Good afternoon. This is the conference call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Moncler Full Year 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Paola Durante, Strategic Planning, Intelligence, and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.
Thank you and good evening to everybody, and thank you for being here today on the Moncler Full Year 2021 Financial Results. As usual, I will introduce the speakers on today's call. Moncler Chairman and CEO, Mr. Remo Ruffini, Roberto Eggs, Chief Business Strategy and Global Market Officer, Gino Fisanotti, Chief Brand Officer, and Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer. With us tonight, there is also Carlo Rivetti, Stone Island CEO . Before starting the presentation, sorry, some boring part, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain a statement that are neither reported financial results nor are they historical information.
Any forward-looking statements are based on Moncler's current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risk, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of Moncler to control or estimate. Now, I leave the floor to our Chairman and CEO. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for attending our call tonight. 2021 has been another remarkable year. A year in which even as the pandemic has continued to shape our lives and our way of doing business. We have not only delivered strong results, but we have completed important projects that have reinforced our group and our brands. This is the moment in which I'd like to share with you some of our achievements, but even more, our many future projects.
Talking about achievement, first of all, let me say that I'm extremely proud that in 2021, Moncler Group passed the EUR 2 billion euros revenues and generated EUR 550 million of free cash flow. Both our brand deliverd revenues result well above the pre-pandemic level with a strong acceleration in the last three months. I'm also proud of how the Moncler brand is continuing its strong momentum, increasing its height, but on this, I will leave Gino after to comment. I am also satisfied on how the integration with Stone Island is proceeding.
Not only our corporate function has been integrated, but also from January 1st this year, we have started managing directly the Korean market, while we have launched many projects to spread the direct to customer culture. I am happy to see that Stone Island brand continue to maintain an extraordinary vibe, not only supported by some activities and events, but even more important by the strength of product. 2022 collections have been very well received. In particular, the Fall/Winter 2022 sales campaign started in January, and we are extremely happy with the feedback and orders, while keeping them tight and selected.
Above all, I'm really proud this year on how the group is integrated sustainability in all action, in all project, in any division. In 2021, we have further reinforced our effort and result. I believe that the team is doing an amazing job, not only for all the projects or the important recognition received, but even more because I do believe that the sustainability division has been able to truly spread the sustainability culture in the whole group. We all feel very committed.
We have huge challenges ahead of us, and only united as a company and as a sector we can move mountains. Moving to 2022, m y first thought goes to the events, a situation that is touching all of us, and for which we hope for a prompt and peaceful resolution. We know that this year, uncertainties remain high but we are ready to face them. We have unique talents, some of them joined only recently in Moncler and also in Stone Island. More importantly, we have a solid vision.
We want to shape the future of our group knowing that communities, sustainability and digital are the core of our actions to continue to keep our customers at the heart of our world. You know that in our group, we always push for higher peaks. We have a deep pipeline of projects for 2022. Some of them also shaped to celebrate important anniversaries for both of our brands. However, I will not anticipate too much tonight because we are going to have a Capital Market Day, the first with also Stone Island, on May 5th. Don't try to get us anticipating much. We'll keep all secret until May. Now, I leave the floor to Gino to more details on Moncler brands. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ruffini. Good afternoon to everyone. We're moving to slide or page number four. I will touch base on some of the brand highlights. I have to say, this quarter was an incredible quarter for the brand on top of the great results we got and we shared with you on Q3 regarding MONDOGENIUS , right? A few things I wanna highlight from here. Of course, the first one is the announcement and the launch of the partnership with Inter Milan, which got an incredible positive sentiment across consumers, especially here in Europe.
And, of course, we have the opportunity to get not only a strong reaction from media, but on the back of that we were able to launch product exclusively at moncler.com, which were sold out in just two weeks. The other big, among many other stories, the other important story is we were able to be back on the communication of our Moncler Collection, which is one of our core businesses with the launch of the We Love Winter campaign, which was featured across key markets around the globe with very strong success, not only in terms of engagement and the visibility of the campaign, but of course in driving the business to new heights as well.
Last but not least on this slide, I just wanna comment on the Born to Protect, something that Mr. Ruffini just mentioned in terms of our commitment to sustainability. We just did what we believe is a great brand statement. More importantly, we are extremely proud to start backing up our sustainability plan, not only from all the actions we're taking internally, but all the commitments that we're pushing out and the communications we're doing around it. We move to the next slide. Just a few other comments.
Of course, on top of everything I mentioned, a few other things happened in terms of the world of MONDOGENIUS . First of all, we were able to to launch a new project with Alyx and Matthew Williams regarding 6 Moncler . This include some work that we did around Fortnite as well in terms of skins, which provides a lot of learning for us in terms of how we can keep finding new ways to connect with customers and communities around the globe.
Secondly, we launched the Palm Angels collection during Miami Art Basel, and then after that, around key markets with another strong success around this collection. Not only again in terms of just the revenue we're able to see, but the impact in terms of how this is connecting multiple markets around the globe. Last comment from my end on the brand highlights is around the introduction of the House of Genius, something that we work in partnership with David Fischer, which is the founder and the chief editor for Highsnobiety.
This includes multiple executions, including some pop-up retail like spaces like Selfridges in London or collaborations with HOKA footwear, which was very successful in terms of the sell-through when we launched this project. These are just some of the highlights. What I wanna do now is leave the floor to Mr. Roberto Eggs, who will talk a bit about the financial results.
One comment maybe also on Stone Island brand and what has been done. There are two main events that we have featured at the end of Q4. One was a music event with a line-up of musician as part of the Stone Island Sound program in London and Milano. Second one, an art -meets -motocross performance in Miami during Art Basel. Regarding the full year revenue of Moncler, Remo already preempted the fact that we reached for the first time the EUR 2 billion mark for Moncler and Stone Island together.
The results of the fourth quarter were really good, and they were further accelerated above the pandemic level. With this +30% compared to 2019. If we look at the detail of this, EUR 2.046 billion that we did, this is a +44% compared to 2020, and +28% compared to 2019. During the last quarter, I would like to highlight here especially the growth that we had compared to 2019, which is a +40%. Moncler, as a brand, for the full year revenue 2021, EUR 1.824 billion, which is a +28% compared to 2020, and a +14% compared to 2019.
Last quarter has seen an acceleration with a growth rate of +30% compared to 2019. Regarding Stone Island, the nine-month consolidated revenue starting from first of April were EUR 222 million, and the last quarter, EUR 66 million. If we move to the Moncler revenues by geography, I will comment the performance compared to 2019, as we believe that is a more relevant benchmark for us and at constant exchange rates. In Q4, Moncler brand further accelerated, reaching double-digit growth in all regions.
Chinese mainland continued to be the main growth driver, followed by Korea and North America. Asia, which includes Asia Pacific, so mainland China, Greater China, Japan and Korea, represent 49% of the full year revenues with an acceleration in Q4 and reached +39% growth, driven by exceptional local demand in all markets, including Japan. In Q4, mainland China and Korea continued to post outstanding results. Japan returned to solid double-digit growth in the last part. EMEA revenues, which represent today one-third of the total revenues of Moncler, posted a significant acceleration in Q4, rising well above pre-pandemic level with a +16%, driven by strong local demand and outstanding performance of the direct online.
We have seen also a return of the tourist, intra region. Americas, 17% of the full year revenues continue its exceptional results with a +31% in Q4, with the positive contribution of all channels, and of course, DTC and the online are performing the total revenues. If we look at the Moncler revenues by channel, Moncler brand, DTC revenues represented 78% of total, so back to kind of normal, similar to 2019, with a total turnover of EUR 1,429 million, which represent a +16% compared to 2019. The fourth quarter direct -to -consumer revenues strongly accelerated up to 31% versus 2019.
The comp growth in 2021 was +23% versus 2020, and +1% compared to 2019. Direct online channel almost doubled, so +100%, also boosted by the successful internalization of the dotcom that started in 2019 with Korea and was completed last year. In 2021, Moncler opened 18 stores. Among them, the most important one in the last part of the year were Milan Galleria and Chengdu Swire. Wholesale revenue, 22% of the total sales, reached EUR 395 million, so a new record for Moncler, which represent a +15% compared to 2020, and +8% compared to 2019. In Q4, wholesale rose 19% versus 2019. I pass the word to Gino for the online.
Okay, as Roberto mentioned, I think the results we're getting to our dot-com business have been very strong. We were able, as Roberto says, to double our business against 2019. The total online business reached 15% of the total revenues. I think more importantly, I think one of the things that we want to really measure against is the level of engagement we're finding against consumers, right? It's not just about reaching those numbers, and I think those numbers were a consequence of the great work the team was able to do in terms of engaging and bringing consumers into our platform.
That's why we were able to see an increase in traffic by 30% versus the previous year. Again, just as a comment in terms of engagement and the way the team was working, campaigns like We Love Winter were able to bring 1 million people traffic at the week of the launch. That was, for us, unprecedented. The other big thing for us is start looking at membership, something that I think we are starting to showcase for first time, which is, login customers. Those that are able to join us in a way, and for us being able to understand them better and serve them better, more one-on-one.
Of course, the other big thing for us in terms of engagement is to see a 60% increase in terms of the product page view, which is people spending more time than standard in understanding the story, understanding the product, and engaging with our platform way longer. Last but not least, we always discuss in the past few calls about our focus on China. I think we are starting to see a really strong performance on WeChat, but more importantly, we are planning our Tmall launch on Q3, 2022. More news there, and then o f course, we will keep improving and going deeper in terms of our social media presence around, of course, Western and Asian channels moving forward. With that said, I will go back to Roberto.
Thank you. I'm sure that you are eager to hear more about Stone Island and the revenues for the first year with Moncler. Stone Island, as you know, consolidated figures started from February 1, 2021, and contributed EUR 222 million to the full year group results. Including the unconsolidated first three months, so from January to March 2021, the total full year revenues of Stone Island reached EUR 310 million, which represent a 35% growth compared to 2020, and a +26% compared to 2019. In full year 2021, consolidated EMEA results accounted for 77% of total revenues.
Italy, the most important market in EMEA, contributed to more than a third of the total revenues of the region, followed by U.K. and Germany. Wholesale business contributed to 78% of total revenues of Stone Island, which is the opposite of Moncler. Moncler is 78% in retail and D2C and 22% in wholesale. Here we have still a business that is still very much a wholesale business. Direct to consumer performance has been driven by solid organic growth and some new openings. Direct online remains strong and accounted for some 30% of total direct to consumer. Main openings for Stone Island during the year have been Paris, Galeries Lafayette, Bloomingdale's, New York City, and Shanghai IAPM.
If we look at the total number of stores for the Moncler group, we have now 267 stores at the end of December 2021. 237 are Moncler stores, 30 are Stone Island stores. What are the changes that occurred in Q4? Moncler opened four new stores. The most important are Milano Galleria, Copenhagen, Zurich Globus, and Chicago. We had also some important relocation like Roma Piazza di Spagna with an expansion where we doubled the size of the store. Stone Island openings were unchanged, but we have been working hard during the last quarter of the year, working on the joint venture for the Korean market that we have signed, and that is effective since January 1, 2022.
We switched 23 mono-brand stores that were handled by our partner, the importer, into retail. We are currently in this phase of launching retail excellence in Korea, and we have now 23 more monobrand stores with Stone Island in the network. For people having visibility of the presentation, you see a picture of the fully renovated store of Piazza di Spagna, which was pre-pandemic one of the stores with the highest sales density in the network. We hope that this is going to be a new start for us. The other one is the relocation of Chicago, which is now a flagship store of 380 sq m that we open at the end of the year. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Roberto, and good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for attending our call today. We are now at page 15, where we report, as we did at the end of the first half of the year, a bridge between the income statement reported and adjusted. The adjustments are totally related to the Stone Island transaction and regard a small portion of the purchase price that has been allocated to the order, the Stone Island order backlog and released during the year for EUR 20 million and some legal costs strictly associated with the transaction for EUR 3.6 million.
We believe that the adjusted income statement more properly reflects our business results, and it is a more fair comparison for the upcoming 2022 results that we report this year. Page 16, we report the income statement of 2021 as compared with 2020, as usual, but also as we did for this year, with 2019, that is more meaningful fiscal year. The top line has already been presented in detail by Roberto and Gino, and we report a 42% growth rate with a 76.6% gross margin, a little bit lower than the 77.7% we reported in 2019.
But again, this is due to the inclusion in our perimeter of Stone Island business, which is, as we said, a wholesale business model company with a lower gross margin of about 60%, as Moncler has in the wholesale business. The weighted average makes this number a little bit lower. Just to let you know, even if we don't report results for each brand, I can tell you that Moncler brand only gross margin was higher in 2021 than in 2019. The other side of our business model is included in the selling expenses that are lower than in 2019 for the same reason.
Stone Island being a wholesale business model has lower selling expenses that are normally more in the retail business model. Again, just to let you know, Moncler brand only reported selling expenses totally in line with 2019 with a small improvement which reports a better retail business productivity this year than in 2019. G&A 11.4%, lower than last year, but significantly higher, 1 point higher than in 2019. Again, this is something we normally tell you. I mean, we want the organization to become stronger- stronger to face all the challenges and the complexity of our business.
Specifically important to remind you that in 2021, we insourced, we internalized our online business, and over the past two years, we have invested a lot to build a strong digital organization. This is an example, but of course, we have invested and keep investing in the supply chain, in logistics, information technology, retailers. All of the different areas of our business, we keep investing in talents and in people needed to make this result happen. Marketing is slightly below the 7% of 2019, but this is again only because Stone Island still has or still had in 2021 a much lower marketing budget.
To be clear and transparent with you, the marketing expense of the Moncler brand only was even higher than 7% in 2021. For the upcoming years, 2022 and after, as you know, as we said other times, we plan to increase the Stone Island marketing budget, and at the end to reach a 7% that will be and still is our, let's say golden rule. EBIT at 29.5%, slightly lower, the 30.2% we reported in 2019, but much higher than what we planned and expected. At the beginning of the year when we said we should end up between 25% and 30%. We did the better, and w e are very happy about that.
Only one comment on tax rate, simply because you may see, and I'm sure you did see a 29% much higher, I mean back to normal. So it is also a good indication for the future, and much higher than what we reported last year and the year before, when we still had the tax benefit of the Patent Box in 2019, and the tax benefit in 2020 coming from the tax realignment of Moncler trademark. Okay, let's move now to page 17 where we report CapEx. CapEx, I mean nothing particular to highlight- I mean now EUR 125 million, 6.1%, so better than what we did in 2019.
Better, I mean, we invested a little bit more also due to the fact that we report in this number also EUR 6.5 million of Stone Island CapEx. It's not a big amount. Something more important to comment is the future than 2021. For 2022, we plan a total CapEx budget of EUR 106 million, more or less, and the CapEx budget for Stone Island will be much higher, in the region of EUR 20million-EUR 25 million. Of course, we will start to invest more and more in the distribution, in the retail channel. That is, of course, a part of our strategy, as you know.
Let's move now to page 18, where we report net working capital with a very low net working capital, very few times, because considering that in this number, we report also Stone Island. That again, since it is a wholesale business model, it normally reports higher net working capital. This 7% is lower- I mean, the lowest ever. This is for a couple of reasons. There are some reasons associated to business I wanted to highlight and to celebrate because we still have a very efficient inventory management, we still have a very strong credit control.
Something important to highlight is that thanks to the internalization of our e-commerce business, we have an improvement of our receivables because in the past we had the receivables versus YNAP . Now we cash directly, we collect directly cash when we sell the product online. I mean altogether, receivables and inventory are very good. Something quite unusual is payables. That is, about EUR 30 million higher than what it should be, normally it should be because we shifted some payments to our suppliers from December to January, in part, because of some different cycle, some different timing of the production cycle.
The net working capital would be about EUR 30 million higher. Still, honestly, very good, but not so much. Next page 19. Of course, the last slide of what I said, cash, we reported at the end of the year was EUR 730 million. Even if you take out the EUR 30 million I told you before that are extraordinary, still EUR 700 million cash, that is much better than what we planned at the end of the year and honestly, I think much better than what the market, the financial market expected.
Only one comment about the dividends, because today the Board approved the proposal at our shareholder meeting to distribute EUR 0.60 per share, which is in about 40% payout. Next page, please. Balance sheet. Honestly, I don't have anything to say unless you have questions later, so we can move directly to page 21 where we report a cash flow statement with an amazing cash generation, with an amazing free cash flow. Let me highlight amazing, not just because I wanted to celebrate our business success, but also because I want to mitigate the market expectations for the future.
This cash flow generation has been over our expectations, but also because you know that the cash flow is the comparison of two pictures of the financial situation in 2020 and 2021. 2021 was very strong, 2020 was very weak because everything you know. That's why we generated a lot of cash in net working capital, EUR 92 million, which is quite unusual. This is why we generated EUR 52 million in other assets liability, which is quite unusual.
I mean, I'm ready to answer your question if any about these two lines that are quite extraordinary, but just to let you know that again, the EUR 550 million are the result not only of a very strong business results, but also of some unusual, let's say, balance sheet items. Okay, corporate update. I mean, just a comment on some important project and event, Stone Island integration. I mean, we keep working together as a team, as a family with Stone Island management team and with the Rivetti family, with very, very good results.
One important result that Roberto already highlighted is the internalization of our distribution in Korea through the joint venture that is up and running since January 2022, and also the integration of our information systems that is on plan for this year. I mean, the information systems associated with the distribution for sure this year and the rest for next year. Information technology, an important update about an unfortunate event that you all know. Right before Christmas, we suffered a malware attack. As you probably know, we had a temporary outage of our information technology systems, with exception of the systems in store and e-commerce that fortunately continued to operate.
The data systems have been reactivated in a few days, starting from, of course, the systems more associated with the business transactions. I mean, it's been a very unfortunate event, but in any event, now you know, the systems are up and running again since early January. About Moncler production capacity, important to update you if it's something we already discussed about, which is the new facility, production facility we are building in Romania, in the same area where we already have our production facility.
This will be ready in Q3 of this year and up and running starting from September, October, with the final goal, final ambition to double our own production capacity in that area, in that facility. Okay. Page 24, sustainability. I mean, many projects, many activities, and I want to highlight only a couple. Three, actually, I like more. I personally like. One is that we have almost eliminated all the single-use plastic. The other one is about the Born to Protect.
I mean, this is the first of the second bullet point. 30% of our Moncler Genius collection is made entirely of sustainable fabrics under the label Moncler Born to Protect. The other one I like, I personally like very much, is the project to recycling a certified down. I mean, we take all the leftover garments, we extract, we take the down, we clean it, we regenerate the down, and then we use the same down in new product. This is happening now, and will be in our collection in Fall/Winter, upcoming Fall/Winter 2022. Okay, I think we are done. Thank you very much, and I'm ready to answer some questions.
Yes. Operator, we can open to the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. This is the conference call operator. We will now begin the Q&A session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Melania Grippo with BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. This is Melania Grippo from Exane BNP Paribas. I have two questions. The first is, of course you had a very strong Q4, and I was wondering, you know, since the year started, have you seen any changes in the environment, in any particular countries? Is there anything to call out? I mean, have you seen changes in customer behavior, willingness to spend?
My second question is actually a clarification. You mentioned during your presentation the CapEx for both Stone Island and Moncler. If you could please repeat because I did not catch. Also, I have read in your presentation that you opened quite a few pop-ups in 2021. Can you say how many and if you intend to, you know, open them in 2022 and in case how many? Thank you very much.
Good evening, Melania. Start maybe with the trend at the end of the year and the start of 2022. As we said, strong acceleration in Q4, especially strong months were October and November. Overall, it was a growth that was double-digit in all markets, including Europe, where we even had a positive comp compared to 2019 in Europe, driven by the return of the local tourists, especially in city main capitals and touristic areas in the Alps.
Also a strong growth in China, strong rebound also on the U.S. market. Japan that did suffer a little bit due to some closure of stores in the Q3, had also a good end of the year and a good start of 2022. If I just give an indication for the start of this year, we are on average for January, February to a similar growth rate that we have experienced during Q4 for Moncler and similar also for Stone Island.
Okay. Hi Melanie, about your question about CapEx, of course I think you refer to 2022. Our total CapEx budget is EUR 160 million. We plan for Stone Island about EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million, which is 3x what we spent for Stone Island in 2021. Much more, but still much less than what we are spending for Moncler. This is due to the fact that, again, this year we will start to invest in new stores, but the year after in 2023, I mean, it's premature to comment 2023, but of course, with expansion of the retail network, we will spend in CapEx more for Stone Island than what we spent last year and this year. I think I answered your question.
Yeah. I think there was a question also regarding the pop-ups. We have roughly 10 pop-ups that were open during to sustain the big event, the MONDOGENIUS of September, and a similar number of what we call pop-in, which are dedicated areas in key flagship stores for Moncler also at the end of the year.
Yes. Excuse me, just one thing, just to a clarification on your January, February trend. When you said that it's similar to Q4, is this year-on-year?
Yes. In terms of growth rate, yes.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Elena Mariani with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, gentlemen and Paola. First of all, congratulations on your EUR 2 billion sales milestone. That's impressive. I've got a few questions for you. The first one is your view on the U.S. market. We've been discussing a lot about the U.S. with investors and with companies, and I was very keen to get your view, particularly given the sequential acceleration that you've seen in the fourth quarter. We've heard that there is a new consumer emerging, a male consumer that is very focused on urban style and streetwear. But at the same time, there are clearly risks to see a slowdown or at least a growth normalization.
What is your view on this market and how sustainable do you think this demand is going to be going forward? That's question number one. Question number two is on China. I was very curious to know whether you think you have benefited from the Chinese Olympics. I'm not talking about necessarily the specific last few weeks, but everything that you have done with the brand, the collaborations, the pop-ups. Do you think that this has helped you over the past few months when it comes to brand awareness? And do you see the Chinese getting closer to winter sportswear? And do you see this as continuing going forward?
My final question is for Mr. Ruffini. I mean, the sector is becoming more and more consolidated. There's a lot of cash being generated. I mean, we all know about the sector dynamics. In terms of long-term vision, would you see yourself as a larger brand aggregator, perhaps expanding your portfolio to diversifying to footwear or other complementary brands and categories? Or do you see the current perimeter of the group as the right one for the long term? Clearly, I'm not talking about the next couple of years. I know you're very busy with Moncler and Stone Island, but what's your ambition for the long term for the Moncler group? Thank you.
Okay, let's start. Thank you, first of all, thank you very much for the question. We will start with the U.S. comment. I think, again, definitely we're seeing a strong reaction from that market. We agree with your comment in terms of the opportunities we have there. I think we start seeing a lot of strong connection with the brand, especially on the East and West Coast key markets, I would say especially New York. But then we are seeing some strong results in other cities as well. This is something that for us we are focusing on and you will see us working heavily towards that market as well. The opportunity to even open up to this new luxury consumer that you were mentioning, that is super strong in the U.S.
To complement the answer of Gino, I think what we have seen interesting is the growth on the younger generation, Generation Z and Millennials that have been one of the strongest together with Europe and the Chinese market. I think the way we communicate the product that we are offering and the way we position the brand is really getting into the trend that is currently working very, very strongly on the U.S. market. Also a very strong and positive reaction to the new website, where we have been able to generate strong triple-digit growth compared to 2019.
I think in terms of conversion is one of the markets where, the fact that of us managing direct and having a different look and feel and a way to communicate on the website has been a real success. We see also that in terms of demand of clients coming back to stores, this has been very strong with the opening of the new Los Angeles flagship store that we have, with the opening of Chicago and the project that we have for this year in Miami Design District, Detroit and Dallas. We see a potential for Moncler to grow.
Ultimately, we have only 26 stores currently in the U.S. plus 10 shop -in -the -shops, so 36 for quite a large market. I think there is still potential to grow, to invest in the market. We have also developed very strong relationship and bond with the department stores, and we see their possibility probably in the future to move some of the business that were in wholesale into a retail concession business or part of the e-commerce business that are becoming very, very important for the department store. I see a lot of positive signs coming from these markets.
I continue maybe. One last comment. We were just discussing as we are hearing Roberto talking about the U.S. as well. I think the other thing that we're seeing strong signs from customers is around footwear in the U.S. as well, and that's another opportunity for us that we believe is very important for the brand and very important for the U.S. market as well. That's another important topic that we wanted to add at the end on North America.
The second question was regarding China, and we are all very excited about this trend, this move that China is showing towards winter sports globally. I think the Winter Olympics have been a kind of accelerator, but the trend was already there probably because they were preparing for the Olympics.
We see more and more people that are interested in skiing, and we believe that we are probably one of the most legitimate brands to communicate on this because we were born in the mountains. We have for 2022 a strong plan for the end of the year in terms of pop-ups to join the previous question of Melania. Strong activation that is foreseen for the end of 2022. Also a big event that we're preparing for the 2022- 2023 collection.
Thank you.
Talking about the cash you said, I think, you know, since ever, we're looking forward to have a very, very solid company. Having said that, we just make a big acquisition for us, an amazing brand that is Stone Island. We have a lot of things to do. Stone Island is a super successful brand, especially for the young generation. But we will, as Roberto says, we wanna really turn the company into a direct to customer with the direct to the customer approach. Means, we need really time to redesign the organization. As Carlo always said, it is not a revolution, but it is really an evolution of what they did in the last 40 years.
Means we have a lot of things to do, and we're really confident that we can go straight to the customer to not filter between us and the market, and we can build really a very strong brand. This is for sure the midterm. For the long term, I don't know. Again, we've not planned to make any acquisition, but last year, for example, Stone Island happened. But really in our mind is really to concentrate, to build up a strong family. As I said, you know, we have two fantastic brands, and we have really a lot to do. Thank you.
Understood. Thank you, thank you very much.
The next question is from Susy Tibaldi with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Good evening. My first question was on your inventory. We know that you have a very strict management of inventory, and you always say you prefer to end with too little rather than with too much. I was just wondering Q4, the demand has been really exceptional, and we know firsthand that going into stores, many products didn't have a lot of sizes left. I mean, how do you think that I mean, obviously the demand was clearly ahead of what you had planned in terms of supply.
Let's say, how quickly can you adapt to the kind of demand that you see in the market? Is it fair to assume that perhaps you also held back a little bit of inventory because you were thinking about the upcoming Chinese New Year? Second, on the space expansion, this year space was up 10% year-over-year, and it was higher than you initially indicated at the start of the year, I believe. I think already for a few years, perhaps space always tends to end up the year a little bit stronger than we initially expect.
Which is great because it means that, I mean, you're doing really great, the brand is evolving and expanding. How should we think about the space component going forward? Also it seems you are moving more towards this idea of opening these flagships where consumers can really, really experience the brand very well. It would be great to have an update there. Perhaps just one last question on your EBIT margin.
This year ended below the 2019 level, which is something that you were already very upfront in saying that that was going to be the case. How should we think about the margin going forward? Your like for like has returned to or has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. You have e-commerce which is accretive. You know, there's upcoming price increases coming as well. Should we expect all these positive factors to benefit the margins in 2022? Are we in a situation where you actually, at this stage, you prefer to really invest in Moncler and also Stone Island, and so your priority is your top line rather than your profitability? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your question, Susy. About inventory, of course, as usual, we may run out of some best sellers, and this is the case for everyone, and this was for sure the case in Q4 in December. Having said that, I mean, we ended up with about 60% sales right at the end of December. That means that we still had another 40% available for January and February. January and February business, as we said before, is doing well. Of course, January and February business is driven not only by fall-winter inventory, but also by the new Spring/Summer inventory. Putting the two inventory together, obviously, I think we are in a good stock position to face our business demand.
Again, of course, this is something important to reiterate, even if I'm sure you know that, but we prefer scarcity, we prefer to run out of inventory rather than having, at the end of the season, too much inventory. This is part of our strategy or philosophy, if you want. About space growth- I mean, of course, needless to say, our space growth strategy has been driven over the past years, and will be driven in the near future more by re-expansion of our existing stores than the new openings. This is very important from the strategic point of view. Having said that, we estimate mid-single digit of space contribution in the growth rate. Talking about operating margins-
Can I just add something on the philosophy of expanding our direct -to -consumer business? Yes, the tendency over these past couple of years has been to do experiment that has been very successful in getting larger space, and you have seen that we have been able, despite the increase of the space, to increase from 2020, and we are getting very close to 2019, which is the record year in terms of sales density. To open larger store where we can express the brand differently and having a space that is not only a transactional space where you come and basically you buy, but where you live a different experience from Moncler.
I think Champs-Élysées has been one place of experiment for Moncler, where we have introduced new concept like personalization, immersive rooms and clienteling location in the store that we call Rifugio, is something that we have been experimenting now also in China, in Chengdu, with a store that is much more digital and very connected to consumers.
It's something that we would like to pursue, not everywhere, but when things make sense, for us, it will be a way to develop a different experience that is aligned with what we are doing digitally. We have some flagship store that are planned for this year. Most of the openings will take place, as usual, between July and September. But we have these flagship store planned in Europe with Madrid, Düsseldorf. We have also flagship store in China, in Chengdu. We have also some important relocation expansion in Macau.
We already talked about Chicago. We have the project of Miami and other flagship stores. I think in all these stores we are going to blend the digital experience with an enhanced client experience in the store, that ultimately the consequence of it will be, we hope, a higher sales density, but also an attachment to the brand that is going to become bigger and bigger. Yes, as Luciano said, we have for this year more planned for relocation and expansion than openings.
Yes, Susy, about your comment and your question about EBIT margin. First of all, let me say that we believe that a 30% EBIT is very, very good. Our job, our mission, and what we do all day is to protect this 30% EBIT forever, rather than chasing 35% or 34% or whatever percent in one or two years. This is important because behind this simple and obvious word, there is a strong and very clear strategy.
Having said that, of course you are right, we are increasing prices, but you know why we are increasing 10% prices in Fall/Winter because we face, as everyone, important production cost increases in raw material mostly, but not only, also in labor cost. This 10% price increase will not translate into additional margin.
About online, you are right- i n theory, you are right, and let me highlight in theory, because of course, the online business may be profitable, even if, even a little better than the physical business. But again, we are not chasing margins improvements. We are chasing huge opportunities we see in the online business, which is not a business only, which is a communication. Talking with our communities, building a brand stronger and stronger. Of course, increasing our top line that is growing very nicely but again with a much higher potential. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Sorry, just one quick technical clarification. Your online sales, these do not go into like-for-like. The like-for-like is only for the physical stores, is that correct?
No. Comp store sales includes, of course, online- direct online as usual. Direct online only, of course.
Okay. Okay. Understood. Thanks.
The next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good evening. Anne-Laure Bismuth from HSBC. I have three questions please. The first one is on the U.S. I was wondering if it would be possible to have an indication of the percentage of sales that has been done with new customers. The second one is on the store openings.
I've heard you comment that you are planning to do more relocation and expansion this year than store openings, but can you give us the number of stores that you are planning to open this year? Finally about the production. You are building this new facility in Romania, but can you refresh my mind about. What is the percentage of production that is done internally and what it will imply with this new production facility? Thank you very much.
Good evening, Anne. First question regarding the U.S. and the new customer, it's roughly two-thirds of the sales has been done with 63%-64% with new customers. What has been driving the performance of the U.S. market is that we have also increased the loyalty of the existing one. We have been able to attract new customers, and I was referring before to the fact that it's one of the highest regions in terms of Generation Z and Millennials, very positive on this side.
On top, one of the markets where the return of existing customers, the loyalty rate has been increasing. We have been selling more to existing customer that have been returning more to the store, and we have been able at the same time to recruit new clients. In terms of store openings, we have secured roughly 15 openings for this year, and we have a number of relocation that is slightly higher than that.
Yes. Hi, Anne-Laure. The production plant we are building in Romania, in May in the next year to double the capacity we have in that building. Important to highlight, just to make sure I understand your question, is that in Romania overall, not only in our facility but also with some very important and historical production partners, we do the majority of our production. What we do in our own factory right now represents about 15%.
With the new building, we will exceed the 20% with an ambition to achieve in about 30% when the facility will be 100% up and running with all the production lines. These are the three numbers- 15 now, over 20% next year, up to 30% hopefully in a couple of years in our own facility. Romania is the vast majority of our overall production.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Thomas Chauvet with Citi. Please go ahead. Mr. Chauvet, your line is open.
Hello. Hello. Yes, sorry. Good evening. Three questions please. Firstly question perhaps on sales productivity for the Moncler brand. If my calculation is correct, you've returned close to EUR 36,000 per sq m for 2021, so in line with 2019 and 2018 levels. Could you confirm this is the case? Maybe Roberto provide some information on how retail metrics have evolved in 2021 relative to 2019 in the past. You kindly provided average store size, traffic, evolution, conversion, UPT, average basket. That'd be very useful.
Secondly, on the price increase of around 10%, you said back in Q3 you- this would be for the Fall /Winter collection- g iven what's going on in the industry, some competitors have already passed on price increase very early in the year around the magnitude. Have you reconsidered your pricing strategy for this year, particularly on the spring summer collection, or is it too late now?
Finally, following up on the question on the e-com and LFL and how you're computing this for 2021 and for the year ahead. When do the internalized e-commerce operation enter in the same store sales calculation? For instance, the U.S. and Canada were internalized in October 2020. Do they start to hit the LFL after 12 months, so in October 2021, so Q4, and so on for Europe, China and Japan later this year? Thank you.
Sorry, Roberto, just on this one very quickly, it's true that we internalized the e-commerce business because it was run by YNAP before, and now is done internally. Remember that even under the YNAP , it was already retail business, so it has always been included in the retail DTC and comp calculation. Only if we open a new market in terms of online, like we did a few years ago with Japan, in this case, the revenues generated online in Japan was not comp for one year, but this is only that.
Okay. Understood. Thank you Mrs. Paola.
Good evening, Thomas. On the store productivity, I would dream to be already back to 2019, which is of course, obviously our ambition. We were at +20% compared to 2020. 2020, as a reminder, was EUR 26,000 per sq m. We increased slightly more than 20% at 31,400, which is a significant improvement, especially taking into account that some of the stores were closed during the first half of the year. If I'm just looking at the productivity that we had at the end of the year in Q4, it was comps positive.
It was similar to the one we had in 2019, but for the full year, we have still been impacted by the closure that we have had during the first half of the year. Regarding KPIs, let me give you some metrics. The average store surface increased by 2% last year, so we are now at 180 sq m. For Moncler, we are at 134 sq m. Stone Island- o n Stone Island, we are working on a new concept that we have planned to open mid of this year in Chicago. And probably there also we are going to look for stores with a slightly bigger surface to be able to express better the values of the brand.
As I mentioned, this density increased slightly more than 20%. The traffic was up 7% compared to 2020. The conversion was a double-digit conversion increase compared to 2020. These are good because usually, as you know, there is a strong correlation between traffic and conversion. Usually, when you increase traffic, you may have a small impact on conversion. Here, we have been able to do both increase traffic and increase conversion. Overall, the average selling price, UPT and average transaction value increased by 1%.
Thank you.
About the price increase, Tom, I mean, we increased prices in Fall/Winter 2022. In this current Spring/Summer, we didn't increase prices. I mean, we keep adjusting prices, you know, but not significantly as we did for the Fall/Winter 2022. Of course, we decided to increase prices when we faced the impact of the raw material cost increase. We take into account the stock position, not only our stock position, but also the stock position of our suppliers.
You know that in these circumstances, there is some kind of longer wait that may delay the impact depending on the amount of stock that is in the supply chain. So that's why we waited to increase prices. Of course, we did increase again in the Fall/Winter 2022, and we will increase prices more or less the same in the next Spring/Summer 2023. So this is the overall picture. We didn't see any reason, any need to increase prices in this Spring/Summer 2022.
Thank you, Luciano.
Okay. Given the time, we have space for a few other questions, but I would ask people to keep maybe a little bit to one, maximum two, because we have few people on the line. Thank you.
The next question is from Louise Singlehurst with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I'll keep to one. I thought it was really interesting commentary in terms of the distribution and potential channel mix. If I think about it, the store numbers that you're highlighting for the U.S. and the potential opportunity in the market, and I presume very similar for China, can you just help us think about the views of channel mix going forward and the benefit of online?
I presume now you've got the businesses integrated, you're getting quite excited about the online mix going forward. Relative to that target that you talked about for the online mix by 2023, I think you talked about 20% of the group sales when you were internalizing the business, when you announced that, a couple of years ago now. If you could give us an update, that would be fantastic.
Hi, Louise. Thank you for the question. Yes, it's one of the strong focus, not only because we believe in it, but because I think the consumer behavior has changed, and they are looking more and more to buy online. What has been surprising during the pandemic is that, yes, there was a trend where younger consumer were used to go and buy online. What we have seen, especially in Europe and in more mature countries like Japan and Korea, is that even people that are a little bit more up in the age are also looking to buy now and are getting used to buy online.
Yes, in the focus that we have, we see potential to grow on the DTC globally. On the retail side, especially in the U.S. market and on the Chinese market, but most importantly, we foresee a growth rate over proportional on the online business for the three years to come. This is the horizon which we are working, and that will be probably what we're going to disclose during the Capital Market Day. Yes, we foresee a growth rate on the online that is much stronger than what we can see on the retail part.
What we see also is the trend on the wholesale is to have more and more conversion to go more directly, even when we talk about e-tailers, to go- m oving part of the business from e-tail, so from wholesale into concession, to be able to better master the communication and the flow of product and the supply chain, increasing the client experience and also as a result, the level of sales and the sales flow. These are the two big trends we are seeing. Do you now want to add something?
No, no. The only comment I will make is on something that even Roberto, I think, mentioned before, which is how we are looking after- a gain, I think Luciano already mentioned this before, how digital is helping us to go deeper in terms of the relationship and the engagement with consumers. This is something that even Roberto, myself, we're working about how we can even further connect our physical and digital experience for the brand.
So truly create experiences both in the physical world to what Roberto was mentioning before and in the digital world, so we can have a different level of engagement. Because we believe that at the end, the relationships are super important to then drive into the commercial aspect of it. This idea of relationship over transaction is something that will guide us in terms of how we can create deeper connection with communities around the globe.
Can I just ask one quick follow-up in terms of the benefits versus the brand dot-com will be the priority, but what are the benefits of the e-concessions? Is it attracting like a new cohort to the brand? Obviously, we'll hear more on May 5 th, but thank you.
Yeah, Louise, we are starting now with two e-concession, one that started already with the Fall/Winter with Mytheresa, and the second one is we just signed now for the Spring/Summer. We started with Luisaviaroma , and we have ongoing discussion with the other ones. Well, first of all, there is a much higher level of communication on which product to push, giving them more insight, like if they were one of our stores on what are the activities. All the, let's say, connection and communication between the retailers and the brand are completely of a different level.
We are planning specific action together. We are planning to develop specific capsule for them. Of course, they enter into our what we call auto-replenishment system that we have for our stores. This is also improving the product availability. At the end also delivering a better service to the consumers. These are the main advantages that we see and also a bit better knowledge from our side on to whom we are selling. Who is the end consumer at the end, which is another factor that is very important. You know that this knowledge is at the end what is driving the growth of the company.
Super. Thank you. See you in May. Thank you.
The next question is from Luca Solca with Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you very much indeed for taking my question. It's the first day of war in Europe today in the Ukraine. It's difficult to grasp how this will evolve and what implications this could have. I wonder how you're thinking about the risks inherent in this situation on two areas I would ask. One, your dependence on Eastern European and Russian clients in Russia and in the rest of Europe specifically.
And two, your operations on the ground in Romania. If my geography is right, your factory is towards the west. I wonder if you have any subcontractors in different parts of Romania and Transnistria or if you expect any potential disruption because of refugees or any other things going the wrong way in that area, and if you're preparing any contingency plans. Thank you very much.
Good evening, Luca. Very sad news, even if somewhere it was maybe even a little bit expected, but we were all hoping that this would not happen. We've been in very close contact with our team on the ground in Kyiv. We have one store in Kyiv with a team. The store is closed. Regarding the impact that we see potentially to the business, I don't know if it's more maybe related to increase of the price on oil and so on that may have an impact on increase of raw materials.
If I'm purely looking at the dependence on the local market, meaning Russia and Ukraine, this represent roughly 2% of our business. Not really material. This was- I was seeing that till a couple of weeks ago, more as an area for potential growth for us, but we're not as dependent as other luxury brands on these two countries.
Yes, Luca. About the supply chain, first of all, we don't make any production in Transnistria you mentioned. Important to say that. About Romania, it's difficult to predict. Of course, Romania is not very far from Ukraine. It's difficult to predict, honestly. I can't give you an answer- o ur thoughts now.
We are very close to people who are suffering for this situation. Honestly, I can't predict. Honestly, I don't see any impact on our supply chain in Romania. Honestly, I don't know why we should have any impact, but of course, everything may happen. The situation is very, very sad.
Thank you very much indeed. Thank you both.
The next question is from Antoine Riou with Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, everybody. I have two short questions. The first one, just to rebound on Thomas's question on sales densities. Roberto Eggs, you mentioned that back in 4Q, you were already back at the 2019 levels. Given the solid start of the year and price increases in the second half, I mean, do you see any reasons for sales density not to be back to the 2019 levels in 2022? That's my first question.
The second question is just on marketing and events. What do you plan? I mean, you had the big Genius event end of last year, which has been super successful. Given you plan, you know, still to spend quite a lot in terms of A&P, can you tell us basically what you are planning for this year? Would there be another Genius event or something big in the second half of the year? Thanks.
Good evening, Antoine. I will dream to be back at 2019 levels, but you just heard the question of Luca, so I think there is still some predictability during the year. The COVID is not over. You know that we usually overperform in the months that are the strongest for us, even if we have a good start, it is very encouraging.
We have still 10 months in front of us with many uncertainties. We are going to work very hard to be as close as possible as the record year of 2019 in terms of sales density, but this will be influenced of a lot of factor. No closure, no restriction, a little bit of reopening of the travel and the travel retail. Let's say that we are confident that we will be able to improve the result of 2021. On this, we are committed to.
Yeah, Antoine, regarding again your question about marketing, I think again as you've seen in the past few months, we have ramping up a lot of efforts. I think we're super excited about the plans we have for the future. I think I need to respect what Paola said at the beginning about some of the news, we will hold it for the Capital Market Day, and this will be some of those. Again, I will ask just to be a bit patient a few more months, but we will showcase there a little bit. We will be able to answer to your question, but I can tell you internally we're super excited about the year ahead.
Okay, thanks.
The next question is from Rogerio Fujimori with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Could you talk about recent category trends for outerwear versus knitwear and other non-outerwear categories? Anything to call out in terms of standout performing categories aside from the strong growth for footwear in the U.S., or was the growth momentum relatively uniform across categories? Thank you.
Thank you, Roger, for the question. What we have seen is the first half of the year where the non-outerwear category were performing really well. As usual, when we come back to the Fall/Winter season, the very good metrics that have been expanding the KPIs that have been given before are explained by an excellent performance of the outerwear. Overall, we are still at 75% an outerwear company.
I think what is interesting this year is that we recently launched for Grenoble - an activewear collection that is more a Spring/Summer collection. With this, we have new categories that we are pushing. The cotton zone and the knitwear have been performing extremely well. They represent today roughly 15% of the total. The part of the soft accessory is developing very well, with an enlarged size of stores that will have additional capacity to display this product.
I'm confident that they are going to overperform the outerwear category in the years to come. Finally, I think this is the point, and one very strong focus from Gino. I don't know if it's linked to his past, but he's focusing a lot on footwear, and we all believe that there is a bright future for Moncler on the footwear category, especially the sneaker for men and the boots for women. These are categories that have been performing extremely well in the U.S., but also that are starting to pick up in Asia. This is the encouraging factor that we have getting strong demand now also from the Chinese market.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Flavio Cereda with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Two quick questions from me. Number one, did you experience any real supply chain issues in Q4? Because it was kind of a recurring refrain if you go into the stores, be it in Europe or in the U.S., you keep hearing, "Oh, wish we had more of that. Not sure that's coming in." I was just wondering whether that's just a phenomenal sell-out or whether there was any supply chain issues at all. Number two on Stone Island, because we're not mentioning Stone Island. Can you give us an update in terms of the internalization of the distribution here, what the targets are at this time? Thank you.
Hi, Flavio. About the supply chain issues, honestly, I mean, we face issues with supply chain all day long. Having said that, big issues, because I think this is what you are referring to, honestly, no. I mean, our supply chain has been up and running in 2020, in 2021, notwithstanding the situation. Of course, issues are associated with contagions that make absenteeism higher than before. So sometimes our factories have to stop some production lines. It's not normal as in the past, but in any event we never stopped our production. Honestly, looking at all of these problems from far away, no big issues.
Frankly, of course, there are issues associated with transportation that make our shipments longer. I mean, we take longer to reach our regions because again, the transportation issue is not only associated with the cost increase, which is three, four, five times higher than before, but it's associated with the lack of transportation. I mean, because all the civil flights are not there anymore, and 80% of our transportation in our sector is through civil flights. So again, this is something, of course, we face every day, and no bigger problems, but for sure delays mostly due to this logistics issue.
Yeah. Flavio, regarding Stone Island and this more direct -to -consumer approach that we really believed in, we have started a pilot for retail excellence, where we have defined a new customer experience with the store managers and also the client promise, and we have started the pilot in Germany. This started at the end of 2021 in around November, December. We are now planning the rollout in Europe, starting from Italy, in April this year. In parallel, we are working for Korea because as we have now moved the Korean market into a joint venture with direct control on the stores, we have moved these 23 stores under our direct management.
We have a new GM that is there, absolutely backed up and helped by the local Moncler organization. We are planning to have the rollout of all the systems, the clienteling app and the retail excellence on the Korean market in the course of this first six months of the year. Regarding the other internalization, Japan and China are foreseen for 2023. As you know, U.S. market is already a direct market there, so it's a matter of implementing the system, but there is already direct management. These are the main focuses we are having. The situation in the U.K., which is the other important market.
We have a longer contract that is ending at the end of 2024, but we'll be able to handle the online part starting from next year. These are discussions we have started with our partner locally, and we're working hand in hand with them. Regarding wholesale, we have planned a reduction of the number of agents, so taking control of some of the wholesale agents that we have. We had, when we took over Stone Island, 29 agents. We are working to reduce this, but this needs to be done also hand -in -hand with the agents to give continuity to the business, but it's something where we have started to work on.
Thank you very much, and keep up the good job with Inter. Thank you.
You couldn't not mention it.
We know you're a big fan.
The next question-
The last one.
The last question from Paola Carboni with Equita SIM. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good evening, everybody. I just wanted, if possible, to have some anticipation on what you have planned for the 70-year anniversary. I don't know if you can spoil something or whether we have to wait until the capital market date for that as well. Secondly, as far as Stone Island is concerned, if you can comment about the retail performance of Stone Island, at least for the oldest stores where you can give us a sense of the two-year stack comp growth. And also, the kind of growth you have experienced on the order backlog, which you commented is very good for the Fall/Winter collection. Thank you very much.
Paola, thank you for the question. I will be quick on the first one. Unfortunately, I will have to give you the same answer as before. This is part of the conversation we'll have in just few weeks in the Capital Market Day, and we will be able to share plans and within that, some of the things that you were mentioning too. I will ask you for some patience there and I will let Roberto answer the other questions.
Okay.
Yeah, Paola, good evening. Regarding the retail KPIs, I think we'll be able to give you some more i nteresting figures in at the end of 2022 honestly is far too early. We are currently putting in place this Moncler system there that have been adapted to the experience we want to deliver to the consumer. The metrics that we have now, we are not ready to share them. I think we need also to have more direct access to end consumer data because the data collection was not up to the level we have in Moncler and so on.
We are currently working to do the setup, to do the training, because it's not only about putting a system, but to convince people that it's the best way to operate and train them for this- is about finding also the right profile of store managers that we have in most of the case, but they need to be trained to have the, for the staff, the right attitude in the stores, to redesign the incentive scheme.
All what we have been able to put in place in the Retail Excellence Project in Moncler, that took us three years, we would like to do it, let's say in half of the time, one year and a half, but y ou need to give us a little bit more time to give the answer as precise as the one we have for Moncler, because we need first to do the setup and start from there.
As far as the order backlog...
Regarding the-
Yeah. Thanks.
Yeah. Just on the order backlog, the campaign just ended at the end of last week. It was very positive. We count on a good double-digit growth for the winter season with a strong demand from our wholesale clients, even to the point that we had to calm down a little bit the demand because like for Moncler, we want to be able to sell less than what is really demanded by the end consumer. We are tightening a little bit the demand. The demand and the way the collection was received was very positive. Of course it's only selling and the proof will come from the sell-out on the market, but we are very confident.
Okay, thanks very much.
I think- [Foreign Language] Paola. I think that with this answer we end tonight's session, which has been even a little bit longer than normal. I thank you, all of you. Just to remind you that next week we will publish the management report, which will give you some more information compared to what you can find on the press release and the presentations ahead clearly of the report that will be published in due time. We are here for any follow-up questions. Thank you very much. Good evening to everybody. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephone.