Good evening or good afternoon. Welcome to Kering's 2021 Health Care Results Call. I will go through the highlights of our excellent performance in the 6 months, and Jean Francois will say a few words of conclusion before we take your questions. As you know, due to the busy reporting schedule in the sector, This call will last exactly an hour. Starting with Slide 4.
The first half was marked by a sharp bounce back in revenue and profitability compared to 2020 when the pandemic took a heavy toll. In addition to year on year changes, I will provide 2 year stack comparisons with Q2 or H1 twenty nineteen when appropriate. Revenue first. In H1, sales exceeded €8,000,000,000 up 50% reported and 54% comparable with a negative 4 point FX impact. In Q1, revenue already stood above pre pandemic level, and this trend further amplified in Q2.
Recurring operating income was EUR 2,200,000,000 2.3 times the H120 number and near pre pandemic level. Our EBIT margin was 27.8%, up 10 points and back to substantial profitability in this recovery phase as we continue investing to strengthen our brands for the long term. We also generated Record free cash flow of EUR 2,400,000,000 thanks to a very high cash conversion ratio. Our houses successfully managed their working capital. At the same time, we maintained our investment efforts with CapEx above 4% of revenue.
Our brands resumed selected store openings and renovation programs, and we kept the pace of Group Investments in Growth Platforms. Our net debt, excluding lease liabilities, reached a historical low just above €600,000,000 On Slide 5 highlights on our strong top line growth. Looking first at H1, Comparable group revenue grew 8% on a 2 year stack, a sharp rebound driven by our luxury houses and by Kering Eyewear. Zooming on Q2 revenues, the pace of recovery accelerated materially. Group revenue was up 95% comparable, implying a 2 year stack growth of 11% in Q2 after 6% in Q1.
Our luxury houses, for their part, grew 10% over 2 years. Moving to Q2 analysis by channel for all luxury houses on Slide 6. Retail, accounting for 82% of revenue, drove the performance with growth of 98%. Lockdowns eased gradually in the quarter when an average of 13% of our worldwide stores were closed. Some markets like Western Europe, Japan and a few Asia Pacific countries were more impacted than others.
Tourism flows have not resumed, and over 90% of total retail sales were to locals. Overall, retail showed a nice sequential acceleration in Q2, up 16% on a 2 year stack after a 6% increase in Q1. Wholesale and other revenue accounted for the other 18%. Wholesale was up 67%. This quarter, in addition to low comps, The overall performance was supported by the great success of the collections and high sellout generating reorders, notably from the U.
S. But also from IHAN. Our wholesale strategy is unchanged. We continue to raise control over distribution, cutting some doors and migrating to retail certain offline and online partnerships. Compared to Q2 2019, wholesale is down 10%.
Royalties and other grew over 120% in the quarter, driven by the Remarkable performance of eyewear and, to a lesser extent, perfumes and cosmetics. Shifting to Slide 7, we provide retail trends by geography. First region to be hit in 2020, Asia Pacific was first to reopen and to improve trends as soon as Q2. This year, the region once again enjoyed sustained strength led by Mainland China and Korea. Taiwan and Australia were impacted by new lockdown restrictions.
The region grew 53% in Q2 and 36% on 2 year stack, accelerating versus Q1. In Japan, Evoliv Q2 grew by 93%, the 2 year trend was down 30%. With emergency measures entailing some store closures ahead of the Olympics, Local demand could not offset the absence of tourists. The reopening of Western Europe was gradual, and an average of 26% of stores were still closed in Q2. The successful reengagement of our brands with local customers led to healthy double digit growth in sales against 2019.
But tourists, who represented close to 65% of the total back in Q2 2019, we're still missing. As a result, sales in Western Europe, up 71% in Q2, We're down around 40% over 2 years. In a buoyant North American market, Our brands achieved triple digit growth, combining a notable rebound in physical stores with sustained e commerce. The region is accelerating materially, up 2 63% in Q2 and 86% on a 2 year stack. Rest of the world is also showing sustained recovery an acceleration driven by the Middle East and Latin America.
Focusing on e commerce on Slide 8. You see that trends were extremely positive, underscoring the successful internalization of our online activities and the boost from our omnichannel strategy. Online sales in the first half were 2.6 times the H1 'nineteen level, reaching close to €900,000,000 Penetration of total retail sales was 14% with discrepancies across regions, reflecting the phasing of store reopenings and specific consumer behavior. Turning to profitability on Slide 9. Our Luxury houses delivered very healthy H1 performances.
EBIT neared €2,300,000,000 yielding a 9.3. Year on year margin improvement to 29.8%. This reflects favorable operating leverage from top line rebound, together with good control over the cost structure. At the same time, our brands, 1st and foremost Gucci, are reinvesting in marketing, stores, communication, CRM and talent to further sustain their long term growth. After a well controlled margin dilution last year, We are firmly back on our profitable growth trajectory, already exceeding for some of our brands the record levels set in H1 'nineteen.
Let's look at Gucci on Slide 10. H1 revenue was up 50% comparable. In Q2, Revenue grew 86%, with Retail up 93% or 11% on a 2 year stack. All along a semester that was still somewhat disrupted by store closures, Gucci deployed a wealth of clienteling and in store initiatives. They included high AUR events, dedicated focus on the beloved lines, innovative visual displays and seasonal drops that resonated with our clients.
Gucci strengthened It's positioned across all customer clusters in the U. S. And Mainland China with notable success in the Higher End Clientele segment. The House also leads the way in innovative approaches, exploring emerging models on gaming platforms to tap into new audiences. The calendar should be even more intense in H2, with the acclaimed ARIA collection hitting the shelves late September and an extensive program of events to mark the houses' centennial.
Wholesale was up 22% in the quarter from a very low base in 2020 and is down more than 40% on a 2 year stack, consistent with Gucci's strategy to increase control over distribution. Recurring operating income was robust at EUR 1,700,000,000, the 37.8% margin. Considering the substantial intensification of advertising and promotion, The gradual improvement in profitability is firmly on track. Investments in brand and client engagement across all touch points are bearing fruit. The CapEx to sales ratio is 2.8% with CapEx back to H1 'nineteen level.
Gucci's store network is mostly unchanged, with very selective openings to enhance its footprint and sales opportunities with local clients, such as the Gauk flagship in Korea you saw on my opening slide. On Slide 11, you have highlights for Saint Laurent. Q2 revenue rose 119% comparable, with retail up 140%. Versus 2019, comparable retail was up 20 6% in the quarter with leather goods, ready to wear and shoes, all up double digits on a 2 year basis. The house's iconic products enjoyed strong traction, as did the springsummer 2021 collection whose Dessert themed digital fashion show last December garnered with wide recognition.
China, and particularly North America, led the increase, and sales to locals in Europe rapidly bounced back as soon as stores reopened. Compared to Q2 2019, e commerce tripled. Saint Laurent's H1 EBIT margin already exceeded pre pandemic level, notwithstanding the housing's investments in expanding its footprint and building awareness in new geographies. CapEx was below Historical levels, but should catch up in H2 due in part to the houses new shoe manufacturing site. Bottega Veneta on Slide 12 posted a 33% increase in H1 sales compared to 2019, realizing its highest ever quarter in Q2 2021.
North America was extremely positive. In Asia Pacific, sales grew more than 30% on a very demanding comp base. Conversely, COVID did keep some clients away from stores in certain important geographies, notably Western Europe and Japan. Growth is consistent across retail and wholesale. The collections are successful with both existing and new clients across all product categories for men as well as women.
The quarter also saw the migration to our internal e commerce platform with great results, notably in reducing lead time, improving product availability and omni channel services. Recurring operating income is already above pre pandemic level and margin not far behind, reflecting the houses investments in building its global stature. CapEx was focused on upgrading the quality of the store network. Our other houses on Slide 13 are achieving excellent performances since the beginning of the year. In Q2, total sales more than doubled versus 2020 and were up 20% on a 2 year basis, fueled by very strong retail and wholesale at virtually every brand.
Balenciaga's focus on local clienteling actions delivered exceptional results with solid growth across regions, notably in North America. All product categories posted growth in the quarter. Balenciaga's return to haute couture a few weeks ago represents a major building block in
its elevation
strategy, benefiting its positioning and fueling its future performance. Alexander McQueen also achieved outstanding growth with sales up high double digits against 2019 in the quarter and first half, driven by the U. S. And Greater China. Our jewelry houses all posted sharp rebound with significant triple digit increases across channels and geographies in Q2.
Boucheron and Pomellato leveraged their recent successful expansion in Asia Pacific, Mainland China in particular. Killin also had a truly spectacular first half, tripling its H1 2019 revenue level. Revenue in watches was also up triple digits in the quarter. Julis Nardin's quest for exclusivity is paying off, while Gerard Perrigo is consolidating its turnaround and starting to reap benefits from its collaboration with Aston Martin. EBIT and profitability of the other houses We are up significantly, while CapEx focused on reinforcing the geographical coverage of our houses.
On Slide 14, our Corporate and Other segment. Kering Eyewear had total revenue of €383,000,000 in H1, resulting in consolidated sales of €326,000,000 The team delivered an impressive Q2, particularly in North America and EMEA. Consolidated sales in the quarter were up more than 180% versus 2020 and 34% above 2019. With the recently announced acquisition of Lindbergh Scheduled to close in H2, Kering Eyewear confirms the prominent status it has built in the industry in a few short years. It adds to its portfolio a brand with exclusive narrow and established legitimacy in optical frames that should further enhance its growth potential and profitability.
Recurring operating result was a negative €59,000,000 a material improvement due to Kering Iware's growing positive profit contribution and to corporate cost well under control. CapEx wise, we kept investing in our growth platform to provide our brands with best in class backbone in terms of online and omnichannel services, IT and logistics. Now moving on to the remaining lines of the P and L on Slide 15. Other non recurring operating expenses were €17,000,000 down materially from last year. Net financial charges amounted to €126,000,000 Excluding interest on lease liabilities, financial charges were €66,000,000 down 25 percent year on year.
They include €22,000,000 in cost of net financial debt, down 28% on lower average coupon bond coupon. Other financial charges amounted to €44,000,000 encompassing, as usual, the financial component of hedging. Corporate tax was €595,000,000 a stable 28 0.2% tax rate on recurring income. Group net income from continuing operations Adjusted for nonrecurring items reached €1,480,000,000 Comments on free cash flow, balance sheet ratios and net financial debt are on Slide 17 16 to 18. In the first half, we generated free cash flow of EUR 2,400,000,000 a record level.
Our brands skillfully managed their working capital. Operating working cap stood at 14.5% of last 12 months revenue, a one point improvement year on year, taking into account the technical reclassification of certain items you see in the footnote on Slide 17. At June the surcharge net financial debt was €619,000,000 excluding lease liabilities. This represents a significant drop compared to year end, mainly driven by high free cash flow generation and, to a lesser extent, by the disposal of an additional 5.9% stake in Puma. Our financial situation is extremely solid, with net debt to equity ratio below 5%.
I will now turn over the phone to Jean Francois for concluding remarks.
Thank you, Jean Marc. Hello to all of you. Our performances in the first half were excellent, consistent with the path we outlined at the beginning of the year. We are not slowing down the pace of our strategic initiatives. We are on track to elevating our distribution and rightsizing wholesale.
Internalization of e commerce is complete now that Bottega Veneta has joined our platform, and it is delivering the expected improvements. Deployment of all our other growth platforms is also on track. The pandemic is not behind us, and we are fully aware that we are operating in an environment that can change rapidly. This being said, as far as factors we can control are concerned, we are firmly back on our profitable growth trajectory. Our brands are highly desirable and well positioned in their respective segments.
Our strategy is straightforward, and we have the financial resources to pursue our goals. With an abundance Of initiatives and activations across the board scheduled for the second half, we are confident in our prospects for the full year. On this note, Jean Marc and I are ready to take your questions. Operator?
Thank And your first question comes from Susana Pusch from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I have 2. So my first question will be on well, actually, both will be on Gucci, sorry. Well, our first one will be on Gucci performance in retail.
If we look at the performance by region, Sequentially, it looks like majority of the improvement was driven by the U. S, which I guess we've seen across many companies. But there's been also some, I would say, encouraging signs. You're seeing you've seen an acceleration, and I could be wrong, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but also some acceleration And APAC sequentially in retail and also in rest of the world. So maybe if you could kind of give us some color On sort of if this trend has been continuing and sort of maybe accelerating and if maybe Sort of most recently, you've been seeing also Western Europe reaccelerating sequentially.
Is there any color you could provide Just to give an idea if other regions apart from the U. S. Have been also reaccelerating, that would be very helpful. And my second question is on margins. So Gucci obviously maintained a very healthy level of profitability in H1.
But I guess, we've been also hearing from some of your peers that they are seeing structurally higher profitability in the industry And given that, obviously, the bigger groups, including Kering, have been gaining lots of share in the market. So I would be just curious if you could give us maybe tell us what you think of that, if this is something that you're actually also seeing in the business. And also maybe kind of more specifically, how should we think of Gucci's margins in H2? And also how quickly you think you could return to the I think it was 41% EBIT margin for Vucic pre COVID? I appreciate that it's very specific.
I'm probably going a bit too far, but any incremental color in terms of timing, which you could share with us, that would be very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Susanna, for your questions. I will start about the retail trends, and I will try to be very synthetic, Conscious of time. Indeed, we had an acceleration in many regions during Q2. I think it was due to all the activations we had with a lot of animations In the stores, very consistent with the strategy we had presented for the during the full year results with some drops of collections, some pop up and pop in activities. Also, we had a lot of animations around The deliveries in the stores of the Uyaches collections, we regained traction also in Asia Pacific, especially in China in June with the ARIA show, which was presented in China.
So I think it's really the result Of all the strategy we have implemented in different regions to engage more with customers, and there is probably more to come with, of course, the delivery of the ARIA collection during the 2nd semester, and we will keep the pace in terms of investments. But for sure, U. S. Is doing extremely well across all the different age groups and all the different clusters of clientele. China, definitely.
Korea also where Gucci is regaining traction and clearly has completely offset The lack of tourism in the country. In Europe, of course, tourists are still missing, but we have compared to 2019 Double digit growth with local clientele, both offline and online. And where the market is Clearly more challenging, but due to some additional closures, it's clearly Japan, where we didn't see and we didn't observe acceleration as it was the case in some Countries where there were also some more lockdown measures like the countries of Oceania and Oceania and Taiwan, for example. When it comes to the margin, I won't comment or I won't elaborate on what could be said by some peers. But for sure, I think that we are in a situation where we have such an operating leverage that we can continue to invest in all the actions that I've mentioned and still targeting an improvement of the profitability Without let's say, of course, it's not about science, but let's say that considering that we are back To a more normative situation in 2021, I think that what you have observed in the past in terms of sequential improvement of the profitability between H1 one on H2 should happen again this year.
As a reminder, depending on the brand, but that was the case for Gucci, generally, the margin of H2 is 1.5 to 2.5 points above the H1.1. And I'm quite confident that while still investing In the brand, we will be able at Gucci, but also for the other brands to deliver this improvement of EBIT margin on H2.
Excellent. Thank you so much. That's very helpful.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Edouard Aubin from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
The interest of the limited number to 2 as well. And then 2 questions on which. On the product
Sorry, Edouard, your line is very the noise is terrible, so we cannot hear you. Can you repeat, please?
Can you hear me better now?
It's better. It's better, yes.
Okay. Sorry for this. So just two questions on Gucci. 1 on the product front, which one of your key objectives this year was to inject some newness at Gucci. And just wanted to hear from you if you were happy so far in terms of the changes.
And given, Jean Marc, that you talked about new launches like ARIA Coming in the Q3, should we expect further sequential acceleration on a 2 year stack at Bouygues in the 3rd quarter versus the plus 11% you printed for Q2. So that's question 1. And question 2 on the wholesale front, if you wouldn't mind just giving us a Quick update on the rationalization. You kind of already talked about it, but you're targeting about 5%, if I remember correctly, when you are expecting to get there. And related to that, in terms of the progress you've made on the gray market and drying up the gray market at Gucci?
And lastly, sorry, on the wholesale front is specifically on online, the update on the shift away From wholesale to concessions that you've been talking about earlier in the year. So when should this transition be achieved when it comes to online? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Edouard, for your questions. In fact, just to start with a general comment On the performance by category at Gucci, what is remarkable is that in Q2 2021, we have seen strong across all product categories and in the different categories, strong performances With pure carryover and still valid items, but also with newness. Considering that broadly the split between At least in leather goods, the split between carryover and Nynas remained unchanged, so broadly 70%, 30%. And when we think about newness, we are not yet at full speed because most of the newness were rather seasonal introductions. And in fact, if we look at the overture newness performance, it was mainly driven by Some recoloration, some introduction of new details in the handbags more than pure newness.
And I think clearly, with the launch of ARIA collection but also with the introduction of the Dynabag starting from the end of June With, let's say, a special introduction in Japan and then in the other regions, We see clearly some traction, very strong traction in the handbags. For sure, for the other categories, shoes, they have more benefited from newness with clearly an impact on the pricemix because overall, all the introductions we made during H1 have also boosted the average price. It will be even more relevant when we will launch the ARIA collection. You know that there are more also, let's say, Precious items in the ARIA collections. When it comes to wholesale, it was important to remind in my speech That the relevant comparison is with 2019, so it's still minus 40%, 41%.
And it's a trend we will see During the year with further utilization negotiations, by the end of the year, when it comes to virtual concessions, We will have achieved the conversion of almost the accounts we were targeting in terms of retailization So that the full impact when it comes to pure e tailers conversion will be rather next year. When it comes to the pure wholesale doors, we'll have some further progress to make in 2022 At the end of the year in 2022, so that next year, mid year, we should have achieved also The let's say, the wholesale rationalization, so that the 5% we are targeting with a limited number of doors, we will see rather this percentage in 2023.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Lukas Zolke from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I wonder what you could tell us about your growth Dynamic by nationality and in particular with Chinese consumers, young Chinese consumers, productions and new products that you bring into the market in the second half with Gucci in particular. But I wonder whether you have more Explanations, more insights and different expectations than that. The second question is more a general question about How your thinking is evolving about managing the teamwork in a team Or in a brand, I should say. You perfected this trio of CEO, Chief Merchandising Officer and Chief Creative Director.
I wonder how this could evolve as brands like Gucci, for example, become very big. Could that be a more inclusive approach to the creative process involving more people In coordination with the star designer, that is Alessandro Michele. And then anything else I could say on the product mix evolution at Gucci, that would also be very helpful. Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you, Luca, for your questions. I will leave the second question to Jean Francois, and I will take the number 1 and number 3. I will start with general comments about nationalities, and then I will look at the age groups. If we consider the performance at Gucci, of course, like the other brands of the group and probably the industry, the most dynamic segment The American cluster. Chinese, of course, cluster is doing extremely well.
It's, of course, Very strong compared to 2020 because it's double digit growth compared to 20 2020 and it's positive against 2019. So now we have the full effect of the repatriation, but you know that I don't love so much a concept because it's more about the boom of the consumption in China, which is positive for the Chinese cluster. European cluster is double digit also against 2019, as I mentioned before, which is obviously driven largely by the online Sales boom, but also we are regaining traction in the stores. We have more traffic with local clients. What is interesting is that because of the surge in terms of performance with American clients, The share of Chinese clients in the total has not changed so much.
It's quite stable. Now if we look at the generations, It's obvious that also in terms of profile of clients, it's quite also stable In the sense that now we have Gen millennials plus Gen Z representing still Around 2 third of the sales on a worldwide basis with, as you may assume and that as you have mentioned, Some more and more loyalty from the Chinese millennials and especially the older millennials because we See a dramatic improvement of the retention rate with the old millennials. And clearly, the recent launches by Gucci are really spot on with this clientele. So we have very, very good results with this clientele in China with More purchasing power, but we are still doing extremely well with also the younger millennials and the Gen Z. Just to mention about the U.
S, where we see that all brands and especially Gucci are growing in all the group ages, not only the young clients, but also with all the clients with more purchasing pool. As a result, if we look at the segmentation by product, We are not a dramatic evolution or dramatic change in the sales breakdown by category. I guess that because of the launches we have In front of us, maybe and what it's what we expect, we should regain some points in terms of share of lever goods In the total, because you may imagine that because of the lack of tourism, it has impacted a little bit more in terms of proportion of sales, the handbags segment. But with the launch we have and we see that already in Q2, we should see some further acceleration in this category, Especially with all the actions we have on the higher high end segment with more precious skins and some items, We are animating through special events like Gucci spaces where we are some events with very important clients. Francois, the second question.
Good evening, Luca. Regarding the team working within the houses, You are right to mention the importance of the tripod that is, in our view, quite Crucial to the success of our brands, what I would say is that more and more we have Additional interactions we have additional interactions with the regions on the one hand and with also client intelligence on the other hand. With the regions, The Tripod tries to include in their thinking the feedback from merchandising and Communication people and also people in the stores to be really spot on, on their choices for being locally adapted to the client demand. And from client intelligence, there is Very good interaction with the CRM teams as well as the guys who are Looking at the social media, looking at the brand heat and the response to The client appeal to the brand. So again, The same tripod is operating, but with more interactions with Local and also Client Intelligence.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Antoine Belge from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes. Good evening. It's Antoine at Exane. Three questions, if I may. First of all, following up on your bullish comments about the U.
S, When you're doing analysis on the strength of that business, what's the in your view, what is a bit cyclical due to the stimulus, etcetera, And something a bit more structural in terms of how the U. S. Luxury consumer is evolving, Especially with sort of younger consumer maybe more interested in the industry. And second question relates to Bottega. It seems that it's the only brand which actually decelerated a bit On a 2 year stack basis, any sort of specific reasons for that, maybe Because of the geographic mix?
Or any, I don't know, issue around maybe availability of product? And also here, A bit like what you did about Gucci, maybe giving some indication how the margin could fare in the second half. And certainly, question on Eyewear. Actually, 2 questions in one. One about it seems that it's part of a positive surprise in terms of Profits, so any indication about how the margins have evolved.
And also a comment about the acquisition of Lindbergh announced Recently and how this M and A deal fits into your overall M and A strategies, I. E, is it A bit something a
bit special
or a sign that a big deal is not on the agenda. Thank you.
Thank you, Antoine from Exane. So let's start with the U. S. I think that, obviously, there is a situation where the There is a very high degree of confidence of the U. S.
Consumers, which is not only due to the stimulus checks because These checks had an impact for sure that they have been deployed from mid March to early April with some residual payments until the end of May. We observed some boost in April, but it was not so material. And as I said before, the trends were in the U. S. Were Sustained throughout the quarter with all the different clusters.
So we are fully aware that there is a situation where There is a high degree of confidence and no reallocate there is a reallocation of wallet benefiting to clearly to the luxury sector. Maybe it won't last, but what is interesting is that we have more and more new generations and new profile of customers coming to our stores. And I think that it's something that is sustainable in the long run. So it's very difficult to predict what will happen Short term, in the long run, we are very confident that we have been able to attract new clients and that we should continue to invest in the U. S.
To be sure that we have we can re attract these clients in the store. We see that we thanks to some clienteling activities and marketing actions. We have repeated sales from this type of customers, so we are able to convert 1 timer to multi timer buyers. So that's very encouraging. When it comes to Bottega Veneta, thank you for asking the question about Bottega Veneta because it does give me the occasion to stress again The outstanding performance of Bottega Veneta because as a reminder, it was one of the largest brands, one of the largest brands last year to deliver Positive performance along the year.
So of course, we have a quite demanding comp base. I must say also that We had last year, because of the inventory management issue, some markdown activities, Especially in Q2, that we have not this year. We have massively reduced markdown activities in the stores so that if we restate From that, probably we would have exactly the same level of stack growth. On top of that, it's typically a brand where we have not, as you will Not expanded the store network. Rather, the contrary, we are very vigilant about the quality of the distribution, and we don't want to push too far The brand, as we already said, we had some price increases during the quarter.
So at the end of the day, I think it's a question of managing the right way the growth of Bottega Veneta and to avoid to milk the brand. When it comes to Kering, I will, of course, let Jean Francois answer about M and A and the acquisition of Lindbergh. I think that there is somehow a form of seasonality in the Eyewear business or at least at Kering Eyewear. H1 is generally stronger than H2, so that we have reached a profitability for H1 at the Cairn Yang, which is Probably above what we will deliver for the full year, but it already happened in the past. But for sure now that we have no more the depreciation of the We keep paid to Safilo.
We have more or less now a more normative profile of EBIT margin. And I can tell you that thanks to the very hard work of the teams at Kering and Wear, we are really on track to deliver Profitability for this activity, which is really on par with the ratio you can know you may know for the industry. But for sure, H1 was particularly strong, thanks to the rebound of the revenues, while operating expenses Should be more linear in the year.
Good evening, Antoine. Regarding the acquisition of Lindbergh, I would say that our position regarding M and A has not changed. Lindbergh is an add on acquisition That completes the portfolio of brand of Kering Eyewear with a brand that has a high reputation And that brings a lot of complementarity, not only in the manufacturing process, But also in and particularly in the product. Lindbergh is specialized in optical frames. And as you know, Kering Eyewear so far was more focused on sunglasses.
Also, At Kering Eyewear, we are more geared to women eyewear, whereas the Lindbergh That is more for men or unisex. We will also have some synergies in terms of manufacturing and in terms of distribution network. So this is really an add on acquisition and that and this is not exclusive Or the more transformational move?
Antoine, sorry, I forgot to answer to you on the on your question Regarding the BB margin, I think that my answer will be the same as I provided to you probably for the last quarters. We are investing in the brand, so we won't regain or we will improve gradually the profitability. And my comment about The seasonality of EBIT margin on Gucci could apply also to BV. So we expect Some further improvement of the EBIT margin during H2, but we are still in a phase of investment. As you know, we have increased quite Dramatically, the percentage of A and P at BV.
So as we said, Here again, it will be a very gradual improvement, but we are fine with that, very comfortable with this trajectory and very happy that To see that our investments are paying off.
Thank you. Maybe just a follow-up on your answer regarding M and A. So without talking about specific targets, but in general, what's the outlook? Because it seems that especially In Italy, there seems to be talks within Italian brands and Sort of unwillingness to fall into French hands. And so isn't it Fair to say that maybe there are not that many targets available.
And we didn't Makes sense to look at one target, which has a 100% free float, which is Burberry.
Look, regarding Italy, we do not comment rumors, as always. And Luxury is about scarcity. So indeed, there are very few targets, But we are very active on watching the market, and we are working to Find the best target and at very good conditions, as always. And it's what we've been doing for the past years and what we will do in the future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Thomas Chauvet from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good evening, Jean Francois and Jean Marc. Two questions, please. The first one on pricing. If we take This year and last year's price increase at Gucci, what is your estimated best guess of the cumulative pricing you've passed on On the carryover, obviously, wherever you can measure it. And do you think that same level of pricing is sustainable If we take, let's say, the next 2 years combined, so 2022 and 2023, if you could comment on the return of pricing At some of the major brands, including Gucci.
And secondly, a question on China. I mean, it's been another Volatile there in the Chinese market. We're seeing, as you know, a lot of regulation by the Chinese government in a number of sectors Where corporate debt may have been rising quite a lot through the pandemic. Can you share some thoughts on what You or your China management team thinks about potential risks that the Chinese government intervenes on the luxury industry, whether that's New taxes, further clamsons on Daigou, control of the way you sell your products online or the way you advertise on social media, I would think that nothing suggests that they want to prevent consumption from rising further domestically, But we've seen a lot of regulation in, as you know, in some sectors in the last few months. Thank you.
So regarding the pricing, as a reminder, we had 2 main price increases in 2020 In June October without some more tactical price increases. And we had another price increase at the end of March, beginning of April On Hubertus Collection, so each time we are talking about lowtomidsingledigit price increase. So you can make your math with The accumulation of these 3 price increases between midwindlowandsingledigit. On top of that, as usual, more important and more interesting is what we are doing in terms of architecture of the collections. And we have reintroduced also some items, and we had also some actions to engage with more I'm customers To rebalance the offer and rebalance all the marketing actions, to be sure that we are engaging with all profiles of clients And we see already the results.
So that the increase the performance this year during the 1st semester, if we look at the growth, The growth rate is made part of, of course, traffic or volumes, but also from an increase of the average selling price, which is not only due to the price increase, but which is also due to the product mix, which is very encouraging. And what we observe and what we can guess for the 2nd semester is that this trend will amplify. So this is my comment is applying to the comparison to 2020. You can imagine that in 2019, the growth being driven principally by traffic, it means that in terms of average selling price compared to 2019, we have a quite
Good evening, Tomer. You are right in saying that China regulation are evolving quite rapidly in all the domains that you mentioned. And we are very much attentive to this, and we Put ourselves in a position to be very flexible and agile in order to adapt our operations and setups and systems To those changes in regulations, I will not get into the details, but what I can say is that Overall, we consider that China is more an opportunity than a risk.
Thank you, Doctor. Soren and Jean Marc.
We'll take the last question from Rogerio. Thanks for taking my question. I have a quick one on just one on Gucci. Any comments on the gross margin evolution in H1? And do you see A and P as a percentage of sales in H1 for Gucci already back to A level you consider healthy to support Gucci top line objective in H2.
Thank you. Yes. We had an improvement of the gross margin during H1 at group level and for some of us that at Gucci, which is due to different factors. The contribution to from FX Sanaging is very slightly positive, but it's not the main explanation for the variance. The variance is mainly driven by, as I mentioned before, the Before the product mix, which is more favorable, the increase of the retail due to also the retailization we have since compared to 2019 2020.
So the distribution mix, the regional mix, the product mix are more favorable. On top of that, it will also illustrate, let's say, the capacity of Gucci to maintain its margins. It's also a demonstration that we will continue to be able to do so. And whatever the increase of the inflation of some raw materials, I think that Our brands are able to reflect this price increase in the price, just to rebound on the question of Thomas. So I think we have some purchasing clearly some pricing power at Gucci.
And I will remind also that last year, we had been quite cautious in terms of inventory depreciation considering the And the sellout due to the closures of the 1st semester and this depreciation had an impact On the gross margin. The second question about the A and P. Definitely, we will continue to increase the A and In absolute terms, but also in terms of percentage, we are not set back at a normative level. That's the reason why I was mentioning before the fact that we will have an Intensification of marketing and clienteling actions during the 2nd semester, More animation in the stores, more special events, more drops, so that we should see an increase of the A and P. But as you can see, we have been able during the 1st semester to have a good control of the other cost So that to rebound on the first question of Susana, I think that we are able both at the same time to increase profitability, but also to make the necessary investments in communication and marketing.
So this is the end of this session. Thank you for thank you all for participating in our call and for your questions and interest in Kering. As always, Claire and her team are available to address any remaining inquiries you may have. It's a busy day and a busy week. So before we let you go, we just want to wish you a nice and hopefully relaxing summer.
Have a good evening.