End of the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host. Amélie Dernis, Head of Investor Relations, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. This is Amélie Dernis speaking. Thanks for being with us today for the publication of SMCP Q1 2024 sales. I'm here with Isabelle Guichot, our CEO, and Patricia Despointes, our CFO. You can listen to the publication via the usual conference call, or you can connect to the webcast to have the presentation displayed. As usual, we will go through the presentation and then we'll have the Q&A session. Before I hand it over to Isabelle and Patricia, I invite you to go through our usual disclaimer on page 2. I think we can start now.
Thank you, Amélie. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today. We'll first have a look at the key figures of this quarterly sales and share an overview of the main business initiatives with a deep dive on our performance by area. Then we'll share with you in detail our midterm action plans. Moving on to page four, you can see that our Q1 sales reached EUR 287 million, which means a decrease by 5% organic, mostly from a continued sluggish consumption, which remained in line with what we've witnessed at the end of 2023, especially in France and in China. This was quite expected as we knew that the first half of the year would be challenging, with an historic base in H1 2023 much stronger than in H2 2023.
Key messages from this quarter are the following, and of course, we'll get back in more detail throughout the presentation. By geography, encouraging results in EMEA and in North America, sluggish in France, and very challenging in China. By brand, a quite homogeneous trend for Sandro, Maje, above the average of the group with a good resilience, except in China, and good progresses made at Fursac. A disciplined full-price strategy with an improvement of discount rates by circa 2 points. Digital contribution at 21%, quite stable. As announced at the annual presentation, a resizing of the network in China is starting to take place in 2024. In Q1, consequently, we already closed about 10 stores in mainland China, mainly in secondary cities. Page five here features a detailed bridge of sales evolution between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024.
As shown, the decrease comes from the like-for-like network, and actually, the majority of the decrease comes from China. In Q1, the network effect is positive despite the closure of some stores in China, as previously mentioned, in cities such as Harbin or Fuzhou, as we also benefit from the positive impact of 2023 openings. Wholesale sales with our partners also contribute positively. Foreign exchange was negative by circa 1 point. Moving on to page six, you will find here the performance by region and a few highlights on the split of sales. By brand, no big change. We have just historical shares, Sandro and Maje representing respectively 49% and 38% of the total sales. By region, France's 34% is 1 point lower than last year, while EMEA's at 31% is increasing a bit.
America at 15% gains 2 points in the global contribution, contrary to Asia Pacific, which stands at 20% of the sales. By channel, 1 point difference compared to last year, and non-retail sales now represent 9% of the total compared to 8% last year. Sustainability on page seven, as usual, I would like to present you the initiatives and progresses made during this quarter. As regard to the first pillar, which is planet, we would like to underline the initiatives of two of our brands in terms of a circular economy. Maje launched recently a new repair service, and Claudie Pierlot joined Sandro and Maje in the second-hand business, which was launched just a few weeks ago. On the people pillar, we launched a second class of our retail lab, our retail school.
As you know, this school gathers a group of students who receive professional training from SMCP brand, combined with courses at the famous ESM school in Paris, and the retail techniques from experts' tips. Very proud of this initiative, which already enabled us to recruit people from last year's class in our store. Moving on to page eight, just to highlight you the different initiatives that all the brands have undertaken to trigger and boost brand desirability. Sandro and Maje has launched different capsule and marketing initiatives. So you can see the Lunar New Year capsule developed by Sandro, very nice with a dragon on the windows, and the Ramadan capsule developed by Maje with also a dedicated 360 activation starting from product, social networks, window activation. Of course, influence remains also an important media for the brand activation with influencers.
Big names that you can see that have highlighted the brands this quarter, Emily Ratajkowski that everyone knows with more than 30 million followers on Instagram has been attending the press day at Sandro, and Camille Morrone, which is also a very famous influencer, is featured with a Miss M bag for Maje. Claudie Pierlot did a collaboration with the very famous influencer Léna Mahfouf, also known as Léna Situations, who's probably the most powerful influencer in France, with more than 4.5 million followers, and it was dedicated to the launch of that straw basket bag. You can see that that straw basket launch was also the case for global activation, 360 activation, with stickers on the windows, and it's been extremely successful.
Fursac now, different marketing initiatives for Fursac, also some very interesting and very powerful press cover with Cillian Murphy displayed on the cover of Deadline magazine in a Fursac suit. Also, a very interesting launch during the men's fashion week of the collection, the fall winter 2024 collection for Fursac, with a dedicated concert with Miles Kane. And also, we had the wonderful opportunity at Fursac to dress Pete Doherty during his gig in Paris with his famous group, the Libertines. And that was the occasion of a very nice picture that we liked very much. Key openings now on Q1, as we mentioned earlier, the momentum in America for the brand is good, and it's also a place where we have some untapped potential in terms of opening. So in that geographical rebalancing strategy that we are undertaking, opening in America is a key pillar.
So you see some newly opened stores in Scottsdale, America, part of that Sunbelt, which is booming, and in Lenox Square in Georgia, Atlanta. And we think it was a very good example of the dynamism of the group in America. Our partners, we call partners the people that are operating with the same level of execution, our brands in countries where we cannot operate or don't want to operate directly. So new openings in the Middle East, in Bahrain, for instance, in Marassi Galleria , or in Thailand, in Bangkok, Central Embassy. And also in the Emirates, I forgot to mention, two new boutiques in Al Maryah, in the Galleria, Abu Dhabi, that we just visited a few weeks ago and extremely happy with the performances. I will hand it over to Patricia for a deep dive by region. Thank you, Isabelle. Good morning, everyone.
So as usual, we'll go through the sales by region, starting with France and Europe on slide 16. France first with a sales line at EUR 98 million minus 7% versus 2023 on very high comps. You may remember that France had delivered plus 13% in Q1 2023. The softness of this quarter was particularly visible at the beginning of the year during official sales. However, the trend improved a bit when we switched to the new spring/summer collection, which was well received across our brands. By channel, Brick and Mortar is quite resilient, especially at Sandro and Maje, which are only a touch below last year in like-for-like. Digital sales suffered more and compared to very high comps, notably at Claudie Pierlot.
To be noted that we have rolled out our new web platform at Sandro and Maje, and the new sites are now live since March for Sandro and since early April for Maje. EMEA now with sales at EUR 89 million, flat versus last year, but with very contrasted situations, with a good dynamism of markets in the south of Europe, such as Spain and Portugal, while the north was more complex, mainly in the UK, for example. As regards our retail partners' business, Middle East and Turkey continue to perform very well. Nothing special to mention regarding the network. The decrease that appears is very temporary and just reflects some relocations that are currently happening at our partners with reopenings of a few stores, which is underway and which will be completed soon.
In America, on page 17, sales at EUR 42 million for the quarter stand at +9% organic, demonstrating the resilience of this market and the positive or encouraging trend in each country. US evolved in line with the average of the area. Canada had an encouraging trend and sequentially improved month after month, and Mexico registered a strong double-digit growth. I won't elaborate more on the network as you already saw the openings of the quarter earlier in the presentation. In Asia, sales stood at EUR 57 million this quarter, which represents -16% organic versus Q1 2023. This decrease comes from Greater China, where the traffic in the north continues to be very low.
On the other hand, we enjoyed a much better trend in other Asian markets, both in the network we operate in direct, for example, in Singapore or in Malaysia, but also in the network operated by our retail partners such as Thailand or Vietnam. The network was reduced by 10 POS, which come basically all from China.
Thank you, Patricia. Now I would like to get back, as promised, during the presentation of annual figures to our strategic action plan. You may remember that we had underlined four key pillars: on the left side, activity and top line, and on the right side, bottom line and cash. I would like to deep dive in each pillar in the following slides. The first pillar is to reignite growth and gain market share.
Our first initiative on this is to continue to work on brand desirability and enhance brand relevance and positioning by reaffirming the place and role of each brand in the portfolio. As a reminder, Sandro is all about the feminine, masculine, subtle elegance. Maje embodies the hyperfemininity and the emotional side. Claudie Pierlot incarnates the Parisian timeless silhouette. And finally, Fursac is a true representation of French tailoring and wardrobe. Each brand has its own D&A and also its own specificities. It's what makes them relevant in our portfolio. Sandro Maje are two established worldwide brands. Sandro is fashion-forward, and Maje aims to convey an image of cool couture. Claudie Pierlot and Fursac are two emerging brands.
Claudie is a digital and teaser lab for the group, being the most advanced brand on these topics, and Fursac, with its presentation during men's fashion week and its unique offer, is a kind of runway lab for the group. So clearly, our objective is to continue to cherish and foster what makes each brand so special and unique in the portfolio, nurture and highlight the identity of each brand, cultivate its raison d'être in the portfolio and the strategy of the group, and thus enabling to develop their complementarity while avoiding overlap. Moving on to slide 21. So what we're going to do to foster those four great brands? Let's have a look in this first pillar at product strategy, starting with our key category, which is ready-to-wear. A key element of the strategy is to optimize collection architecture and merchandising grid.
We'll continue to sharpen collection architecture thanks to distinctive messaging, but also thanks to an optimized mix between carryover, updated products, fashion products, and novelty, which will help us to reduce fashion risk. We will also animate even more our collections thanks to capsule and collaboration or creative injections to foster desirability. Traditionally, we will enhance merchandising strategy, both product and visual merchandising, which means having fewer references per collection but underlining more our hero products and carryover and working also on the readability of collection in stores that triggers the purchase. We'll pay attention to local specificity, of course, to make sure that the assortment is relevant for the country of the store. Finally, we continue to boost our main segment by capitalizing on the gender fluidity trend and reinforcing brand value and relevance, especially outside France and Europe, where the room to grow is the widest.
Of course, we have other categories, and so we will be working on catching untapped potential in accessories and in eyewear, for instance. For accessories, the M bag line rollout can be used as a case model. This bag was launched circa six years ago, and it's still a great success. Last year, we launched the Miss M bag, and it was sold out in a few days in many colors. It's the first proven example of a bag family at SMCP with a distinctive vocabulary and codes. More M bags could enrich the family going forward, and I know that the team is working on new additions to that family and could serve as a model for other brands. Eyewear could also benefit from a stronger push with a licensed partner, and that's also something that all the teams are dedicated on.
We also consider new opportunities, whether at the group level, for instance, both beauty and perfume with a group license scheme, or more brand-specific, be it new categories of collaboration according to the DNA of each brand, for example, lifestyle, home, travel, and experience. The target is to increase non-ready-to-wear penetration by five points in five years' time from around 10% today to 15%. All the above-mentioned initiatives, moving on page 23, have a common objective: boost our profitable growth. We can measure it by the evolution of sales per square meter, which becomes a key metric for us. Our mid-term target is to improve our stock productivity by circa 20%, coming from existing core products, development of under-penetrated product categories, new product offer, and efficiency in retail operations. You see the bridge, which is self-explanatory. Moving on to page 24. Last slide of this first pillar is about digital.
This channel has been an amazing source of growth over the past year. It's also a business with new challenges and constraints sometimes, for instance, return rates, cost of performance marketing. So the strategy is all about transforming the current challenges into opportunities in order to enable us to reboost sales, regain profitability, and leverage omnichannel capabilities. To achieve this, top line-wise, we will continue to seize opportunities like marketplace, cross-border to reach new markets, omnichannel further developments, and circularity, which is mostly dealt with in a digital mode for the time being. We will also adapt to local specificities in China. For instance, you can see on the right part of that slide the Maje live streaming at Douyin. Our recent replatforming of digital sales is a powerful enabler, more immersive, conceived as truly mobile-first.
It has just been launched at Sandro and Maje and will be soon rolled out to Claudie Pierlot. We'll also work on actions aiming at reducing returns, currently testing several options, and return performance marketing to a smarter ROI-driven approach. Second pillar is to leverage global exposure. At SMCP, we are probably one of the groups in the accessible luxury segment with the widest geographic penetration, being present in more than 45 countries. This is a huge advantage, as it has always helped seize opportunities across markets. But while this worldwide presence is an indisputable asset, mitigating risks between regions, seizing untapped opportunities, but not depending too much on some areas, is now the winning formula. We currently work on rebalancing the geographical footprint of our network. As a reminder, our own retail network is today made of approximately 1,360 DOS out of 1,719 POS.
From west to east in North America, as it already started in 2023 and in Q1 2024, the network will continue to grow in key areas in the U.S. to seize the opportunity in this region with a good momentum for the brands and a good resilience of the market. We showed some picture in opening in Scottsdale, for instance, earlier in the presentation. In France and in Europe, the network will be optimized with some closures at Claudie Pierlot, circa 25 stores until 2026. And in Northern Europe, a few stores that we may challenge or operate differently, for example, with a local partner. We'll, on the other hand, continue to work on the quality of the network with flagship openings in key cities, with exciting openings coming soon in London and in Rome, for instance. In Asia, we've already talked about circa 30 net closures.
We will probably be closer to 40 stores closed this year in all brands, including CP, which will temporarily exit out of China. An additional wave of store closure may come if needed in 2025, probably. We were a bit overexposed in China prior COVID, so we must adapt. These conditions, commission contract in malls generally three years, so very short, make it easy to adjust and optimize the network. So we take the necessary agility, the necessary measures to face the continued decrease in footfall in the malls. Agility is the keyword at SMCP. In other APAC countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, curated openings are still on our roadmap. Moving on to page 26. So this was for retail. Now let's see non-retail development.
You know that at SMCP, we talk about retail partners, which are local distributors who operate stores with an elevated standard of execution in some geography way too complex for us to run direct. This model is a way to explore new markets with potential. It's a scalable model with a proven track record in many countries and a positive effect on EBIT margin. Our goal is to open circa 40-50 stores with partners each year and grow this activity in the mix of the sales of the group. Compared to what you've seen in previous presentations, we accelerate this development. We already talked about India recently with the Reliance partnership, but we also explore South America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and travel retail opportunities. This business model also offers optionalities for the future to integrate it in direct mode.
This is not something we have integrated in our financial assumption for the moment, but it could come at a later stage. Page 27. Third pillar of the action plan is about efficiency. Within this pillar, the first and probably one of the biggest sources of efficiency that we expect is about gross margin and cost of goods. In the year 2010, the group developed mostly on the geographical expansion mode, which caught most of the attention of the management, be it in commercial, architecture, logistics, digital teams. Now we're all convinced that we have a powerful pocket of efficiency lying in the leverage of the supply chain, and it's time to address this topic.
We will develop a more transversal approach on the buying of products and components, leveraging negotiation with a group approach with a rationalized portfolio of privileged suppliers, with which we will work more on a partnership basis, providing them with visibility on reservation of capacity. We are currently starting this initiative with the support of external experts to assist us on this high-stakes topic. It will take a little bit of time to reach the full benefit of this range-generating, and we will start to harvest those results starting mid-2025. Few words now, page 28, on sustainability. You know how much it's important for us. It's a point of focus in all our initiatives, and we strongly believe that on top of all the good reasons that we have to support and embody sustainability actions, it can and it will also be a source of efficiency.
All that we said regarding supply of material and good supply, also to sustainable fabrics, and this is only the beginning. Utilizing the reservation of sustainable raw materials, organic or certified, or coming from regenerative agriculture or circular processes will be key. Being an innovative actor in this respect may come from working together with partners developing recycled fibers, for instance. The group will try to act as a true sustainability innovation lab. Moving on to page 29. Efficiency will also, obviously, and it's obvious, will come from technology, and we keep an eye on developments such as AI, which is very promising in AI, sorry, which is very promising in fashion. And AI could also be an enabler for many aspects of the industry.
It will not mention all, but we can underline. I will not mention all of them, but we can outline a few examples of the role that it could play in shooting to generate product images and visuals, inventory management, and then stock allocation, and more examples in the future. Last aspects of the action plan on smaller brands operating model, page 30. We are completely committed to enhancing the profitability of our smaller brands. At Claudie Pierlot, we will adjust the existing operating model. As already explained in the earlier section, we will suspend operation in Asia to concentrate on Europe, where we will also adjust the network by circa 25 stores in the coming years, mostly from 2024 to 2026. Claudie Pierlot is also the brand with the highest digital share, and we will capitalize on that key asset.
At Fursac, we will continue to foster the good momentum and image of the brand and to nurture and strengthen the product offer with a casual silhouette on top of the formal offer, which is the brand signature. In terms of development, we will focus on department store, where the model relies on light investment, variable cost structure, while benefiting from higher traffic flows. For both brands, we will open a few accounts in wholesale mode, as well as wholesale partners in countries like Korea, which is open with Fursac, Middle East, or Mexico that is already open with Claudie Pierlot. Patricia, I will hand it over for the next slide.
We now switch to the financial translation of all these actions. First, on the savings plan.
In this respect, we have designed a savings plan, the aim of which is to reach by 2026 an additional EUR 25 million positive impact on our EBIT. We will play on all the pockets of cost: cost of goods, gross margin, and OpEx, both in stores and in SG&A. In cost of goods, the savings directly result from the initiative described by Isabelle on the efficiency of buying with more transversality and group leverage. As far as OpEx are concerned, we try to address all kinds of expenses: rent, team organization to foster efficiency and productivity of the workforce. This may involve some account adjustments, especially in China due to the resizing of the network, which also leads to an adjustment of accounts in the local HQ.
In SG&A, we are currently performing an entire review of indirect purchases in IT, logistics, supply chain, maintenance, etc., and finally, on D&A from business development, which will be a bit more supported by our partners, and also from optimization of our cost of concept. This results in EUR 25 million positive impact on EBIT. It will take some time to get gradually to this target that we aim to reach by 2026, with the two parts, cost of goods and OPEX, each representing roughly half of the target. You can see on next slide, 32, that each line addressed will be positively impacted at different moments. As far as cost of goods is concerned, due to the creation process, there is, by definition, a delay between the design of the collection and its impact on the P&L.
So it is expected to have the positive impact starting in 2025 with full effect in 2026. As far as OpEx is concerned, we have already started our action plan, especially in China. Some others may take a bit longer in terms of negotiation or renegotiation, for example, regarding rent. On the next slide, combining with the initiative that Isabelle described in terms of top line and network by geography, this will help us achieve a path of relative growth. From the 6.5 EBIT margin in 2023, we continue to ambition a target of circa 12% EBIT margin in the midterm, i.e., in five years, with an important step, which is getting back to double the EBIT margin, which is planned in 2026. On the cash side, let's have a look at CapEx and working cap. The control of CapEx will be enabled by several aspects.
First, the rebalancing of the development towards partners. Second, with an increased efficiency of our CAPEX with a fine-tuning of our concepts, thanks to an increased differentiation depending on the various store types, more synergetical buying processes, and choices of materials, which should also help our concept to be easier to install, move, and recycle. On the inventory side, we are increasing the constraints on the open-to-buy, i.e., the quantities bought per season. We will differentiate more the assortment in our stores relying on the clustering of boutiques and continue to invest in demand planning. This will support the free cash flow generation, which is the absolute priority. In the short term, and given the soft trend of the beginning of 2024, we will support 2024 free cash flow by a lower amount of CAPEX than in 2023.
We also continue to decrease our level of inventories, and we do not plan to have exceptional cash out in 2024. In the midterm, the initiatives we take regarding CapEx and inventories will support a sustainable cash generation, as we will focus on investment with an ROI-driven approach in the most agile way as possible. On this basis, we target a free cash flow generation of EUR 50 million in 2026.
Thank you, Patricia. Let's come back for a conclusion on this strategic action plan. This action plan is already underway. We're confident that we can regain solid momentum in terms of profitability over the median term. First, we aim to resume profitable growth, and I think that the key message of that presentation is profitable growth and achieve mid-single-digit sales growth once we have completed our stock network review, which means from 2026 onwards.
As I've said throughout the presentation of our plan, we have identified several additional sources of growth, whether it's new categories, geography, or licenses. The next pillar is about the network. Taking into account the closures in Asia and also at Claudie Pierlot, we will adjust our network by around 100 units over the next two years. We are convinced that this is the right decision in terms of profitability and geographical balance. At the same time, we will open up our business model to more non-retail opportunities. It's true that we are maybe a very, very pure retail business model in a selective and very qualitative way, of course. Third EBIT. We are targeting an additional EUR 20 million of EBIT by 2026 and a double-digit EBIT margin by 2026 with a midterm target of 12%.
This will be achieved thanks to the work we've started and will continue in the coming months and years on processes and costs. As I described earlier, we want to be more efficient in the way we work and in our spending. Finally, this will be combined with a selective approach to investment in order to secure cash generation, which is a top priority for us with a target of EUR 50 million of cash generation in 2026. We're fully aware of the new challenges in our industry and our environment. While it is not easy to manage on a day-to-day basis, we also see that it's a good opportunity to further improve our business model with the agility that we've always shown, innovation, and adaptability.
This plan, supported by our portfolio of strong brands and fully committed teams, is all about enriching our business model, opening up to new products, new channels, and new ways of working to ensure profitable and cash-generative growth. Thank you.
Thank you, Isabelle. I think we can start the Q&A session now. Operator, do we have a question?
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We will now take our first question from Marie-Line Fort from Bernstein. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation. My first question is about your Q1 momentum. You mentioned during the presentation that you experienced better sales at the end of the Q1, particularly in France or in Europe.
Could you comment if this better momentum continues over Q1 and also probably some comment on China? The second question, it's about the 100 stores closures. Could we have an idea of what kind of impact we can expect on your revenues? As we understand that from now to 2026 to 2025, you can have some impact on your revenues, so it will help us to better monitor yourself. Last question is about your mixed profitability between the U.S. and China. We understand that you are switching a bit from China to the U.S. Is profitability in the U.S. today and in the near future much more promising than in China? If we can have comments because we know that rents are pretty expensive in this area. So just to understand the metrics.
Okay. I will answer to question one and three maybe, and I will leave it to Patricia on question two. I think what your question was, Maryline, is more what do we see? Do we see any inflection in the trend between the end of Q1 and beginning of Q2, if I'm correct?
Yes. Yes. And to see if the better momentum in March, as far as I understand, is remaining in Q2.
I would say that traditionally, April is not a very big month in terms of seasonality in our sales. Trend remains globally quite comparable to Q1 in a very volatile environment with some specificities between the region. France and EMEA, it's a better trend versus last year than in Q1, so it's quite a good news in brick and mortar. Digital remains soft. Asia remains in the same trend than Q1.
America, softer trend in April, but we are confident in Q2. It depends also very much on the calendar, the promotional calendar in the U.S. The performance was solid in March in the U.S., and it's been a softer start in April, but it's mainly a shift of commercial calendar. We've seen also some solid performance in the new doors that we open, and all the Florida, Vegas, Sunbelt are off to a very strong start of the season. That's what I can say about April. About the U.S., it's true that now we have a totally different profitability profile in the U.S. than we used to have in the past, where prior to COVID, we had very heavy leases, very long-term leases that were impacting a lot the profitability of the brand. It is no longer the case.
So now the profitability in America is really normative, and don't forget also that our business model in America is mainly in malls or in department stores, so we no longer have those big investments in flagship or heavy leases that are impacting the P&L.
Okay. Thank you.
Hello, Marie-Line. On your second question, so 100 closures, let's say it's about 7% of the total retail network. However, those stores tend to be, in terms of sales per store, lower than the average, so the total impact is below this figure. It will be progressive, so let's say a few points in 2024 and the rest in 2025.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We receive also some questions on the webcast. So the first one, we will translate it because it's in French. It's the usual question linked to the recomposition of the share capital of SMCP.
Why is this issue not solved two years and a half after the default? What is the blocking point, according to you? Is there any chance that it's solved by the end of 2024? For us and for other investors, it's clear that this litigation (unsolved) has a negative impact on the share price of SMCP. So, are you conscious of that? And thank you for clarifying this topic.
I think we're more than conscious about it. It's something that we've been living also for two and a half years, so we are fully concerned, and it's something that we know very well. We fully agree on your comment on the fact that it's having an impact on the share price, definitely.
One interesting news maybe that I could share this morning is as regards to the ongoing proceedings regarding before the English courts. We've just been informed yesterday night that Dynamic Treasure and Mrs. Qiu, the former member of Shandong Group and the daughter of Chairman Qui, have each failed to pay the sum of EUR 9 million they were required by the court to defend the claim. So GLAS has consequently applied for a summary judgment against them, seeking an order for the return of the highly awaited 16% stake in the company, currently held by Dynamic. We understand that the application should be heard by the court relatively rapidly in July 2024. Hope it answers your question.
Thank you, Isabelle. We also have another question on the restructuring costs associated to the plan.
Okay. I can take this question. The restructuring costs that we expect are, I would say, minor.
As we are talking about closures of stores, mostly in China, where the normal length of the concessions contracts in the malls is quite short, it's typically two-three years, meaning that closing the stores, it's relatively easy because a significant portion of the network is permanently under reshuffle. Reshuffle. So we close the stores when the contracts end. So the restructuring cost is very limited, and I think we have demonstrated also that we can manage such networks' adjustment at low cost with the Suite 341 that we did in France a few years ago, where we closed 40-50 stores. And we always did that at the end of contracts so that you never saw significant restructuring costs, and we anticipate it will be not significant.
Thank you, Patricia. Do you have another question? Don't hesitate to ask it.
I think we have another one on the webcast. Can you please elaborate a bit about America and how you explain the effect? Is it perimeter or is it like-for-like growth?
I think I would say in America, it's both. It's perimeter and like-for-like, so we enjoy a good momentum and a good resilience in America. That's really interesting. And also, as I mentioned during the presentation, it's the country where we think we have an untapped opportunity, new geographies, Sunbelt, peri-urban centers. Because of the home office policy, you have, for instance, in California, places like Sacramento or other places that we never contemplated before that could be a target for openings and where you have some mall initiatives and lenders are coming to us.
And it's also the format that we find now in America to open kind of sales around a format of sales, cells, around 100-250 sq m with a decent CAPEX per square meter and allows us really to roll out profitable growth in America. And also, digital is strong in America. Digital is something that is also and omnichannel capabilities in America are really important to drive the momentum.
Thank you, Isabelle. We have another question. What about 2024 sales? Isabelle or Patricia, do you want to? What about 2024 sales?
I mean, we don't give guidance, we said. So we know that, as we've mentioned with our discussion, we have a lot of perimeter effects during 2024 with the progressive closing, but we also have the positive effect of some openings that were done in 2023. We have also the roll-out of a new replatforming in digital.
So, it's our last point, as we mentioned also, H1 has a very high level of comparison versus 2023, and we have a softer base of comparison for H2. So overall, we are doing everything to work on profitable growth for this year.
Thank you, Isabelle. Do not hesitate to ask any question if you need. We have another one. You launch a repair service at Maje. Do you consider extending it to other brands?
Definitely. In all the work that we do on circularity, whether it's rentals, secondhand, working on recycled fibers and recycled materials, repair services are definitely part of that global circularity roadmap. It's a brand new initiative that we launched with an external partner, but it's transparent for the client at Maje.
We really, it's also one of the agility of that group is to be able to have a lab to test one initiative in one brand and to be able, if it's successful, to be able to roll it out to other brands. So definitely something that we will carefully scrutinize. And if we find it interesting for the other brands, obviously, we will roll it out.
Thank you, Isabelle. We have another question from Marie-Line. Encore? I mean, is it the same or Marie-Line
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Just to follow up questions about your gross margin in Q1 that improved by two points despite the weak turnover out to manage.
Discount rate is not the gross margin.
Sorry, I didn't get you.
No, I say it's not the gross margin that improved by two points. It's the discount rate.
Discount rate. Okay.
Is the gross margin could be transposable to the decrease in the discount rate?
Well, normally, part of it. It's not mathematical 1 point of discount, 1 point of gross margin, but for sure, it should support the gross margin ratio. And it's a good thing that this discount rate continues to decrease and.
Especially in a quarter, which is usually highly discounted because we're very high impact of.
And the market, which remains very promotional.
Exactly.
Yeah. So it will support, but it's not mathematical EUR 1 , EUR 1 .
Thank you. It means also that you've got good control of your inventories in Q1 despite weak sales.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Thank you.
I think we have another question, written question. Imagine the shareholding situation is not resolved by 2026. What would be the use of the free cash flow?
Well, that's a very good one.
Very interesting question.
Well, the use of the free cash flow, first, reaffirm that it's a top priority for us. The number one use would be and will be to decrease our net debt. And then we'll see. 2026 is still some way to go, so we'll see. But priority number one is about decreasing net debt.
Thank you, Patricia. We have another question. Are the various bankruptcies in France and Europe of textile companies over the last two years, do they have any effect on your activity, on your consequences, turn of market, inflation, so on and so on? If you will, I can.
Obviously, I mean, in that, those troubled and tough times for the industry, it's true that there is always a natural selection, unfortunately, on the market and that the weakest brands that have not probably anticipated the inflation, digital turnaround, that do not have the geographical footprint that we have to mitigate the risk have been suffering. So it's obviously something that we've witnessed. But at the same time, it's opportunities because you have also maybe a little bit less pressure on the market for talent. It's also an opportunity to have more retail location and to rebalance our portfolio in terms of retail opportunity and find better deals. So let's really take this, unfortunately, as an opportunity. And also, as we always said, it's also time to gain market shares because of that situation.
If I may, unless we have another question, I would like maybe to have a kind of a final message about what really matters for us today is really to work on a profitable growth path leading us to get back to a double-digit EBIT margin by 2026 and keeping as a target a level of 12% mid-term. To reach that, sales will grow at a mid-single-digit pace as soon as we have completed that famous store network reconfiguration that we're working on. This is to the second pillar about the network, considering the closure in Asia. I know we will be closing circa 100 units, as we mentioned, in the coming years. We are absolutely confident that this is the right decision in terms of profitability and geographical balance.
We will, at the same time, open more our business model to non-retail opportunities in a selective and very qualitative way as we've always done. On the profit and cost side, the best message is about efficiency in the way we work, in the way we spend, in the way we make our product. All these initiatives that we presented, they will help us to deliver structural savings. Of course, it will take a little bit of time. It will be tomorrow, but it will be gradual. But we expect EUR 25 million EBIT of saving in 2026. Finally, this will be combined with a selective approach on investment. You saw that we've been really picky about investment in the coming years to secure cash generation, which is a top priority for us, with an ambition of EUR 50 million of cash generation in 2026.
We are fully conscious of new challenges in our industry environment, and the last question really embodies it. While it's not easy to manage on a day-to-day basis, it's a sound opportunity to keep improving our business model with constant agility, innovation, and adaptability. The plan is supported by powerful brands in our portfolio, fully committed teams. It's all about enriching our business model. Let's make it an ambition and a passion for the group, open to new products, new channel, new geography, new way of working to secure profitable and cash-generating growth. Thank you.
Thank you, Isabelle. Have a good day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.