Hello, and welcome to the SMCP 2021 full year results call. My name is Courtney, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any time, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Mathilde Magnan, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. This is Mathilde Magnan, Head of Investor Relations speaking. Thanks for being with us today for the presentation of SMCP full year results. I'm here with Isabelle Guichot, our CEO, and Patricia Huyghues Despointes, CFO. As usual, we will go through the presentation, but unfortunately we have some technical issues preventing us from uploading the presentation in the press release. I hope that most of you have received it by now. Sorry for that. Before I hand it over to Isabelle and Patricia, I remind our usual disclaimer, and I think we can start now.
Thank you, Mathilde. Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today. Before I give a quick overview of the 2021 results, I would like to say a few words about the conflict in Ukraine and its consequences. SMCP is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and remains very concerned about the safety of the employees of our distributor, Hamilton, who work with the group. In this respect, the SMCP group is pursuing its long-term commitment to Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, with whom we've been in discussion to understand their specific needs since the beginning of the crisis. The group has decided to contribute a significant amount to MSF Emergency Fund, to be used for the supply of medicine in Ukraine in their health centers.
In addition, SMCP supports the many initiatives carried out spontaneously by our teams and is very grateful for this great surge of solidarity on their part, donations, collection of necessities, and donation of warm clothing for the refugees. Just to remind you that SMCP already donated the profit of the sales of masks to Médecins Sans Frontières in 2021 for the benefit of two projects in Lebanon and Mali for EUR 100,000. As far as Russia is concerned, sales are subject to a distribution agreement with a local operator, and we have decided to suspend the deliveries. The decision to close store is not under the group's control. We'll continue to monitor the situation closely and hope for a rapid resolution to this tragic conflict. Now let's move on and talk about the 2021 results with key highlights and business initiatives.
Patricia will detail out the financial performance, and I will briefly conclude with an outlook. I hope you all have been able to receive the presentation by now, and let's move on to page 4. As you've seen from the press release, we've been very happy to announce an improving trend leading to a dynamic and highly profitable year. Operational performance exceeded expectations. Sales performance is progressively catching up with 2019, combined with cost, inventory, and cash optimization measures. We achieved this year EUR 1,038 million sales. This is very important for us to cross that threshold, you know, that important and symbolic threshold of EUR 1 billion . It's up 19% versus 2020 on an organic basis, driven by a strong like-for-like growth of 17%. This result includes a solid digital penetration of 23% of our sales.
As planned in 2021, SMCP finalized its brick-and-mortar network optimization plan, with 42 net closures of directly operated stores, of which 47 in France, mainly small points of sale in small cities, including the discontinuation of the Suite 341 format, with 28 closures over the year. In EMEA, SMCP recorded 13 net closures of DOS, including, but also openings in Germany and Portugal, for instance, and some closures to seize relocation opportunities or consolidation of stores, such as Sandro Woman and Sandro Man, converted into a unisex store. On the other end, obviously, the group continued its expansion in APAC, with 21 DOS openings, including 15 in China. In terms of profitability, the adjusted EBIT stood at EUR 95 million, reaching a margin of 9%, out of which 12% in the second semester, as you can see on the slide.
This is a result of the growth in sales and increase in the gross margin ratio, reaching 71.2% in H2, combined with the continued disciplined cost management throughout the year. Our net income, back to positive, stood at EUR 23.6 million, a sharp increase year-on-year. Thanks to strict cash discipline, the group has generated a record cash flow, and we are extremely proud about it, increasing by more than EUR 60 million, rising from EUR 8 million in 2020 to EUR 69.8 million in 2021. Lastly, we show strong deleverage with the net financial debt decreasing by EUR 65 million to stand at EUR 317.7 million.
This decline, combined with improvement in the EBITDA, leads to a significant decrease of the leverage ratio from 7.9x EBITDA in December 2020 to 2.5x in December 2021. Moving on to page 5. I think this slide is a bit self-explanatory. You can see that our sales exceeded the EUR 1 billion mark again in a year still impacted by the pandemic. Versus 2019, our total sales were down only 9.3% on an organic basis, representing a solid performance in the context of COVID, with very limited tourism and our promotional sales deliberately reduced in an optimized network. In 2021, the group recorded a high digital sales penetration at 23%, stabilizing over the period with the reopening of the physical network after important lockdown impact in certain regions in H1.
Also to be noted, the group pursued its full price strategy, mechanically limiting digital sales growth. Nevertheless, the weight of digital sales remained well above the level of 2019. I remind you that 2019 was only 15%. Moving on to page six. Let me highlight some key elements of this improving trend versus 2019. As you can see on the slide, this performance reflects a sequential catch-up throughout the year, resulting in a Q4 organic performance almost at par with 2019. 2021 was not a typical year and should be analyzed as such in light of the following consideration. First consideration, it's another year impacted by the pandemic, including store closures, particularly in H1, more than in 2020, for instance, in France, restrictions impacting traffic, low tourism, and so on.
Second consideration, we can clearly observe a progressive catch-up versus 2019 since the beginning of the year. Third, this performance was mostly driven by local demand, as tourism is not back yet, and therefore relied on our solid brand desirability, our local client loyalty. Fourth consideration, in line with our One Journey strategic ambition, we made strong progress on our full price strategy, notably by deliberately reducing the promotional sales share and managing to reduce the discount rate both in brick-and-mortar and digital, with a drop of 5.6% versus 2020. Last, as planned, this year we finalized our network optimization plan with 42 net closures, as I mentioned in introduction, of directly operated store, especially in Europe and France. Page 7 now. You will find the performance by region, mainly driven by APAC and Americas.
In France, compared to 2020, sales were up 10% on an organic basis, driven exclusively by like-for-like growth. Down - 16% on an organic basis versus 2019. In France, performance supported by local demand remained solid, particularly given the severe restriction in H1, where I mention again that the days of closure were higher than in 2020, the network optimization plan we carried out and the progress of the group's full price strategy. In EMEA, group sales were up by 20% on an organic basis versus 2020, driven by strong like-for-like growth. This strong performance highlights the gradual catching up of the pre-pandemic level despite the store closures, the drop in discount rate, and the loss of tourism-related sales. In APAC, the group recorded an organic growth of 14.5%, also up 5.5% versus 2019.
Sales grew strongly in Mainland China at 15% versus 2019, despite further local COVID resurgences and major weather events in PTT, both impacting mobility and traffic, especially in Q4. These COVID resurgences in China have affected almost 2/3 of the 33 cities where we are present and have directly impacted consumer behavior and footfall in the malls and commercial retail centers where our stores are located. The desirability of our brand is still strong in Asia and especially in China, where our brands remain ranked among the top three in the accessible luxury segment. As you've already seen in our first publication, we continued this year to partner with the famous Chinese ambassadors for Maje and Sandro.
Our brand's dedication to digital transformation and agility in the local market have resulted in their advanced brand desirability among today's young generation and consolidated relevance to Chinese consumers seeking elevated and uncompromising accessible luxury. In the Americas, sales rose by 57% versus 2020, sorry. A very solid rebound. A very good performance driven by exceptional like-for-like sales growth of 56%, despite pandemic-related restrictions, particularly in Canada, the drop in the discount rate, and a fairly stable network base. Moreover, sales in the Americas returned to pre-pandemic level with -0.6% organic change versus 2019. The United States outperformed strongly versus 2019, driven by strong demand. Let's move on now to some examples of all the actions that have been carried out by the brand over the period. Let's start with the brand desirability on page 8.
Starting with the first pillar of this One Journey strategy, let's look at some innovative and creative collaborations that our brands have carried out to sustain the customer appetite for our products. Let's start with Sandro. For the 50th anniversary of the series, Sandro spotlighted Mr. Men and Little Miss for a limited edition capsule collection. For years, these characters have entertained many generations and have become recognizable throughout the world. Every member of Sandro's Parisian creative studio remembers having one of these colorful books in their hands and wanted to celebrate them in their own way.
Knitted onto polo, onto sweaters, printed on T-shirts and scarves or patched on hoodies and accessories, these mythical characters have been displayed in a selection of womenswear and menswear pieces. They were a reflection of human emotion, joyfully represented on Sandro latest fall winter collection. Now turning to Maje and the 80s for a flash dance vibe with a modern approach. Last October, Judith Milgrom and Lara Mead , respectively, founders and creative directors of Maje and Varley, shared their universes in a limited edition capsule collection inspired by the contrast and similarities of both brands. Bringing together sports and fashion, technical and playful, they imagined a mix of modernity and versatility to allow women to have the confidence to express themselves.
They gathered in the Paris Maje studio and worked together to create the sexiest, sportiest and grooviest collection, which can be worn to the gym but also on an urban look. This capsule edition has been sold on digital, but also in more than 30 stores in Europe, 25 stores in APAC, sorry, out of which 18 in China and also in the U.S. Desirability today means also being able to have a sustainability in the specificity aspect, in the tone of voice. The brands have a tradition of philanthropic and altruistic actions, and they keep on, they are very important actions this year. Maje. I mentioned briefly in my introduction, the important contribution of the Maje mask sale during the pandemic and the donation of EUR 100,000 to Médecins Sans Frontières .
Fursac worked with La Cravate Solidaire on the organized charity sale for that foundation. Claudie Pierlot has been always very committed with Le Ruban Rose that fights against breast cancer. It's part of the brand culture to do those donations and to finance those campaigns, and it's something that will be carried out. On page 10, turning to our fourth strategic pillar, CSR, to highlight our 2021 key achievements. As you know, our CSR strategy is based on three P's, product, planet and people. On the product side, ethical sourcing is something that is now part of the daily life of our studios and our production teams.
Ensuring 100% ethical sourcing, more and more eco-responsible products, and developing reliable traceability tools are now the obsession of our teams. We carried this year more than 70 social and environmental audits, and managed to cover more than 80% of purchases made with strategic suppliers. These audits were performed by independent third-party experts, obviously, and we plan to cover 100% by 2025. On traceability, as you've probably seen, in the recent weeks, we announced a partnership with Fairly Made and become one of the first accessible luxury groups to offer its customers detailed and transparent information on the traceability of its whole supply chain and of its products. By 2025, SMCP intends to attach a QR code to all products sold by the group's four brands, allowing full traceability of each product.
This QR code will provide a quick, simple, transparent, and centralized access to all information relating to all the sourcing and traceability of each product, such as the country of origin obviously, of each material, the number of kilometers, the CO2 impact, the location of the manufacturers, and so on. I'm delighted to have announced the signing of this partnership, which places the group at the forefront of the industry. Now, obviously on our collections, we are proud to announce that, this year, 46% of our SKUs were eco-responsible with a level of, which means 50% of the components were eco-responsible on it. We as a reminder, we decided to reach a minimum of 60% of responsible, eco-responsible SKU by 2025.
Obviously, our brands are also implementing some specific 100% organic capsules or upcycled products. Sandro launched a pajama capsule with upcycled product last winter, and Maje did a summer capsule with pieces made out of organic GOTS certified cotton. Regarding our second pillar, planet, to preserve our planet and its natural resources, reduce our environmental footprint, we continue to review our shipping flows and managed to reduce air transport flow from 63% in 2019 to 49% in 2021. A strong performance in a specific context impacted both by COVID and transportation, time to market issue and cost issues obviously. We'll also develop our green concept stores with this year 99% of newly open and renovated stores compliant with sustainable criteria. By 2025, it will be 100% with even more demanding criteria.
At the center of this slide, for instance, you can see that we obtained the LEED Gold certification for the Sandro Taikoo Li store in Beijing. You have on the right part of the slide, what this certification implies. Let's move on to page 12. Other very strong initiatives have been carried out by the brands Sandro and Maje in the circular economy. I think I mentioned during a previous call, the fact that, Maje launched the first rental services of the group back in June. This project is central to our strategies since it combines eco responsibility with our service culture mindset.
As an extension of Maje CSR strategy, we offer a new online service allowing our customers to change their size whenever they want and then build themselves for every occasion. The service brings back to life some of the most beautiful pieces of our old collection and present collection, obviously. It's a 100% circular offer. From EUR 20 per day, our client can rent dresses, suits and accessories for a few days. Through our new rental platform, we guarantee an eco-friendly service from cleaning to delivery. Sandro. Last October, Sandro launched its second-hand service in France. The brand makes the process as easy as possible for people wishing to resell their products or to buy second-hand products. After filling in a form on the Sandro second-hand website, the seller sends his piece to the Sandro team.
After authentication and quality control, a voucher is immediately sent to him. These two new services have been launched in France first, and our clients are very enthusiastic and results are extremely promising. We've already started to work to deploy them abroad, and on all our brand portfolio. We are very proud of these innovative services, strengthening our brand desirability, targeting new client categories while spreading a sustainable message, being engaged. Last pillar of our CSR strategy, people. Let me highlight some of our key achievements on that third pillar. Our goal is to unveil the potential of our passionate entrepreneurs to strengthen their well-being and professional development, encouraging internal mobility and promotions, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion.
We're proud to announce today that 31% of our open positions have been filled by internal promotions in a specific context in which more and more new positions require new skills. We pursued our learning strategy with more than 79,000 learning hours provided for our employees, including 74% by e-learning. We developed a mandatory training on very important matter for us, hiring without discriminating. We launched our first hackathon on how to motivate retail vocation, mobilizing more than 50 employees. A great moment of innovation and sharing for us. All of our brands with their teams have been involved in philanthropic actions, and I mentioned some of them earlier in the presentation. Our Asian team, for instance, supported the Box of Hope with the association Love 21.
Our American team made a cleanup and flower planting operation in Columbus Park in Lower Manhattan. Our teams stay fully committed in the execution of this plan, which will ensure and enable SMCP to meet our targets and potentially to go above and beyond. Let's move on to some of the Q4 key openings, because first and foremost, you know, we are retailers to start with and it's important to look at new retail initiatives. First, we opened historic flagship in Paris and pursued the European expansion with a new opening in London.
You can see on the left of that slide the very nice picture of the historic store we reopened recently with a renewed architectural concept referencing the brand's Grands Boulevards de Paris heritage, and features the brand's entire French wardrobe under the creative leadership of Gauthier Borsarello. From tailored clothing to casual pieces, the space is bright with a mosaic flooring as well as furniture and fittings inspired by the 1930s. Another store opened on Marylebone High Street, roughly 100 sq m shop. It's the second London shop for Fursac after the King's Road shop opened last October. In October 2020, I meant. We're very happy and proud to have opened our second shop. I'm convinced about the potential of Fursac's French style in the U.K. market.
This opening is part of our wider strategy to expand internationally with more openings to be announced over the coming months. Other openings, as you can see, as I mentioned also in the introduction, we kept on opening stores in APAC. As you can see here, one example of two stores opened in Shenzhen with MixC, one of our more reliable retail partner, the MixC retail malls. We opened in Shenzhen MixC as a Maje and Sandro store, and other openings in Taiwan in Hanshin Department Store in Kaohsiung. APAC remaining the fastest growing region of the group as you know. Page 16, a quick look on our distributor and partnerships.
As you know, 10% roughly of our sales are done through partner retail or distribution agreements. These are very strong partnerships in key strategic countries, but also partnerships that we extend to online partnerships. For instance, with our distributor in Vietnam, we launched the sandroandmaje.vn, which is the Vietnamese domain extension. And we also placed Claudie Pierlot on THE ICONIC, which is a leading online fashion and lifestyle retailer in Australia and New Zealand. These partnerships strengthen our brand exposure, and highlight the appeal of our brand to worldwide consumers. I will turn it over to Patricia, who will take you through the full year performance in greater detail. Up to you, Patricia.
Thank you, Isabelle. Good evening, everyone. Moving on to slide 18, let me highlight some key messages on our sales performance by region. First, in France, versus 2020, sales grew +10% organic, exclusively from like-for-like at +11.7%. This performance is all the more remarkable given that it includes a -5-point decrease in our discount rates over the year and the finalization of our network optimization plan with -46 points of sale at the end of 2021 versus 2020. Versus 2019, sales are gradually catching up, 2019 levels over the first nine months, and finally exceeding them in the fourth quarter. For the full year, at -16% organic, France is still below 2019, but improving thanks to local demand, particularly solid given the severe constraints in H1.
The network optimization plan, -57 points of sale in two years, and the reduction of discounts to be noted Q4 at +1.5% versus 2019. In EMEA now, group sales at EUR 285 million stood at +20% organic versus 2020, from a strong like-for-like growth in our brick-and-mortar network at +28%. This performance is even more solid given it takes into account the -9 points decrease in the discount rate and a rather stable network base. Worth to be noted also is the gradual catch-up versus pre-pandemic levels, with H2 only mid-single digits below 2019, despite the loss of tourism-related sales after H1 at -29% from store closures. Now let's move on to slide 19.
In Asia Pacific, sales of EUR 270 million were up just 14.5% organic versus 2020, and also up +5.5% versus 2019, driven by both brick-and-mortar and digital. For the full year, Mainland China was strong at +15.2% organic versus 2019. At the end of the year, we had some COVID resurgences. In the 33 cities where we are today, 20 have been impacted either by lockdowns or restrictions, leading to sharp drop in traffic of up to -60% for some cities over quite long periods. Finally, the group strategy in full price sales has also been implemented in APAC with a stable discount rate over the year despite this uncertain environment.
In the Americas, sales surged by +57% organic versus 2020, driven nearly exclusively from an outstanding like-for-like of +56%, while the store count was quite stable. An exceptional performance despite long-lasting restrictions in Canada. Americas is also the area where the reduction in discount rate at minus 12 points was the most visible. Sales nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels at only -0.6% organic versus 2019. This strong trend was supported by the performance in the U.S.A. at 5.5% organic positive versus 2019, with a strong demand for our brand products across all distribution channels. Now on page 20, let's focus on our P&L performance.
We are very happy to note the improvement of our gross margin ratio back to pre-pandemic levels in H2, reaching 75.2% after H1 at 71.6%, impacted by a few liquidations we shifted at the beginning of the year. For the full year, gross margin ratio stands at 73.6%, up 280 basis points from several sources. From our side, as part of One Journey strategic plan, the group made solid progress on our full price strategy during the season, resulting in a decrease of discount rate in all regions by 5.6 points. We also managed to improve our margin on this off-price channel, prioritizing our own network of outlets versus off-price digital partners.
In parallel, stockists as a percentage of sales decreased from 44% to 40%, reflecting a continuing strong cost management throughout the year, combined with a better absorption linked to the return to growth. As a result, the retail margin, which corresponds to gross margin minus store costs, stood at 33.2% and is already back to 2019 levels. Page 21. With the SG&A, they went slightly up by 0.4 points due to the increase in marketing spend, which is part of our One Journey strategic plan. The weight of marketing expenses rose to 3.7% of sales in 2021, compared to 2.3% in 2020, and reflects new investments in more disruptive and innovative communication with initiatives such as live shopping, gaming, creative collaboration with brands, art directors, or artists.
All those factors enabled us to reach an Adjusted EBIT margin of 9% in 2021, and even reaching a strong level of 12% in the second half. Now let's have a look on page 22 to see how the strong operational performance translates into a return to positive net income. Here you can have an overview of the main components of the P&L in comparison with 2020. Net income stands at EUR 23.6 million in 2021, compared to a loss of EUR 102 million in 2020. The bridge highlights the variance of each item. You can see the strong increase of gross margin by EUR 147 million from both volume effect and ratio effect, enabling to absorb the increase in marketing expenses in line with our strategy and higher OpEx from stronger activity.
Non-recurring expenses decreased by EUR 53 million in 2021. As you remember, 2020 had been impacted by significant one-off non-cash entries. The impact of those entries in 2021 is much less important. Financial expenses were nearly stable. To be noted that the average interest rates of debt stood at 2.3% in 2021. Lastly, tax charges stood at -EUR 12 million, increasing versus last year, simply reflecting the return to a positive pre-tax income.
Moving on to page 23, highlighting that the strong P&L performance, combined with a strict cash discipline, led to a material free cash flow generation, the highest since the IPO, increasing by EUR 62 million from EUR 8 million in 2020 to EUR 70 million in 2021. Apart from the increase in EBITDA, this performance also reflects a significant continued improvement in working capital from EUR 154 million in 2020 to EUR 134 million in 2021. Tight control of inventory is continuing. Their weight in the percentage of sales is lower by 4 points in one year, supported by the efficiency of the demand planning processes implemented last year. It's due to some management of trade receivables. Working cap, as a result, in percentage of sales, decreased drastically to reach just above 13% in 2021 compared to 16% in 2019.
Just below 13%, sorry. At the same time, the group maintained a strict control of its investments throughout the year, amounting to EUR 47 million in 2021 and representing 4.5% of sales, completely in line with our target communicated to the market in October 2020. In 2021, 70% of the adjusted EBITDA has been converted into free cash flow. Finally, on page four, we are proud to present a more and more solid financial structure with a massive decrease of the leverage ratio. We managed to diminish the net financial debt by EUR 65 million versus December 2020. This decline in the debt, combined with improvements in EBITDA, leads to a significant decrease in the leverage ratio from 7.1 x at the end of December 2020 to 2.5x at the end of December 2021.
The group also continues to benefit from a solid and healthy liquidity headroom of more than EUR 290 million, and will remain very comfortable with our cash levels and our financial covenants for 2022. I will now hand over to Isabelle for a few concluding words.
Thank you, Patricia. Before we conclude, let me share with you some of our financial outlook. For the full year of 2022, SMCP anticipates the following: a solid double-digit sales growth versus 2021 and a mid-single-digit sales growth versus 2019. We're on track to achieve our 2023 targets communicated during the last Investor Day, with a sales growth of more than +10% versus 2019, and we're happy to be in a position to confirm this ambition thanks primarily to like-for-like, while our direct network should be fairly stable in 2022. Regarding profitability, the group expects an adjusted EBIT margin as a percentage of sales at least in line with 2021, despite the context of significant inflation.
As far as financial situation is concerned, we anticipate a leverage ratio of less than 2x at the end of 2022 instead of at the end of 2023. Which means with one year in advance. Thus, the group confirms its midterm guidance subject to no deterioration of the international situation, of course. Thank you all for your attention, and we are now happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Isabelle. For tuning in, I think we have one question.
Yes. Just before we take the first question, just as a reminder that if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and you will be advised when to ask your question. The first question comes from the line of Kathryn Parker. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. So I actually have three, if that's okay. My first question is on current trading, and I wondered if you could make some comments, just looking at, like, the first three months of the year and how your different regions have performed, versus 2021 and 2019, if possible. My second question is on your sales growth guidance, and I wondered if you could give any of the assumptions, by different regions, for your sales growth number. Then my third and final question is whether there's anything else that you can share, on an update of the shareholder situation.
Either disposal of the final Ruyi stake or a potential sale by GLAS or the outstanding legal cases, if you have any updates there. Thank you.
Thank you, Kathryn. Let me start with the current trading. Overall, we can see a strong double-digit growth versus last year, driven by brick and mortar. All regional brands are above 2021, with a good reception of our spring/summer collections across brands. By region, I would say, in fact, China continues to deliver strong double-digit growth versus 2019. Hong Kong, as you know, is highly impacted by travel restrictions. Work from home, many types of stores closed, material impact on traffic. Our stores are not closed, but a lot of the retail industry is closed. America is still performing very strong growth versus 2021, and sales are above 2019. France is above 2021, even though public sales were a little slow.
EMEA, strong growth versus 2021, impacted at the beginning of the year by the closing of Netherlands during the first half of January. Versus 2019, we continue to have some better resilience in Germany, Switzerland, Nordics, Spain, Portugal, whereas the people that have usually a bigger tourist impact, like U.K. and Italy, are still a little tough. No major shifts compared to what we saw in 2021. The digital is still a very strong performance versus 2019, and digital penetration close to 2021 level. Regarding sales, I mean more granularity of sales guidance, I mean, we won't elaborate on that. Regarding the shareholder situation, no major update.
What we can say is that, as you know, an ad hoc committee has been formed within the board's independent members, and they're reviewing all the options, at this stage, there is not more that I can say.
Kathryn, do you want to add something to shareholder question?
No. You were also asking about the shares, the 15%. We don't have any additional information than what you have and what is publicly disclosed. We don't have anything more to add to this topic.
Thank you, Kathryn. Courtney, I think we have another question.
The next question comes in from the line of Geoffroy Michalet, calling from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thank you for taking my question and congratulations for the strong results. Two questions from me. You have reached a relatively low leverage. Is it the time, a time maybe to over-invest or maybe more than you guided us for? Second, did you have a look on the transaction on ba&sh? Could you have been interested? Thank you.
Let me answer. It's true that we're reaching a quite low level of net leverage. We're retailers, we're people that are always looking for opportunities, and we are quite agile culturally in the group. Obviously we're looking at, you know, opportunities. It's true that everyone today is looking at what's going on in the American Sun Belt, for instance, where there might be some interesting options. We also could use that opportunity to be agile, yes. That's everything I can say at that point. Your other point was on ba&sh. No, I mean, it's a brand that we know well because it's a close neighbor in almost all of the retail street department stores and malls, so we know them well, but it's not our strategy.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Courtney, I think we have another question.
The next question comes in from the line of David Da Maia, calling from CIC. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening. Two questions from me, please. The first one on profitability and gross margin. The level of gross margin which in H2 was close to 2019 level. Do you think this level of high margin will be reachable again going forward? Or should we be a bit more cautious in the context of cost inflation? Secondly, sorry to come back on shareholding, but I know GLAS is not a member of your board, but I guess you have regular direct contact with them. Do you think a sale of their stake could occur this year, if and even if the outcome of the 16% stake of unpledged share is still unclear? Thank you.
Maybe I will take the one on gross margin, David . Thank you very much for your question. Regarding gross margin, just like you mentioned, at 75% in H2, we are very satisfied about this level. To be honest with you, let's say that it's our objective to keep at this level going forward. Now that being said, we have to take into account the inflation context. It's an objective, but we cannot commit at that stage that we will be in a position to maintain it. You know, that we have some mitigation impact. We increase the prices, so it should compensate, and it has already started compensating in H2 or 2021.
Now, that being said, we are quite cautious, but we like this level of 75%, so we will do our best to maintain it. Shareholding, no, we don't have contacts with GLAS, so we don't have any comment to do on that.
Okay. Sorry, I forgot, last question on current trading. Is it fair to assume that in the first two months of this year, trends were in line, more or less in line with your guidance for the full year, meaning mid-single-digit growth against 2019?
Well, the guidance we provided is for the full year.
Okay.
There will be probably some comments for...
I tried.
H...
I tried.
We talk about that in on April 26. I know that you have already this talk on your agenda, David.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Courtney, I think we have another question.
The next question comes in from the line of Gilles Crespel, calling from Alizés. Please go ahead.
Hi, I hope you can hear me. I had actually two questions, and thanks for taking them. One is regarding the store network scheduled for 2022. Isn't the openings policy a bit conservative? And what brings you to this only store network? That would be my first question. My second one would be on the pricing strategy against inflation. Well, what will be your pricing strategy in 2022? And do you at least intend to have prices that will cover cost inflation? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Gilles. When you mean stable network, it means it's in terms of number of stores. It doesn't mean that in terms of commercial square meters, it won't increase. We expect for 2022 on a global basis, a stable network focusing on key location opportunities to find better location in the key cities where we already are. Targeting bigger, more welcoming and engaging stores. It includes also some consolidation of stores, such as the regrouping, as I mentioned earlier, of Sandro men and women into a single bigger unisex stores, for example. Also we are targeting major quality projects. I mentioned the U.S., where we started investigating some stores, so we cannot commit to a 2022 opening. It might be early 2023.
We're also targeting major quality projects, such as new flagships, in which we will be able to deploy all the group's omni-channel services and our new selling ceremony for a more emotional in-store experience. For instance, I can announce that we've signed a very important location for Sandro on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where we plan to open later this year a new unisex Sandro flagship. Going forward, as of 2023, according to One Journey plan, we will plan to reopen on an average of 30 DOS until 2025, including, of course, a priority in APAC and probably in China, but also the U.S., as I mentioned earlier. Clearly going forward, for us, the biggest KPI won't be the number of stores.
It will be more the quality of the network, the commercial square meters. We think that's the only way that we can trigger a better customer experience and a better profitability for our network.
Regarding your question on the pricing strategy, yes, we confirm that we design our price structure to compensate the increase in the cost. We managed to do this compensation so far.
Thank you very much. If you allow me to add a little third one, regarding the marketing spending, I was a bit. Well, you mentioned that it was at somewhat higher level, end of 2021.
Yes.
Is this a new normal or is this an exceptional marketing spending? Is it...
Right. It's a very good question, and I thank you, thank you for asking it because I probably were not vocal enough on that subject. It was part of what we said at Investor Day in our One Journey ambition. We decided going forward to stabilize our marketing expenses, whether they're digital or regular, we'll say classic marketing expenses, at roughly between 3.5%-4% of our sales, and it's now the new normal.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Gilles. Courtney, we'll take the latest question, please.
The next question comes in from the line of Marie-Line Fort, calling from Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening. I've got two questions, please. On the inventory side, do you think that the 22% you reached for 2020, during 2021 is the level you could achieve also at the end of 2022 or do you project to build more inventories? Also, do you expect to have another decrease in the discount rates for 2022 in order to mitigate some impact on the gross margin?
Thank you very much, Marie-Line . Very interesting questions. Regarding the inventories, yes, we are very satisfied with the level of our inventory. We think that a stabilization is something that we wish to achieve. Regarding the level of discounts, we are also very satisfied about this level of discounts. We did some huge improvements on this topic. Maybe we can grab a little bit on the more discounted channels or areas such as the U.S. or the digital channels. We will of course fight for those additional points. But globally, the trend is continuing in this positive sense and but it will be more marginal going forward.
Many thanks. Sorry, another question. In terms of CapEx, could you give us an idea of the CapEx envelope for 2022?
Well, as we mentioned, we were at 4.5% of sales in 2021. This percent is in line with our strategy so far. We will probably replicate it, apply to the sales of 2022. We continue to invest, however, in IT. We have, you know, some big projects in terms of omni-channel and logistics fluidity and capability. We will continue to invest on that. It could be a little bit higher in 2022 for those reasons and also to see some opportunities, for example, in the U.S. just like Isabelle mentioned earlier.
Okay.
Thank you, Marie-Line Fort.
Merci.
Courtney, I think we have another question.
The final question comes in from the line of Samy Mezaache calling from Weinberg Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for this comments and congratulations for this figure. I just have one question. As you almost have leveled on the last couple of years, do you expect maybe a new share buyback program? I think the current one is to end this month. Maybe...
Sorry. I'm sorry, Samy. We don't hear you. Your line is very bad. The line is very bad. We cannot hear you at all. Can you please repeat?
It appears as though Samy Mezaache has disconnected, and we've no further questions in the queue.
Oh, no, we can reconnect him, but we'll be glad to answer his question, but for some reason we cannot. Is he reconnecting or?
It doesn't appear so.
Okay. Maybe we are done with the question.
Yes. Samy Mezaache has disconnected from the call, so if you want to go ahead with your concluding remarks.
Maybe we will reach out to him s eparately f or sure. Thank you everyone for being with us this evening. Sorry for technical issues. Yeah. Thank you. Have a nice evening.
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