Good evening, and welcome to the Safilo Group 2025 full year results conference call. This call may contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and operating economic and financial results for the Safilo Group. Such forecasts, due to their nature, imply a component of risk and uncertainty due to the fact that they depend on the occurrence of certain future events and developments. The actual results may therefore vary, even significantly to those announced in relation to a multitude of factors. Today's participants are Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer, Michele Melotti, Chief Financial Officer, Barbara Ferrante, Director of Investor Relations. I will now pass the call over to Mr. Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Trocchia, please go ahead.
Thanks. Good evening. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Safilo's full year 2025 results. 2025 was a year in which Safilo demonstrated its ability to grow and to create value, even in a global environment that remained complex, uncertain, and often volatile. Geopolitical tensions, market fluctuations, forex headwinds, tariff pressures, all of this shaped the context in which we operated. Yet the strength of our brand portfolio, the breadth of our geographical reach, and our ability to adapt quickly allowed us to deliver another year of resilient sales performance and significant economic and financial progress. I would like to start this presentation by thanking all Safilo employees for their passion, dedication and commitment throughout the year, and all our stakeholders for the trust with which you continue to support our journey of sustainable improvement.
I will begin with the key highlights of the year. I will walk through the performance of our brands and our progress in sustainability. After that, Michele will take you through the financial results in more detail. Let me start with the key highlights of the year. Our net sales performance at constant exchange rate grew pretty steadily throughout the different quarters, finally up 1.8% on the reported basis, while the organic increase was of 2.6% when excluding the deconsolidation of Lenti, which we sold in June. In Europe and North America, we delivered positive constant currency growth in each single quarter, and this was driven by the resilience of the prescription frame business, which kept demand strong in all our core wholesale channels.
In both our core regions, the solidity of our business confirmed the quality and the strength of our relationship with customers and the power of a brand portfolio, which is to be able to generate value across multiple markets and distribution channels and appeal to different consumer groups from our flagship home brand to our leading license. All in all, our top line performance in 2025 confirmed the quality of the work we have done over the last years to strengthen our brand platform, our distribution model, and our customer reach. On profits and margin, we continue to strengthen our performance. The volatility created by tariffs could have been a major headwind, but our rapid response, combining supply chain flexibility with precise commercial actions, allowed us to offset the impact over the year.
We delivered a further step up in gross margin, reaching approximately 61%, and this improvement flowed through the operating profitability, lifting our adjusted EBITDA margin to 10.6% of sales. These results brought our profitability back to the highest level of the past decade, and together with disciplined working capital management, help us to further strengthen our financial profile, boosting cash flow generation to around EUR 68 million before the investments and the disinvestment of the year, and reducing the net debt to around EUR 46 million after the EUR 80 million buyback program we completed in December.
As we look at our performance across the year, what really stands out is how our portfolio has evolved into a truly balanced ecosystem between own and licensed brands, between global names and strong regional players, between sunglasses and prescription frames, and across distinct consumer segments, from men to women, from sport to lifestyle. I think this balance is now our greatest strength, allowing us to seize opportunities across very different markets, categories and consumer behaviors, even when the external environment is volatile. Let me give you a quick overview on some of our core brands or crucial brands in our portfolio. Last year, Eyewear by David Beckham continued to deliver exceptional growth, confirming its role as a strategic pillar within our portfolio and accelerating across all geographies.
This momentum was driven by consistently strong product performance and by the way in which the brand was brought to life at the retail level for premium and immersive activations. The year was also marked by the opening of the first DB store, our mono-brand store in Mykonos, a high-impact showcase raising the brand's visibility among an international luxury audience, and a powerful campaign shot in Morocco that delivered remarkable traction, especially across social platforms. Its expansion in the United States will accelerate meaningfully in 2025, supported by the first exclusive brand event in New York. Of course, David's rising global relevance across fashion, sport, and entertainment continues to reinforce the authenticity and aspirational appeal of the brand. In North America, Blenders faced a challenging year, mainly due to the highly promotional environment affecting the value-for-money e-commerce sector.
However, it is very important that brand retains a strong connection with younger consumers, and throughout the year, we continue to strengthen its commercial fundamentals, supporting a real omni-channel strategy designed to expand the reach of the brand and align with evolving consumer shopping behavior. This work was also linked by a go-to-market extension in the wholesale sport channel with very encouraging results, which is a clear sign that the brand has its own appeal and unique proposition. If we go to Polaroid, despite a softer sunglasses season in parts of Europe, continue to benefit from its broad consumer appeal and strong brand recognition. Importantly, we took a meaningful step forward by becoming the official eyewear partner of the ATP Tour, a global sport platform that placed Polaroid in the center of some of the world's most prestigious tennis tournament.
This partnership brings significant opportunity for visibility, engagement, and connection with the younger audiences. If we talk about Carrera delivered another outstanding year, growing solidly across all the key markets. The blend of this iconic sun and optical collection continue to perform exceptionally well, and the brand expansion in the women's segment is bringing fresh energy and attracting new consumers. Our spring/summer campaign, shot in New York City, reinforced Carrera aspirational positioning, while the renewal of our partnership with Ducati conferred a strong affinity between performance, design, and style that define this brand. How we cannot talk about Smith. Smith posted another year of healthy growth, driven above all by the strength of its direct to consumer business, which remains the primary engine behind the brand success.
Even in a softer brick-and-mortar environment, Smith preserved its leadership in U.S. winter sport, thanks to its deep roots in performance optic and its strong ties with outdoor communities. In Europe, the new commercial set up introduced back in 2024 began to gain traction, helping the brand extend its reach and recognition. It's not only home brand. Let's talk about the world of the license, and here it's important to acknowledge that last year we continued to drive a dynamic management of our licensed brand, taking further step to reinforce its long-term solidity and strategic coherence. During the year, we renewed our partnership with Dsquared2, Under Armour, Carolina Herrera, and Pierre Cardin, strengthening the visibility and stability of a licensed portfolio that is now secured at around 95% through 2030.
Last year, we also continued to elevate our women offering, signing a ten-year agreement with Victoria Beckham, a brand that brings depth of our presence in the aspirational women segment and fits perfectly with the strategic direction of our portfolio. Alongside these moves, 2025 was also a year of meaningful progress in sustainability. We continue to advance in a decisive way along our emission reduction roadmap in line with the targets validated by Science Based Targets initiative. One milestone we are particularly proud of is having reached 100% renewable electricity across all our operation, a clear and tangible step forward in building an increasingly virtuous business model. Our progress was also recognized by CDP. We scored entering the leadership list with an A- rating and acknowledgement of the transparency, rigor, and continuity that guide our sustainability work. With that, I will hand over to Michele.
Thanks, Michele.
Thank you, Angelo, and good evening to everyone. Let me walk through our sales, economic, and financial performance in some more detail. We closed 2025 with net sales of EUR 983.4 million, as highlighted, up 1.8% at constant rate and 2.6% organically. At current rates, revenue decreased by 1% due to the persistent weakening of the U.S. dollar.
In the fourth quarter, net sales were EUR 225 million, up 0.4% at constant rate and 1.9% organically, while the higher depreciation of the dollar against the euro weighed more on the reported performance, down 4.6% at current rates. Our organic growth this year was fueled, as said, by the strong performance of our flagship brand Carrera, Smith and David Beckham, and by the solid mid-to-high single-digit increases across our core license, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, Boss, Kate Spade, and Carolina Herrera. By channel, the wholesale business delivered mid-single-digit growth, supported by both independent optician and retail chains. Online remains stable at around 16% of sales, with strong performance from the sport direct-to-consumer channel and European Internet pure players.
Turning to our regional performance, in Europe, sales for the year were up 2.7% at constant exchange rate and 2.3% at current rates compared to 2024. In the fourth quarter, sales in Europe were up 0.7% at constant exchange rates, flat at current rates. Considering the headwind we had in the period, lower volumes from further supply business, the deconsolidation of Lenti, and the phasing of some delivery that were pulled forward into the third quarter, this was a resilient outcome. Both in Q4 and for the full year, Europe delivered a solid organic performance with mid-single digit growth driven above all by the prescription frame across all our key markets. France was once again our most dynamic market, supported by a broader commercial footprint and consistently strong demand.
Turkey and Poland also stood out, recording very robust growth and ranking among our fastest-growing countries. Growth was broad-based across the portfolio, with particularly strong momentum in our contemporary lifestyle brand. The only softer spot was Polaroid, which saw a modest decline due to a less favorable sunglasses season in a few markets. Across the region, we kept strengthening our consumer base, and the key lever here was again the You&Safilo B2B platform, which continued to gain traction and help us improve service level while deepening long-standing relationship with independent opticians. Its growing adoption really shows the trust we have built over time and our commitment to providing customer with digital tools that makes their day-to-day work easier and the overall purchasing experience better.
Despite the uncertainty and volatility that characterized the market environment, the North America business actually performed better than expected, with positive constant currency growth coming through consistently across all four quarters. Sales for the year were up 1.8% at constant exchange rates, while at current rates, revenues declined 2.6% due to a 4.4% depreciation of the U.S. dollar. In the fourth quarter, sales increased 1.5% at constant rates and were down 7% at current rates. In North America, the year was really underpinned by a solid wholesale performance. The channel grew mid-single digit in every quarter, with strong momentum coming in particular from Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs, Eyewear by David Beckham, and Kate Spade. We continue to strengthen the position with our key customer across the market.
By product, the story was similar to what we saw as well. Growth was driven by prescription frame, while sunglasses has a tough time at the enterprise level, where the environment remained highly promotional. This continued to weigh on Blenders e-commerce business, even if in the second half of the year was less challenging than the first six months. In sport, Smith delivered a positive performance, thanks above all to the strong expansion of this direct-to-consumer channel, which now accounts for around 40% of the brand sales. On the other side, brick-and-mortar sporting goods store were softer in the second and third quarter, following our decision to temporarily limit import of winter product from China, which delayed some deliveries. Most of those volumes were recovered in the fourth quarter, helping sales to physical retail store to turn positive towards the end of the year.
In emerging markets, conditions remained more challenging and business performance was less homogeneous. In Asia and Pacific, the solid recovery that drove much of the year was tempered toward the end by a more uncertain and cautious environment. The fourth quarter saw, in fact, a normalization with revenues down 11.5% at constant rates. Overall sales for the year were up 4.8% at constant exchange rate. Growth came mainly from our distributor-led market and from the double-digit upside in Australia, where Carrera really played its part, supported by the brand building activity we allowed in the country and by the great reception of the women collection. I would also mention Tommy Hilfiger, which performed particularly well and continued to gain traction across the region.
Turning to the rest of the world, sales for the year were down 4.5% at constant rate, 10% at current rates. In the fourth quarter, we finally started to see some sign of recovery in a few countries across the region, which allows the area to return to growth, up 3.9% at constant rate, helping soften what had otherwise been a more challenging pattern through the rest of the year. Performance in the area was held back by a slowdown in India and by lower sales to distributors in the Middle East, where rising geopolitical tension and more cautious purchasing behavior created a volatile demand environment. Latin America showed a mixed picture.
Mexico held up well, supported by the strength of Carrera and Carolina Herrera and by more stable consumer spending, while Brazil slowed down, reflecting weaker demand and a distribution environment that remained less dynamic. Let me now move to our economic performance starting with gross profit and margin. Despite the significant tariff pressure we faced during the year, we reacted quickly and effectively. The combination of targeted price adjustment in North America and increased sourcing outside China allow us to progressively reduce the impact, and by the fourth quarter, we had fully neutralized it. For the full year, gross profit reached EUR 599.3 million, up 1.1%, and our gross margin increased by 120 basis points to 60.9% of sales.
In the fourth quarter, gross profit came in slightly below last year, but gross margin expanded significantly, rising to 61.9%. This reflected the same positive drivers that we have seen earlier in the year, a favorable price and mix effect, the reduced weight of lower margin activities such as the product supply business and the deconsolidation of Lenti. We have also continued to benefit from lower obsolescence, thanks to better forecasting, better planning and lower inventory levels. Finally, at the gross margin level, it's worth noting that while the weakening of the dollar had a negative impact on our revenues, it provided a tailwind of 50-60 basis points on gross margin, given the share of our supply chain that is dollar denominated.
Moving down the P&L, in 2025, we achieved our goal of converting the improvement in gross margin into a solid operating performance, even while keeping investment on our own brand at a sustained level to support their development. Adjusted EBITDA for the year reached EUR 104.2 million, up 12% versus 2024, and the adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 120 basis points from 9.4% to 10.6% of sales. In the fourth quarter, confirmed this trend. Adjusted EBITDA was up 12.3% year-on-year, with margin improving 130 basis points from 7.5% to 8.8%.
For the year, selling and marketing expenses ended the year down 3.5%, largely due to the reduction in logistic costs, supported by further efficiency across our distribution processes. The strong increase in marketing and advertising investment we recorded in the first semester gradually normalized as we moved through the year, allowing the recent process to realign with last year level around 12.7%. General and administrative expenses increased by 4.3%, driven by higher IT investment, mainly in software as a service solution that support front end initiative for the sales force, along with an increase in provision for doubtful accounts in few emerging markets where uncertainty remained higher.
Below the operating line, our financial performance also benefited from a sharp reduction in financial charges, which were nearly half compared to 2024 from EUR 16.3 million to EUR 8.3 million. This reflected both our lower level of net debt and a more favorable trend in exchange rate differences. As a result, adjusted net profit reached EUR 44.6 million, up 30.4% versus 2024. Overall, it was a year which stronger margin, disciplined cost management and healthier financial debt structure all came together to drive a clear improvement in the bottom line. To wrap up our review of 2025, let me turn to cash flow and net debt.
In 2025, our strong economic performance, combined with discipline and effective working capital management, allow us to generate EUR 55 million of free cash flow, a sharp increase versus the EUR 16.7 million recorded in 2024. This really underline our ability to deliver solid cash generation, even in a challenging market environment. The year started on a very positive note. In the first half, we generated EUR 43.5 million of free cash flow, supported by the robust operating result and steady working capital management, particularly on inventories, following our decision to limit product import from China in a high tariff context. We also benefited from a roughly EUR 12 million proceeds from the sales of Lenti subsidiary in the second quarter. Momentum continued into the third quarter with an additional EUR 20.7 million of free cash flow.
In the fourth quarter, we saw an outflow of EUR 9 million, entirely explained by our EUR 25 million investment to purchase a 25% stake in Inspecs. Excluding this investment, underlying cash generation in the quarter remained clearly positive at around EUR 60 million. Overall, as Angelo underlined at the beginning, net of this purchase and the disposal of Lenti, free cash flow for 2025 reached EUR 68.1 million, a level that clearly demonstrate the strong cash generation capability of the group. These results stand well above the EUR 47.8 million generated in 2024 before the investment in the David Beckham perpetual license.
Finally, after accounting for the EUR 18 million share buyback program, which together with the share already held, brought us to total 5.6% of Safilo share capital, our year-end net debt decreased significantly to EUR 46.1 million, compared with EUR 82.7 million at the end of 2024. If we look at the metrics pre IFRS 16, our net debt stood at EUR 6.6 million, reflecting an even stronger improvement in the group's underlying financial position and further confirming the solidity of our balance sheet as we exited the year. With that, I will hand it back to Angelo for his closing remarks.
Thanks, thanks, Michele. Let me begin with a brief snapshot on how the year has started. The start of the year progresses broadly in line with the pace at which we closed 2025, with essentially a continuation of the underlying trends. Remember that in the first half, we still have Lenti in the base period. As you know, anyhow, March remained by far the most significant month for the first quarter. In March, the geopolitical and macroeconomic environment unfortunately became even more complex following the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran on February 28th, which triggered a rapid escalation of tension in Middle East. To put things in context, approximately 2% of our sales are linked to markets directly or indirectly affected by the conflict. We approach 2026 with both awareness and a strong sense of responsibility.
In an environment marked by new tensions and instability, financial discipline and our ability to adapt quickly become even more important and critical for our long-term value creation journey. At the same time, our commitments do not change. We remain firmly focused on our brands, on innovation, on nurturing the quality of the relationship we have with customers and partners around the world. Finally, as communicated today, the board has supported the resolution for Safilo Group S.p.A. to execute a new share buyback program in 2026, up to the maximum of 10 million shares, equivalent to around 2.5% of Safilo outstanding capital. This follows from last year's program and reflects our confidence in the group trajectory and our commitment to ensuring efficient allocation of financial resources. Thank you very much so far. We are now ready to take your questions.
Thank you. This is the conference operator, and we will now begin the question and answer 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 Niccolò Storer, Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on working capital. It's been a few years that you've been doing a great job on that. 2025, another brilliant result. I was wondering what should we expect going forward? Is there still any room for optimization, or you think that we have reached now a level which could be, let's say, sustained going forward, but not further improved? The second question is about financial charges. Also in this case, what should we expect going forward, and which could have been the picture without, let's say, the noise from FX movements? Last question on Inspecs. You have now quite a big stake in the company.
What should we expect next? Which are your next move, you have in mind, and how do you plan to, let's say, deal with this big stake? Thank you.
We take the first two, then we leave the third one to Angelo. Working capital, the reduction that we've seen in 2025, mostly coming from inventory, I would say structural and is now part of the base. While we believe that of course this is largely structural, we cannot expect of course to continue on a path of reduction in the coming year. I would say our midterm ambition remain to improve working capital. We have closed the year roughly at 22% incidence on working capital. In the meanwhile, we expect to further optimize going down to a 20% incidence.
On financial charges, let me say that half of the improvement versus year ago is driven by forex dynamic, while the rest is driven by both the reduction of the net debt and a slight reduction on interest rates. Of course, going forward, we should continue to assume a reduction of the debt because, of course, as we still have debt on hand, further reductions supported by continued free cash flow generation should support an additional improvement in the coming future.
Going on, answering to your question on Inspecs. At the present, we have no updates to provide, and there are no additional comments we can make on this investment. Just as a reminder, on February the tenth, I think as we have already communicated, we had reached 29.9% of Inspecs share capital, which is the maximum level we can currently reach under the restriction of the so-called Rule 2.8 of the U.K. Takeover Code. Shortly after our communication, Bidco switched its approach from a scheme of arrangement to a takeover offer. Given this context, I think nothing to say in the short run. We need to see what will happen, I mean, in front of us.
We just like to restress that we think that Inspecs remain a very good investment, and there is a huge strategic fit with the Safilo strategy. Thank you.
The next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is about marketing cost. What do you budget for this year in terms of a percentage of sales? The second question is about CapEx. Also, what do you budget for CapEx? The third question is on M&A. In the press release, you say that you are committed to make acquisitions. Can you provide us some color on targets that you would like to see? Thank you very much.
I take the second question on the CapEx, leave the other two to Angelo. On CapEx, I believe we will continue to watch carefully at the opportunity. Our CapEx should be limited in the range between EUR 12 million and EUR 15 million, I mean, next year and also structurally going forward. Yeah. I mean, answering to the marketing cost and the M&A, I mean, if you start that from marketing costs, I think today we closed the 2025 years with quite a high level of investment, which is right. I mean, it's part of the strategy.
Look, obviously, we cannot answer on the precise number, but I think that there is room to stabilize or let me say to optimize this amount of investment, because definitely we are on the top edge of the industry in terms of investment. Moving forward, this number will stabilize more. The challenge we have, but I think having now some brands which have scale, like, you know, the Carrera, the David Beckham, the Polaroid, the BOSS, some of these big brands start having scale. Obviously, I mean, percentage of marketing is a little bit misleading because at the end it comes how much money you invest in terms of absolute money.
Moving forward, I think that we will try to optimize and get to a more reasonable level of investment without jeopardizing the focus, but more looking to how to optimize the investment that we are doing. On the M&As, we've been keeping saying, it's obviously we are quite active. As we said, there are three areas that we keep looking and where some potential targets are there. One is optical, and the discussion on Inspecs, the previous question on Inspecs, and the fact that I judge Inspecs like a strategic investment fitting with the strategy is because it's answering to the topic of optical.
The second dimension is sport/optical, but with a little bit sophisticated one is the second area, and that is also an area where we are looking because now we start having a quite important brand, solid brand within the sport arena. We have Smith, we have Blenders, we have Carrera, we've launched Carrera Sport. So is an area where we think that some additional brands can even strengthen our performance. Looking to M&A, these are the two areas. The reason the women area is more complex to find in this moment the right target, but that remain the third area where we are looking. Definitely optical and sport, high optical is the area where we are looking and some potential targets are there.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Cédric Rossi, Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three, actually. The first one is so you said that the start to the year was broadly in line with Q4. But I was curious to have your view on the mood of U.S. retailers. I recall that National Vision said that some of your brands were quite successful in their stores. What's your view on the U.S. market for 2026? My second question is regarding the DTC strategy. As you said, the mono-brand store at David Beckham was quite successful.
Does it encourage you maybe to consider also some mono-brand stores also for Carrera, for instance, that could also be opened in Europe or in North America? The third question is regarding the tariff impact. You managed to mitigate the impact quite well in the second half of the year. Can we also expect some good mitigation impact also during the first half of the year? Thank you.
I take the first two. I mean, it's. Let me say, if we look to the start of the year, as I said, the first two months of the year were really progressing broadly in line with what was the pace of 2025. If we look to North America, also, if you consider that now this year has been a strange year because in some parts of North America there was this huge winter storm, no ice in New York and the coast was -30 degrees Fahrenheit with a lot of snow. Independent from that, to be honest, we see that North America was showing a strong resilience, to be honest. The point is, I'm talking about Jan and Feb.
In the beginning of March, we don't see any change. The question, to be honest, that we have, but we just need to wait some more weeks, is what is going to happen and more, let me say, in Q2. For me, currently, honestly, we don't see any negative effect. We see retail which is resilient, and we don't see big negative trend in North America for Q1. We need to see now what's going to happen with the oil costs and stuff like that. For the time being, to be honest, North America is definitely okay and in line with the exit speed. The same is in Europe.
If we looked at the beginning of the year, obviously now we need to see what's going to happen. In terms of the DTC strategy, just to be sure that I've understood your question, you were referring to physical stores if it would make sense to have physical stores for Carrera, right? Have I got it right?
Yes, indeed. Yeah. Understood.
Okay. Yeah. No. Honestly, no. I think it's too early, I think. Also, what Carrera is doing is that we are defending the core, we are building the women, and we are building the sport. We are investing on the D2C, the e-commerce platform in North America for Carrera. I personally don't see that strategy moving forward for Carrera. Maybe can be an option more for Smith, which we believe that in terms of product characteristic can fit more in having a limited number of mono-brand store. But I personally don't see in the short run for Carrera. Sorry, Cedric, can you repeat the third question? Was about tariff? Did we-
Yes.
Did we get it right?
Exactly. Yes, sir. Thank you.
Now, I mean, as I said earlier, I mean, we are exiting the year with, let's say, a fully balanced, let's say, a strategy. All the countermeasures that we have developed and put in place throughout the year are now fully, let's say, sufficient to offset the current tariff landscape. Of course, the landscape is still very much evolving, so we also need to see the real outcome of the Supreme Court decision. Again, so far, let's say it's not a major risk anymore, but we need to see how the situation will settle in the coming weeks. May even translate into an opportunity if the court decision is confirmed.
Okay, great. Thank you to both of you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks.
Just to thank everyone and enjoy the rest of the evening. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye. Thanks. Thanks very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.