgeable about fashion. But it's quite normal. You don't know these stores. Managers in their 40s or early 50s have not grown up with these stores in mind. Now, let me say something nice about this. A couple of months ago, there was a meeting in Rome, a kind of symposium where the major European multi-brand stores met. And they asked me to go and speak at their meeting. And I told them they are particularly beautiful. They have a century-old story.
But their physical stores that are really unique and very beautiful do not necessarily always match the image they project online. And this is quite challenging, isn't it? So they actually agreed they're prepared to improve their online image compared to the physical image of their stores. And from our side, they're now receiving right now from our company a letter where we thank them for the 10-year-old or 20-year-old relationship and the great image we've built together. But also, we urge them to be more careful to what they do online. So why is it so? Because I told them that at the end of the season, as long as the internet just didn't exist, so at the end of each season, whatever unsold goods remained, which may be odd sizes or whatever, were normally sold with systems which were as old as the world.
So they came from stock. But as soon as the internet arrived, even five pieces at a special discount, even though they were the odd size out, were quite detrimental for the brand image. So everybody made a commitment. And looking at this with a special eye, and we actually discussed this at the board meeting this morning, we had about 500,000 customers globally, 480,000-500,000. And actually, no one ever complained because we believe that the actual loss of exclusivity of a brand may be caused by issues that are much more complex. We just list a few without being exhaustive in this list. So the amount of stores, the editing of the collection with price points that go all the way from the lowest to the biggest price, over-communication, which is another key topic.
We all understand that over-communication is an issue where we keep repeating the same thing over and over again. We would like to be less known tomorrow than we are today. We received very important awards. Carolina has been included by WWD in the 50 Women Empowering in Fashion and Retail. She was invited to a forum in New York to speak about how her creative vision and human vision is inspiring the younger generations. It's a great honor for us to learn that. 10 days ago in London, I received a very important and special award, as I said. The executive committee of the British Fashion Council has rewarded me with this award. Actually, let me tell you what. I mean, next year, I think I'm going to travel a lot to accompany the movie all over the globe.
But I'm going to learn English. I want to really try and understand whether in my 73rd year, I will be able to learn some English better than I do now. But actually, in the laudatio that the British Fashion Council gave me in the citation, they wrote, "This recognition goes to Brunello Cucinelli for his exceptional contribution to the world of fashion as a pioneer who has united luxury and design." I love this idea of luxury united with design with a more responsible way of doing business. And I have to say that this truly honors us. Now, we want to leave some time for questions, but let me give you a general summary of 2025. So revenues are anywhere between + 11% and 12% at constant exchange rates.
Our current exchange rate is + 10%, which is actually a bit better than we expected at the beginning of the year, and it happens all the time when we start a new year. EBIT is up, and as Moreno said, when we were talking about EBITDA in the classical way, that would mean that EBITDA in the classical sense would be 21%, which we think is a very good EBITDA. Investments stand at about 10.5%. Inventory around 28%. Net financial position is about EUR 200 million in this year of major investments, and we would like to keep the same dividends as usual, which is more or less 50% of profits. What do we expect for the future for next year? Of course, we start off with a very good atmosphere. We expect the turnover to grow at around 10%. EBIT should be slightly improving again.
Investments should be about 7%. Once again, don't say 6.5% in 2027. It's going to be 7%. We still have some investments from this year. The inventory would be steady at 28%. Net financial position is expected to improve because in the next years, investments are going to be virtually all in the commercial network, but not production facilities anymore. And we'd like to keep dividends always at around 50% of profits. Now, Riccardo, we are perfectly on time. So would you please take five minutes to give us a recap of our production situation? We feel we are robust. We feel we are well organized on the production front. And we feel we are quite supple in swift reorders whenever necessary. So everything is in place.
Thank you, Brunello. And good evening, everyone. This is Riccardo speaking. I'm focusing on our industrial system here. We said it several times.
It's a totally Italian supply chain we have. We have our people. We have our know-how, and we actually have our own way to connect to our people. So together with our factories and tailor shops that Brunello mentioned, and they are the heart of our investments, we have 400 artisan companies that supply us. We actually have a direct relationship with these people. It's never been brokered through platforms. It's based on the quality of products and trust. And by the way, we have nothing against platforms, mind you. But that's the way we were born. I mean, it's in the nature of our behavior to have a direct relationship with our suppliers. Yes, and by the way, we're going to meet them all next week in our traditional end-of-year appointment. We meet them twice a year, and in October, it's a more operative meeting.
And then we meet again for the end of the year. And it's a moment for us to share our vision, which, as Brunello said, is absolute luxury and absolute quality. And we want to highlight the importance of the main pillars in this work, which is high quality, handmade, artisan skills, and workers' conditions, factory workers' conditions. Yeah, factory workers first. This is very important for us. So for a supply chain to be strong, we feel it's important that together we make sure that we have beautiful, tidy, safe workplaces, work hours that are sustainable with a very clear life-work balance. We want to make sure that suitable compensation is always available. And we want to make sure there's fair profit for all the links in the chain. We believe this is an indispensable prerequisite for everything to fall into the right place.
Fair profit is not an abstract concept. It's what happens to artisan companies to look with peace of mind ahead at their future, and it allows their children to freely choose whether they want to continue their parents' work. Yeah, actually, if you see your parents are not making any profit, you wouldn't be willing to take on their business, so this is where the robustness of our supply chain is created, and every time we meet our providers, we keep repeating our business model doesn't change. I mean, if you want to produce twice as many garments, you need twice as many hands, and it's really important to invest there. It's a very simple, straightforward principle, but it's essential for us, and we feel it's the highest expression of top quality in ready-to-wear. Also, we observed that the supply chain has become younger over the last five years.
The average age of owners is 49 years. The average age of workers is 43 years. And this is really, really important because it means we are looking ahead at least 20 more years of these people working properly. Right. Many young people have joined the business, both as owners and as workers. And the generation handover is going on pretty smoothly. This is really important for us because it's a business model based on fair profit, which makes this worth being inherited. I'd like to talk about sustainability for a second. Now, before I talk about the accolades we received, let me just remind you of the key issues for us, which rely on human sustainability. And we define this not just in terms of environmental sustainability, but also in economic and technological terms, cultural terms, spiritual, and moral terms.
So for us, sustainability begins from taking care of people and the community around us. So we believe that a company cannot be competitive unless the community that supports us is just as competitive. And the recognitions we have received from TIME that is actually rewarding the whole company is there to reward our environmental performance and our sense of responsibility towards the social value of everything we do. One of the projects that contributed is the beautiful work we did with King Charles on regenerative agriculture in the Himalayas. And once again, it's a project of regenerative farming. But most importantly, it's a social project because it gives back social and economic sustainability to local families. It supports the whole local community. And it preserves the ancient know-how on cashmere. Also, they provide us with beautiful cashmere. It's small quantities, but it's absolutely perfect.
By the way, this year in 2025, we were able to harvest the first cashmere. Now we are selling the first two products in our Casa Cucinelli. Then, the last two items, we updated what we call the social return on investment. The social value of the investments we make in our communities. We can confirm that for every euro we invest, EUR 2.1 goes back to the communities. This makes us proud and confirms that this measurement, although it is intangible, is pretty concrete. We also confirm the positive performance of our emission intensity, meaning the emissions for every euro in revenues. This is also quite a relevant figure. It is in line with our targets. You see, since we use the hands, we don't have that much machinery.
Nevertheless, we were able to act upon it by collecting rainwater. So this is in line with the targets we set in 2019. This completes the sustainability picture. Thank you, Luca?
Thank you, Riccardo. Now talking about sales. In terms of sales, we can say that everything is really moving on smoothly. The two main features that make us stand out are the following: the clothing and absolute luxury for each product. This means that what we say is not really matching with the market trends because we operate in a very specific segment. That said, the fourth quarter for us was very lustrous in terms of results and also with a very pleasant ambiance in the stores, good vibes. We think this is equally important and significant. Yes, there's a good balance, beautiful balance, Brunello adds.
We know that in the fourth quarter, we will have an exchange rate effect. There will be slightly more marked than in the first nine months. But as Brunello said before, we truly believe in having constant exchange rates. In constant exchange rates, we think that we will beat the estimates and current exchange rates in line with the 10% growth. Now, let's take a look at the channels, retail channel. We expect an excellent fourth quarter there with a growth that is in line with the one we had in the third quarter this year with a more significant comparison base. We should remind you and recall that last year in the fourth quarter, we grew by over 15% in retail with 10% in the third quarter. Well, all the markets are performing well.
By the end of the year, we expect a geographic mix of sales that is in line with the one at the end of the nine months. China. For us, it is an extremely healthy market. And it leads the whole Asian continent with a great double-digit growth. We want to say again what we said a few months ago. We strongly believe, staunchly believe in the fact that China has achieved quite a new balance. These days in Rome were particularly interesting because we welcomed remarkable guests from China, distinguished guests. And in talking to them, we felt a lot of liveliness, a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. So China, excellent. And America, as Brunello says, for us, China accounts for 13%. But in the coming years, hopefully, it will grow slightly more than Europe and America.
We achieve the perfect balance, 33, 33, and 33 in the three continents. America, excellent results there too. Excluding exchange rates, America confirms the quality of the results achieved in the nine months, both in large cities in America and Canada. Europe, once again, is very robust thanks to the important contribution of local customers and also important contribution from tourism. Now, wholesale. Wholesale there, we expect a fourth quarter that could be slightly positive just for the result of the timing of shipping. Because you see, the wholesale is valued in the six-month result because that really captures the quality of the season. We expect the second half to be extremely positive and an excellent end of the year. We recall that the growth in the wholesale channel is fully comparable because the accounts are always the same. It's like for like.
Brunello was saying before that in the sales campaign for the winter pre-collection, this is a time of important meetings with important clients. We perceived a desire for interaction and dialogue that is really typical in moments of opportunity. What did they say to us? They expect 2026 to be with a high concentration of clothing ready to wear. They believe that in 2026, clothing will be one of the most important categories. We are very happy with that, Brunello points out. Also the importance of new products or novelties. Customers tend to ask for novelty, exclusive, new items. Then in the top part of their brand portfolio, all customers are seeking out unique and exclusive garments. The last most interesting point, we were told about a constant, you see, the desire for receiving tips and styling tips.
And it is very interesting for us because we see a great opportunity there. And of course, the multi-brand channel has a lot of abilities in this field. For this reason, we believe that in the new year, our offering will be very much appreciated. But at the same time, we will be up to a step with the market in terms of product, style, and customer experience. And our store network is extremely fresh, youthful, and looked after in terms of both locations and visual merchandising because it does truly represent our lifestyle. And the most important thing, we have great staff that is able to forge long-lasting, deep relations with customers because they are amiable, they are very competent. And also what is important is that we organize these family-like events with just 120 guests.
Yes, when talking about events, we are very proud to say that in 2025 too, there are new people. We hired new people in the stores. And through their professional qualities, they truly represent. They're truly ambassadors of our fashion house in the world. And they represent another kind of wealth assets in our stores. And perhaps the best feeling for the new year is that of having a lot of trust and empathy because many customers pointed this out. And this health, this trust, sorry, was not at all tarnished by the Morpheus affair. And because what testifies to this is the quality of sales will happen after the report was published in the following month. And in managing this affair, what was important was the timeliness of and the way we responded. And the reputation was left untarnished.
We can say that the trust and the credibility of our brand has probably increased after this affair. Let me conclude by giving you a few information on the network. In the fourth quarter, we had three important extensions: London, Paris, and LA, and the openings of Macau and Shanghai. So these last events in 2025 represent the first important investments for the coming year so that we can even better qualify our network. And still very exclusive in terms of numbers. For 2026, we planned some important expansions and extensions in Geneva that we postponed from this year, then Toronto, Shanghai, Mexico City, Abu Dhabi, and Wuhan. And then we have the conversion into concession of the first five locations at Neiman Marcus. So we have had a concession for quite a while with interesting results with Neiman and Saks. And now we are opening, sorry, with Saks.
And now we are opening with Neiman Marcus. And so this way, we can say that Saks Global is a very important platform for the American market in 2025 too. Many of the Saks Global locations translated into the best results for us. And this shows how crucial this client is. And in 2026, we aim at opening the Casa Cucinelli in Shanghai. And we are definitely looking forward to that. Thank you. So we already mentioned the Harrods event. Then in mid-January, as I was saying, we have the Callimachus platform, the AI new e-commerce website. We believe that this is extremely high quality, also fine to see with a hand drawing. So we like it very much. Then the movie. Many of you were in Rome the other night with us. And we like many things about it.
First things first, the name of the company on the title, so a couple of years traveling the world to present it and the costs of the movie have been absorbed in the past three years, so we will have to travel and go, but if actually you go to Tokyo, for example, and you are there for the preview but you can do some other events, but we believe that this movie really shows our product, the style, but also the great concept of territory, production, community. As you know, Solomeo is very special to us, so to conclude and then we open the floor for questions, it is the 48th financial statement for our company, which means that I'm not that young anymore.
It is the 14th financial statement, sorry, the 14th since our stock market listing, of which, as you know, we are very, very satisfied, although despite the Morpheus event. So we believe in high quality made in Italy. As you know, the company is firmly rooted in the Italian territory, and it will still be there forever. There is no chance that any relocation will happen. We will stay in Italy. We are Italian. As you know, the family is at the helm at the company, and they want to stay there for the coming decades. So at the end of the day, it has been a record-breaking year for our fashion house. We have harvested a lot, maybe even more than what we expected, but not just in terms of revenues, but also in terms of recognition and accolades. We would have never expected something like that.
There is no doubt that with all these awards, the brand will definitely benefit not just the products, but also the way we work and live. The movie was released yesterday in Italian cinemas, and it seems that it is ranking first in all the Italian cinemas. The movie represents our company, represents Solomeo, my family. We want to consider it as some sort of hallmark, a hallmark to the memory and to the art. We have the churches, we have the winery, and this is a monument too. Those who will come after us will remember us because of that too. We work with a very creative atmosphere. The collection is ready, also the men's collection for Pitti. Of course, we wish you a great festive period. We also wish that you have time for reflections too.
Because as I was saying the past few days, I gave so many interviews, but the feeling is that we do need to rediscover ourselves, and Christmas and the festive season is always one of those days. Let's open up for now for Q&A, then with some of you, we'll meet you all in Milan, so we have the usual dinners, so thank you very much, and we are very joyful, serene, and about the movie, so I decided to watch it. I said to watch it just at the very last minute because I didn't want to change anything. That's open for discussion.
This is the Chorus Call operator. We're going to start the Q&A session now. If you have questions, please press Star 1 on your phone. To leave the queue, press Star 2. Please use receivers to ask your questions. If you have questions, please press Star 1 now. You will hear some seconds of silence to make sure all questions are received and queued properly. The first question will be asked by Andrea Randone of Intermonte. Please.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone.
Hello, good evening.
Good evening, Brunello. I have a few questions. Here they come. So I have a question on marketing first. For 2025, would you please remind us of the impact of marketing? Do you expect that percentage to remain constant? Because you did mention some initiatives for 2026, but it's always interesting to understand what we can expect.
It's maybe not going to be as innovative as this year with the film, but we're really interested in trying to understand what you have in mind for next year too. Is this your only question?
Sorry, I can't hear you anymore, Mr. Randone. So we'll take your question in the meanwhile. So we normally spend 6.2%, 6.4%, 6.3%. In the last three years, we did 6.8% and 6.9%, and it's going to be 6.9% again this year, and starting next year, we're going to go back to 6.4%-6.5% because, of course, the cost of the movie was quite sensible.
You said you have more questions? This is the operator. The line of Mr. Randone has become disconnected. The next question will be asked from the English conference, and Chris Huang of UBS will ask it. Please.
Hello, hi. Good evening, everyone. Firstly, congratulations on the film and also the very encouraging content of the guidance you just provided. So I have two, please. The first one specifically on Q4. So you mentioned in the press release that you expect Q4, the retail channel to be in line with Q3 at constant exchange rates. Could you just maybe confirm what was the number you saw in Q3 because you don't disclose normally constant FX growth by channel, but if we do a rough calculation, it seems to be only positive. So is that the expectation you have for Q4 retail FX neutral? And connected to this, what are the regions and nationalities you are seeing that is driving this underlying acceleration given the topic of comp base? Secondly, on marketing, just to follow up to the commentary you just provided.
If I caught it correctly, you said marketing around 7% in 2025, and that budget will slightly normalize into 2026. So should we expect your EBIT margin in 2026 to see a more meaningful expansion compared to the slight improvement you are expecting in 2025? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chris. Luca will answer this question on margin.
Yes, Chris. As to retail growth in Q4, that was 14.4% at current exchange rates, which is 15% at constant exchange rates. So that's the benchmark for Q3. As to the nationalities and geographies, as you know, we have a main proxy that actually nationalities seem to mirror the geographical countries of origin from different customers. So we confirm that by the end of the year, we expect the geographical mix will be very similar to the first nine months. So there's beautiful continuity in all regions. But Chris, as to the 6.9% marketing budget, if we do 6.4%, 6.5% next year, that's something we had expected ever since the beginning because we had budgeted the cost of the film to be split over three years.
But as far as margins are concerned, we always try and do a bit better than the year before, but it's not a mathematical formula. I mean, you don't necessarily take money from marketing and put it on margins. It's not automatic because we always think that profit should be very, very healthy. I've seen it in this time as well. Young people are very careful. And when I say young people, I mean people in their mid-20s that are highly educated and have a very clear understanding of what they consider fair profits and fair compensation of workers. So being fair, being just is very, very important for people in their 20s and 30s.
Thank you, Chris. The next question will be asked by Charles-Louis Scotti of Kepler Cheuvreux, please.
Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, please. The first one, could you remind us the breakdown of the 11-12% constant FX growth in 2025 between volumes, prices, and mix, and also the key building blocks behind your 10% constant FX guidance for next year, and more specifically, the expected pricing contribution? And second question regarding your e-commerce, could you remind us the size of your e-com business and the split between DTC and wholesale? And do you have any long-term ambitions for e-commerce revenues, or should we view it primarily as a tool to support your omnichannel clients and a discovery channel to recruit new customers? Thank you.
Okay. I'll take the second question first, if you don't mind. Now, for the e-commerce alone, we don't have any special ambitions in mind. I mean, direct e-commerce is about 7% today. Globally, it's 12.5%-13%, including multi-brands. But we don't expect big things from it right now. But what we do expect is product showcasing. I mean, people go to the stores with the pictures of what they've seen online already. So presenting products on an e-commerce website properly is extremely important with this new system, which will help you and advise you on what to wear. So it's going to be a major image-building tool. But as far as actual sales are concerned, we don't expect much from it. We still feel physical stores are fundamentally important, especially for men. They need a lot of advice.
And also, if you want to create something special, an outfit which is just perfect for you, you need physical content and advice. As to growth, today, volumes accounted for 3.5%-4%. And for next year, we expect the same. We know that prices next year may be 3%-4%, depending on the pricing of raw materials. Importantly, after six years, the employment contract was renewed in Italy after six years of standstill. So it's pretty stable, so to say. But we do expect a good atmosphere in stores because I do think that that's something you feel. I mean, there's a good rebalancing going on.
If we altogether were brave enough to mix up the results of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 of luxury companies and see them all together as a five-year plan, we would be satisfied with revenues, margins, and everything because we went through three years of relevant growth and two years of rebalancing. Thank you, Chris. The next question from Maria Meita of Bernstein, please.
Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. I just have one and for clarification regarding your guidance for 2026. Is it 10% growth at current or constant exchange rates? Thank you.
Well, it's always the same targets. I mean, we start the beginning of the year with a 10% target, and we've been doing this for 14 years. The impact of exchange rates has always been very, very limited. This year, it was a bit higher. Maybe next year, it's going to be similar. It swings a bit, but we'll see as we go during the year. But our order of magnitude at the beginning of the year is always the same. We want to grow it around 10% to still be extremely exclusive.
If you have more questions, please press Star 1 on your phone. Next question will be asked by Oriana Cardani of Intesa Sanpaolo. Thank you very much. Good evening, and thanks for receiving my questions. I actually have three questions. First will be about the performance in Q4 of the retail channel.
So what is the impact of like-for-like growth versus the contribution of new openings? What's the impact of this on the double-digit growth you expect for Q4? And the second question is about new openings, extensions, new concessions starting in 2026. What's the estimated impact of those on the growth you expect to have next year for retail? And our third question is about the beautiful docufilm you just presented in Rome on December 4. So what kind of distribution do you envisage for the film outside Italy? Is it going to be circulated to America and Asia? Is it going to be accompanied by special events? Thank you.
So as far as the contribution, new openings, and the retail growth, this year was very beautifully balanced, balanced between growth on the comparable basis and the new openings or expansion. Then as to the value of concession in 2026, you, Oriana, should consider that when they are performed during the year, the gap between wholesale and retail offsets each other because on the one hand, the wholesale is for the whole season. It's true that the retail value is higher than the wholesale, but over time, distribution basically translates in a zero effect in the first year. There will be a shift from wholesale to retail. Then as for the movie, Oriana, we will have loads of events: Japan, America, across the board. Well, alas for me, but there's also Carolina, Riccardo; they will be going there too.
But we are very pleased that the feedback was particularly pleasing because that's the name of the brand and the title. So the London Prize for the style, because you see the awards we received in London was not for the product, but for the whole lifestyle, putting together luxury and design. So that's a very strong message. Then the movie. So this seems to augur well. But I've always thought that when you stop wanting to travel, then you have to stop. So now that young CEOs will be traveling more than me. You see, I went to the premiere in Rome the other night, and I came back at 3:00 A.M. So I was wondering, God, I wonder if I'd be awake for the call. But the idea, Oriana, is that the movie was directed by a man with a soul.
Thank God, you see, it bears the name of the brand, and they say that it can be very successful abroad too. So as I keep saying, Oriana, tomorrow we should be known better, sorry, less than today. So we only have 500,000 customers at the end of the day. Thank you, Oriana.
For any further questions, please press Star followed by 1 on your keypad. So there are no further questions. Very well. So thank you. Thank you very much and best wishes for the festive seasons. We will meet many of you in Milan tomorrow. And hopefully, you will spend some nice holidays. But be confident because high-quality products will always be special. What really matters is to find the skilled hands. Thank you and have a great festive season.
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