Good afternoon and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on full year 2024 preliminary revenues. Please note that today's material and presentation are available under our zegnagroup.com website. Joining us today is the Ermenegildo Zegna Group leadership team, including the CEO, Gildo Zegna, and CFO, Gianluca Tagliabue. Before we begin, I need to point out that we will make certain forward-looking statements during today's call. Our actual results may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Also, statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those described in our SEC filings. Please refer to the forward-looking statements cautionary statement included at page two of today's presentation. I'll now hand over to Gildo Zegna.
Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you for joining today's call. After three challenging quarters, I'm pleased to be here today to talk about a quarter that showed some important promises, even if we all know the sector is still facing uncertainties. Let me start with a few highlights. Q4 2024 revenue grew by 3%, both organic and reported, thanks to three main contributors: the Zegna brand, which grew 7% organic. The direct-to-consumer channel, which grew 8% organically at group level. In the quarter, in particular, Zegna and also Tom Ford Fashion reported solid results, plus 9% organic in acceleration in all regions. North America, which delivered 15% organic growth, and the regional success was driven by sequential acceleration, growth at Zegna, whose performance was significantly better than the group average. Also, the Middle East performed exceptionally well, in particular for Zegna brand.
These results are the outcome of long-term strategies implemented over recent years, as well as some important lessons learned in 2024. In 2024, we reinforced our talents and organization at brand level. We strengthened the business division at Tom Ford Fashion. We invested in CRM and made-to-measure personalization at Zegna and enhanced merchandising and retail operations across regions at Thom Browne.
We achieved a more balanced geographic presence by increasing focus on core markets like the U.S. and the Middle East, the latter in particular at Zegna. And last, we improved integration across the group. We strengthened strategic committees of our brands and moved towards a more integrated model across corporate functions to drive efficiency and cohesion. Most importantly, the challenges of 2024 have led us to be more selective about key projects while deciding to continue to invest in those that are priorities for us.
Let me start by showing what the key priorities for Zegna brand are. 2024 was the year of bringing Villa Zegna to the world, further cementing Zegna's unique legacy in timeless luxury. The recent 2025 winter season fashion show is another testament to this. At Milan Fashion Week, we unveiled the Zegna Vellus Aureum project, the crown jewel of wool textile created by our Filiera. Vellus Aureum is the finest wool in the world. This amazingly light, warm, and breathable cloth has been created thanks to the Wool Trophy Awards, our family established in Australia since 1963. The collection presented at the show, mostly made by Vellus Aureum, was also inspired by some of my grandfather's own clothes, giving it the typical Italian and, I would say, Turinese taste of our founder and myself.
The show has been acclaimed as one of the best of the Men's Fashion Week and one of the best ever for our brand. Looking ahead, the Zegna brand path to 2025 is clear. Our product pathway is strong, not just Vellus Aureum, but much more. Legacy made in Italy and customer experience will continue to drive our 360-degree brand strategy, from the way we think about our collections to the way we communicate our brand and how we serve our customer, or better, our guest. And our textile innovation capabilities will continue to keep Zegna at the forefront of the industry, something highlighted by Vellus Aureum at our most recent show during Men's Fashion Week. We want to grow and strengthen further our community of Zegna friends and further consolidate Zegna leadership in timeless luxury. Let's move now on a few comments on Thom Browne.
In 2024, at Thom Browne, we started to evolve our marketing approach to emphasize not only the essence of our brand, but also the depth of product offering able to cover different tastes, needs, and body shapes. Customer centricity and personalization are also increasingly important at Thom Browne, which can also draw on a remarkable number of influential friends of the brand to raise awareness of the brand and of its product. We have further reinforced the team, both at headquarters and at regional level, including recently new commercial director in the U.S. and EMEA. Looking ahead, we know that the evolution of Thom Browne into a more DTC company is not yet complete, but we are seeing some early encouraging signs.
Full price stays in our stores are driving retail performance, and the brand is doing well in markets where the team is strong and well-established, like Japan and Korea. However, we remain vigilant, and we continue to invest in a few selected projects where the brand has already started to build: DTC, women accessories, reinvention of the classic collection, and some important new openings, particularly in the United States. Let's now move to Tom Ford Fashion. Tom Ford Fashion in 2024 was the year we focused on building a strong organization, laying the foundation for which we grow. As you know, along with the state of their company, we also decided to appoint a new creative director.
We have chosen Haider Ackermann for a number of reasons, not only for the clear connection to the Tom Ford legacy, but more importantly, because he's able to create collections that are consistent between men's and women, supported by strong leather accessories collections. The positive trend in DTC in Q4, driven by healthy comp growth, especially in the U.S. and EMEA, is an early initial sign that our actions are starting to pay off. Obviously, the Haider Fashion show will be an important stage to reinforce this. Looking ahead for Tom Ford Fashion 2025, we continue to be a year of investment. We will invest with two priorities in mind: brand value and the U.S. market. Let me finally comment on our important Filiera.
We continue to invest in our Filiera, our fully integrated Italian supply chain, which sets us apart and gives a unique competitive advantage, allowing us to be at the forefront of excellence, innovation, and traceability. In 2024, we also initiated a plan for a new shoe factory, which should be ready by 2026. Before we get into the financial detail, let me make a few additional remarks. In anticipation of some of the questions I know you will ask, regarding profitability, we will talk in March when we release our full P&L results. Today's call is indeed on revenue, but let me make a brief comment. We all know that 2024 profitability is expected to be impacted by the challenging environment. You also know that in 2024, we decided to confirm some strategic initiatives that are key to strengthening our brands.
I believe it is important for me in this call to reinforce the message that the decision to bear some short-term pains was not easy. But today, we are even more convinced that this decision was crucial to strengthening our brand's value and drive long-term results. As far as 2025 is concerned, the year just began, so it is premature to draw conclusions about market trends. However, I can anticipate that we are seeing regional trends similar to the end of last year. America remains strong. Europe is doing well with both local customers and tourists. The Middle East continues to do very, very good. In the GCR, current trend is largely influenced by the timing of the Chinese New Year, and it is today still too early to comment on China. With that, I leave it to Gianluca for his comment on the numbers. Thank you.
Thank you, Gildo. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Let's start from page nine of the presentation where we break down our consolidated revenues by segment. Before going into the numbers, I remind you that I will primarily focus on organic growth, which neutralizes changes in the consolidation perimeter and on forex. The changes in the perimeter that are neutralized by the organic growth are: first, Tom Ford Fashion business, which is consolidated since April 29th of 2023. Second, the acquisition of the Korean business for Thom Browne, which occurred on July the 1st, 2023. And third, the acquisition of the Zegna Korean business, which occurred on January 1st of this year. Important to underline that only the last one, so Zegna Korean business, impacted Q4 organic performance, and I can also anticipate that starting from Q1 of 2025, organic growth will only neutralize forex movements.
I also anticipate that in the rest of my presentation, I will focus mainly on Q4 performance, our so-called exit speed. In Q4, the Zegna segment, which includes both Zegna brand as well as textile and the minor third-party brand revenues, recorded +4% organic, driven by the Zegna brand, while the textile product line continued to be impacted by a declining B2B demand. Thom Browne segment revenues declined -4%, with an improving trajectory compared to the first nine months of the year, while Tom Ford Fashion segment recorded a good +4% revenue growth. Let's now move to page 10, where we detail revenue performance by brand. Let me allow at this point to make only a few general comments while we will go more in detail on the dedicated by brand pages.
Notwithstanding the sector's uncertainties, Zegna brand continued to show a very solid performance, supported by a clear brand vision, which has been further reinforced in 2024. Luxury leisurewear and shoes contributed to the growth. Thom Browne revenue, although negative, showed some improvements, even if we know that the journey to evolve the brand's culture to become a DTC-driven company is still in the making. Tom Ford Fashion recorded a nice acceleration in the quarter, in particular driven by the DTC channel, also thanks to the work that has been done in creating a stronger commercial organization. Talking about textile, performance was negative at -13% organic, substantially in line with Q3, largely due to a decreasing demand from luxury goods brands outside the group, which purchased from our platform.
Finally, the other revenues line can be now considered marginal after the acquisition of the Tom Ford International Group and the change in the accounting of the Tom Ford products. Moving to page 11, we see revenues by geographic area, starting from Europe, Middle East, and Africa, which represents now 35% of total revenues in full year 2024. In Q4, EMEA recorded a +5% organic growth, which is the result of a double-digit growth at Zegna brand and Tom Ford Fashion, and the negative performance at Thom Browne, mainly due to the wholesale channel. Americas, which represents 27% of full year revenues, recorded a strong sequential acceleration in Q4 compared to the prior quarter, with +15% organic growth in Q4. All three brands reported positive performances. Zegna brand, in particular, recorded an outstanding double-digit growth led by the DTC.
Americas and U.S., in particular, are doing very well for Zegna. Also looking at the performance by nationality, Zegna brand saw a strong sequential acceleration of the U.S. nationality in Q4, both for clients buying domestically and those buying abroad. Moving to Greater China Region, let me highlight that in full year 2024, GCR accounted for 26% of total revenues, significantly lowering the incidence of group revenues from the 46% that we had seen in full year 2021 when we landed into the public market. In Q4, GCR revenues declined by 11%. This represents a sequential improvement compared to Q3, when it was -22, although we reckon that visibility on that market remains limited. In the quarter, Zegna and Thom Browne showed a similar performance, while for Tom Ford Fashion, GCR is less relevant.
Looking at the results by nationality, in Q4, revenues from GCR clients were down low teens, slightly improving compared to Q3. I remind you that according to our CRM data in the Zegna brand, around 90% of GCR clients are buying domestically. I finish with the rest of Asia-Pacific, 12% of full year 2024 revenues, which reported a +8% organic in Q4, with Japan and Korea driving the growth, in particular at Zegna and Thom Browne. Let's now move to page 12, the revenues by distribution channel. Just two very quick comments, since we will comment on the following slides, the detail of revenues by channel for each brand. In Q4, DTC grew +8% organic with positive growth at all the brands.
Wholesale brands performed in Q4 at -7%, driven by a decrease in all brands, partially impacted by the conversions of some wholesale stores into concessions in retail. Let's move to page 13, where we deep dive on the Zegna brand revenues by distribution channel. In Q4, Zegna DTC revenues grew by a healthy 9% organic. The channel now accounts for 86% of the Zegna brand revenues on a full year basis. Americas, Europe, and Middle East continue to report very solid double-digit growth rates, while, as already commented, GCR was low double-digit negative, thus with a sequential slight improvement versus Q3. In the quarter, the brand closed four net stores, including two openings in Monaco and Wuhan, and offset by closure of small stores and of one outlet.
Moving to wholesale, Zegna recorded a - 4% organic in Q4, mostly as a result of conversions that we have already mentioned and that occurred before Q4. Excluding the impact of the conversions, the performance of the channel for the Zegna brand would have been flattish in the quarter. Let's move to page 14, Thom Browne revenues by distribution channel. In Q4, DTC for Thom Browne was + 4% organic, driven by store openings. Japan, Korea, and Americas reported double-digit growth in the quarter, while GCR continued to be negative. In the quarter, we opened 10 net directly operating stores, including the opening of Beijing Taikoo Li and some conversion of small shop-in-shops in Canada from wholesale into retail. In Q4 2024, wholesale was down minus 13%, impacted by the well-known decision to streamline part of the business.
The improvement in trend compared to prior quarters is also related to early spring collection deliveries compared to prior spring-summer, given that a good part of spring-summer 2025 products were already available to be shipped. As also Gildo commented, Thom Browne evolution into a DTC-led organization is ongoing and will continue also in 2025, with an impact on the brand's wholesale performance. Based on the orders in our hands, I can anticipate that we expect H1 2025 wholesale revenues for Thom Browne to be still down significant double digits, with Q1 more impacted given the above-mentioned early delivery of spring, which has been falling into Q4 of 2024. Let's now move to page 15, Tom Ford Fashion revenues by channel. In Q4, Tom Ford Fashion reported a nice + 9% organic growth in the DTC channel, with a strong double-digit growth in EMEA and a solid performance in the U.S.
During the quarter, Tom Ford opened two DOS, including Singapore Paragon. You also saw a picture at the beginning of the presentation, and Madrid-Canalejas. Wholesale reported -4 organic in the quarter, reflecting also the impact of two main wholesale conversions into retail, Harrods and Saks Fifth Avenue, and the decision to further strengthen the DTC channel. I will now stop on the next slide, where you can see the façade of the Zegna store in St. Moritz with the fall-winter 2024 collection, and I hand it over to Paola for the Q&A.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Gianluca. Thank you, Gildo. Operator, can you open the Q&A session? Thank you so much.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please do so now by pressing star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind or you feel like your question has already been answered, you can press star, followed by two, to withdraw yourself from the queue. Our first question today comes from Anthony Charchafji with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, Anthony.
Thank you. Good morning. It's Anthony from BNP. I have just two questions, and I will refrain from asking on EBIT. So the first one would be on Tom Ford in positive territory. How to think about 2025? As we know that Haider Ackermann will present only his first collection in March. Should we see 2025 as a transition year? My second question would be on the Zegna brand, very strong performance also in DTC. Knowing that the top 5% of your clientele in the high-end is contributing to 40% of the brand sales, could you maybe quantify their performance versus the rest? Did they outperform? And maybe if you can give us some color of this performance of the high-end by region. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. I'll leave the first question on Tom Ford to our CEO, Gildo.
Yeah. Well, listen, the expectations are high, Anthony, on the fashion show. First of all, because I think we have the right designer, right for the time, right for the brand, right for us. So the first thing is to work on the brand legacy and work on the collection to make sure that the store has the right mix of product that it will present in the fashion show. I think we need a strong consistency between the men's ready-to-wear and the women's ready-to-wear, supported by strong leather accessories. I believe that there is not only some room in the retail. We have opened a few stores in 2024, and I think that the new collection will help reaching productivity of the stores. We have a few more stores that we will open this year, and then I must say that the expectation by the wholesale also is positive.
We are off a fall-winter 2025 season, which we did what we had to do, even though we didn't have the collection. So overall, a positive, in particular, thinking about the U.S. market. You saw the number of Q4 of DTC Tom Ford. I think we got there in particular thanks to U.S., even though in Europe we did okay. So we expect both for Zegna, Tom Ford, and Thom Browne, some good trend continuing in the U.S. And so we are ready to go with this new cycle of the brand, the Tom Ford brand.
Thank you. Anthony, I'll go to the second question, and if you have any follow-up, we are here. The second question is for Gianluca on the top 5% of our clients, if I understood well.
Yeah. So hi, Anthony. So the top 5%, as we already represent, represent 40% of the revenues for the Zegna brand. And definitely, the top-end part of our client pyramid is the one that is driving the most growth. The cluster, of course, we have the cluster of Zegna friends that are the ones that are above 50,000 EUR per year. It's not the 5% representing 40%. It's a subset of that. That is definitely growing on a very solid double digit, led by Americas and followed closely also by Europeans. Then we are seeing also nice growth on the segment that is slightly below that top threshold, that is the ones in the range of 20%-25% per annum.
And I think that the opportunity we see, of course, is continue performing well with the Zegna Friend on one side, bringing more friends into the club, focusing what we call the Doers. The Doers are the ones in the segment that is spending less than 50% per year, but has the potential to go above and receive from the average ticket per transaction, but a relatively low frequency, kind of two, three times a year. The goal is to bring up the spending of the Doers, and that is for us, I would say, not a low-hanging fruit, but is intensifying the intimacy with customers that already trust Zegna and can have a higher spend. So for us, the high-spending cluster in broad sense is the one that is driving growth so far and will continue to drive growth.
I just wanted to add one thing, Anthony, on the 4% top client, what we call our Zegna Friend. We are continuing to foster the initiative on those customers, starting from our fashion show and from the Villa Zegna. And we see that every time we create a personalized collection or we provide something special to them, I mean, they respond to our request, so again,
we had about 100 top customers that we are really excited about the collection, and they saw the pieces they can buy to be delivered later on, and this is the force of having a figure that is capable to deliver and not only showing beautiful product and make them for you only. So I think it's a competitive advantage that we'd like to be able to transfer also more to the Thom Browne and Tom Ford brand, thanks to our integrated supply chain. I think this is the direction to go, and we see a lot of benefit to that.
Thank you. Just for clarification, top 100 customers were the ones invited at the show. I'm not sure that was clear. So just to clarify. Anthony, do you have follow-up for? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes. Maybe just to clarify, if I may, so thanks a lot for the comprehensive answers. Maybe can you just give us the color for the Zegna brand in DTC out of the +9%? I understand that the Americas were significantly strong. Maybe if you can quantify. Thank you very much.
Sorry. We can quantify, Anthony, what the DTC, but I didn't get to what?
The clusters. The cluster for the Zegna brand.
Oh, the clusters. No, we don't. I mean, clearly, the clusters, when you talk about clusters, this is DTC because our CRM is based on data that comes from our retail network. So when we refer to CRM data, you should always think about our retail network, Zegna DTC mainly.
Yeah. We don't provide further details. The only number that we have provided so far is 5% of customers representing 40% of revenue.
Yeah. The first 5%, yes.
The only data point we have published, and we are not going further.
And this is something that we are seeing, actually confirming and consistently being there. So it's a very good sign of our strength in CRM and in all the activities we are doing towards our top.
I'm sorry. One other point on this is that we are seeing an increase of Zegna friends across the region. This is the important thing, and also in China, where the environment remains more volatile, so I think it's a global process. It's not only an American project, which we started from there, and we built our master, and now it's becoming really a global project, which I think is going to be bringing interesting results going forward.
Okay. Can we move to the second question? Thank you so much. Thank you. Operator.
Our next question comes from Oliver Chen with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Oliver?
Hi, Gildo and Gianluca. Thank you. After Zegna brand, the Americas continues to impress. What are your thoughts on the continued growth of Americas? The US consumer has been very strong. Would also love your comments of the Zegna brand as you think about product in the year ahead. What parts of the assortment do you think will show the most growth? And then the China news in terms of it's an evolution, the negative trends in China. How are you managing in terms of inventory trends there and that dynamic environment? And finally, with Thom Browne, what are your thoughts on awareness as you continue to grow it? It sounds like you're looking to have this brand be more relevant to a broader audience. What are the factors that are important for growing awareness there? Thank you.
Thank you, Oliver. Thank you so much. So I think the first and the third one is for our CEO. So our cluster of Zegna brand in Americas going forward in terms of also merchandising and on Thom Browne. They are leaving venture for Gianluca after.
Listen, no, interesting question, Oliver. I think America is very much for Zegna. I mean, they just love what we have put together, and they just keep asking more of what we have. I think this rebranding of Zegna, this personalization of Zegna, this uniqueness of Zegna, also by having a select distribution and by raising the level of merchandising overall, I think that is bringing more excitement to the current Zegna brand in America and opening up to new customers. I think the phenomenon of the Triple Stitch that we expanded the family in an exclusive way, I think, is bringing new customers, and I think that this Vellus Aureum project, surely, I think, will be a must-have for the top American customers. Our retail business is expanding. I think we see the productivity going up. We have a couple of new doors planned for this year.
And plus, I think that we have a very strong leadership with our wholesaler, in particular, the newly formed Saks Group, where Zegna is number one in men's. I think we'll bring new results in terms of working together in a more focused way. We just had our top specialty store, Mitchells, which now has controlled about six stores, the best specialty store in America, in which, again, there we are number one, and we keep seeing a growth factor. So I think that we are just doing the right things that the American luxury customer likes and expects from us. So I remain positive, but focused, raising the bar in terms of uniqueness. And I think they privilege our service.
I think that the outreach. I think that these events that we create in the stores, mind you, the Villa Zegna project got started in America six months ago, and we had incredible traction, and that has led us to think that this phenomenon could be brought around the world. As a matter of fact, it will be. We cannot share yet where next will be, but there are high interests around that part, so I just can tell you that also the last fashion show, we had many Zegna friends and wholesalers, and they liked our approach into textile. I think that today our Filiera is a unique way to create unique textiles.
I think the best innovation in textile came from our show, and America has always been also a very clothing country. The way that Sartori transformed the clothing from a rigid clothing to a soft clothing really makes a difference. It's just people want that. We just want to dress them differently. That's what I have to say.
On Thom Browne, thoughts on the brand awareness?
Thom Browne, listen, brand awareness, I think that is different around the world. I think that one of the goals for this year with Rodrigo and Tom is to increase the brand awareness in America. I think that each brand has to focus on something, and I think that Thom Browne's focus will be in having merchandising that keeps being innovative, give importance, more importance to the women. I think he has some beautiful women's pieces, strengthen their accessories, and go after an American market where I would say probably the brand awareness is stronger than the business we do. So I think that is cut across geography. So I think that we need to raise the brand awareness across the country, and I think we have to increase our business with more doors.
I must say that, again, the Neiman and Saks Group has expressed interest to start working together. We have turned now our business with Nordstrom, so we have opened a few stores, so I think we are moving in that direction. Tom is strong in Japan and Korea, and we have to make sure to keep going at that speed, and we just need a stronger China altogether, but I think that it's clear what our focus has to be also in terms of brand awareness for 2025.
Okay, and the last one was on Gisiana. We manage inventory. Sell it, Gianluca.
I would answer with two buzzwords. One is the flexibility in planning, both production planning and inventory planning, and the second is cautiousness on open-to-buy on 25, so flexibility is being vertically integrated allows us to take decisions later than the others, so we can decide to block some production. We can decide to divert some products that were meant to be directed to China, to other markets, so we have been flexible along the year, navigating through the uncertainty of China. Looking forward to 2025, we have been cautious on the open-to-buy, both on spring and fall, winter 2025, being ready for a year that is soft. Of course, again, having the supply chain behind us, we have short time to react. If we see the market picking up, we will be quick in taking actions and not to lose the opportunity.
Okay. Oliver, if you are fine, we can move to the third one.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Operator, can you move to the third question? Then we have also a couple of questions from the web, but I will wait.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Louise Singlehurst with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, Louise.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of follow-ups, if I could, please. I wondered if you were just going back to the U.S. and also China, but that scope, I mean, you've done a phenomenal, a great improvement going into the back end of the year. Was that more traffic-driven, a bit more on ASP? Obviously, the high-end consumer remains obviously in very good health, as you've clearly demonstrated on this call. But I just wondered if it was more about traffic going right into the end of the year, particularly for the U.S. And then on China, you do give the comments with regards to expecting a little bit of volatility in 2025.
I think that's very fair given the backdrop that we've seen in 2024. But I wondered if you could just go a little bit deeper in that for us and whether it's more about spending around particular events. I know we're on the cusp of the Chinese New Year, but do you think it's more about particular events and more event-driven in China? Thank you very much.
Okay. So I'll leave maybe Gianluca to comment on the DTC's performance. If it was traffic, ASP, we mentioned good comp, so what was driven. And I think, Louise, this was a question more general globally, and then I don't know if there was a specific. And then on China, I might ask Gildo to comment on the overall 2025 outlook for China.
In terms of drivers for retail, the one major driver is ASP. ASP has been up stronger through the year, and this goes along with also the answer that we gave to Anthony before. We are elevating the focus of our action, elevating the clients, and therefore elevating the assortment. AUR is up strong. Traffic, especially dragged down by GCR, has been negative. We have seen an offset of traffic through conversion. If you combine the two things, the number of tickets at the end of the year, I would say that in the last period was flattish with traffic down, conversion up, neutralizing basically the traffic. The growth has been mostly driven by conversion and AUR, which were more than affecting the traffic softness. I think that the rest was on Gildo?
Yes.
The same comment applies to China.
Exactly.
Same comment applies to China where we are not seeing if you neutralize from the different calendar of Chinese New Year, we should say that the traffic is still soft in China. And so our improving trajectory comes from ASP. So it's not traffic. We are not seeing solid traffic inflection point.
Of course, China, I mentioned, but clearly everybody knows, is today impacted by the different timing of the Chinese New Year. So reading China in the first weeks of 2025 is a little bit misleading because of the anticipated Chinese New Year. But I asked Gildo if he wants to give us some more colors on China overall for 2025.
Well, listen, China we like to be conservative. We said that it's going to be volatile. So for sure, in particular for the first half of the year. So far, we are positive, but as Paola said, it's two weeks ahead of the Chinese New Year compared to last one. We see some slight positive signs in that we just had the Drop 1. Drop 1 is the first delivery of our collection in the season. And part of that was Vellus Aureum. I mean, we had a capsule collection already anticipated for spring. And we have seen that these two new deliveries showed a good traction, in particular by affluent customers and also new customers that seem to be younger than the one we used to know in the past. So I think that the traffic surely is nothing different than the traffic was in 2024.
But whenever you come with some nuances, they respond. And I think that the stress that we emphasized last year in which we have to go for a more one-to-one approach, less transactional and more personalized is the way to go. And I think that in one year, we did a good move on that. We are going to continue with the suite project by which we come in the cities and we do special events by focus on some particular project or some particular icon. We have in the pipeline a couple of Salotto openings. Salotto are, as you know, our private rooms in two very important cities, one in Shanghai with the Plaza 66, and the other in Beijing with Shin Kong Place. And I think there we put all our strengths of our innovation and personalization to the advantage of those customers that will be attracted.
So we are doing everything possible to make it happen, and we remain anxious to be ready that China will be what we used to be. In the meantime, we are strengthening other markets. So I think that overall, I think these rebalancing geographies, I think, have come out positive, and same applies to the other two brands, Ford, that is surely less strong than Brown and Zegna in China. And so I think that it's a good exercise to this geographic rebalancing of the different brands. But we all view this with a constructive eye, and it's going to strengthen and be ready to go whenever China will come back strong. Is that clear?
That is very clear. Thank you. And I wondered if I could just have one other follow-up just on Thom Browne and Tom Ford. Obviously, great to see the inflection and improvement into Q4. I realize there's still some wholesale action happening, but if we look at the DTC for both of those businesses, are we quite confident now of the positive trajectory for 2025? Thank you.
Yes, absolutely. Gianluca to answer on Thom Browne.
Tom Ford, on DTC, we have reported a solidifying of the region. Organic. And of course, there has been some openings, but the vast majority of that comp comes from like for like. So that is also the same for Zegna. So it's not space. So we are seeing some momentum on the Tom Ford side, despite that Gildo was mentioning the fact that the newly designed collection by Haider is not yet in the stores. So at this point, it's commercial execution, it's merchandising execution.
It's people. I think that we brought in some new talent retail that made a difference.
Yeah. So I think that is a good sign for Tom Ford. On Thom Browne, I think we are more still in the making. The positive sign on DTC comes from sales on Thom Browne. We have been changing people as for Tom Ford in the region, in the market, in merchandising. I think we are still in the making in terms of DTC real transformation, but we continue with the same intensity. I think next year, the focus will be much more on the U.S. in terms of openings. We are going to open some stores in the U.S., but not this next year, 2025, this year.
As always.
So this year, we are opening a few stores in U.S., in New York, in LA, which for Thom Browne will be kind of new markets because they have very few stores in U.S. And we are going also to open a couple of flagships. Going back to the question before, I think by Oliver in terms of awareness, the flagships will help also raising the awareness of Thom Browne above and beyond the community of the lovers of the brand.
Yeah. The truth of the matter is that we are becoming a luxury retailer in all three brands. So I think that we have learned by Zegna the hard way. The success comes with merchandising. And I think that in both Brown and Ford, we are reassessing our merchandising mix as we did in Zegna. And I think that we are 2024 has been a year where we put our act together, and 2025 we start seeing some results.
So I think that we are putting our knowledge, best knowledge on the table to share it. And I think that this integration of functions and working together as a group made out of three brands, luxury brands, each one going after a different customer, always on the high side, I think is very positive. So I think that we will see a development, a positive development of this very, very hard work that we put together in terms of organization effort in 2024.
There is also a question, sorry, Louise, from the webcast attached to it on Thom Browne, which asks, how advanced is the progress in streamlining the wholesale presence? How long before it's fully done? So I asked Gianluca just to comment on Thom Browne given that Louise gave me the chance to.
We have a clear visibility until H1 because at this point, we are not making any forward-looking statement because we have the portfolio of orders in our hands. So I would say that H1 will be very much like 2024 in terms of decline. I think that later in the year, in the second part, we should see a bottom out, bottoming the decline. But until H1 included, we see the same decline as done in 2024. At that point, then afterwards, we should be in a new normal environment.
Thank you. Louise, I don't know if you have any follow-up questions. Sorry, I interrupted.
No, that's great. Really clear and wonderful to see the momentum in Q4. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Operator, do we have another question? Yeah, another one.
The next question comes from Natasha Bonnet with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Natasha. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three. First of all, on the Zegna brand, so it saw a 500 basis points acceleration between Q3 and Q4 retail. You mentioned the Zegna brand that there was very solid performance, especially at luxury, leisure wear, and shoes that contributed to the growth. Can you please give us some more color by categories? And particularly, can you give us an update on the Triple Stitch franchise? Because I believe it was 13% of sales in 2023. Would it be fair to estimate the Triple Stitch at closer to 15% of sales in 2024?
The second one was just on Thom Browne. Just one clarification because you mentioned that space contributed to the strong sequential acceleration you saw at retail. Can you maybe split space versus like-for-like growth? Because I know you opened 10 stores in Q4. And then the third question I have is just on pricing because you mentioned AURs were up strong in 2024. Can you remind us of the pricing you took in this year? And then if you have any proposals on increasing pricing into 2025? Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Natasha. On the first one, on Zegna brand and how has been the acceleration among categories, I ask Gildo to comment. On the Thom Browne like-for-like, I think Gianluca just said that in the previous answer that Thom Browne was largely driven by new space. This was the comment that was made. I don't know if you wanted something more detailed. On AUR price, I'll leave to Gianluca. Starting with Gildo on the acceleration by category.
The acceleration, I think, is part of the Drop Strategy by which we hit with the right product at the right time with the strong marketing support and by organizing special events in the store across the board. In terms of category, surely the Triple Stitch family, we now have a family composed of four different styles and products. It's becoming very, very important to, if you want, make sure that the distribution is under control. So we are making those products less available to many stores and keep them focused in our retail. And I think that this exclusivity factor, I think, is bringing some more interest and not less interest. So that, I would say, is number one. Number two, I think that we had a good season in terms of outerwear. The fall-winter season is stronger for outerwear than the spring-summer season.
And third one, we had a very strong season in made-to-measure and in the personalized approach to the product. So I think it has been a mix of icons or focus projects supported by strong marketing campaigns and by putting targets to people very clear that they have to obtain. And just by making sure to outreach customers and get them in at the right time and making the new arrival kind of wanted. And I think that this strategy of think slow and act fast is bringing some good results. And last but not least, I think the fact that we do more commercial show, we do show less fashion-driven and more, if you want, style-driven to the product that you have in the store makes it very attractive to the customer.
So they see the show, they go to the store, and there is connectivity, which before it was not enough. And I must say this; it will hold true also for Thom Browne and for Tom Ford. Just create shows that are more commercial at a luxury level and less theatrical or less to fashion. And this is what the customer wants. And so I think these are the highlights of the season.
Yes. Okay. So in terms of average unit retail or average selling price increase?
What driver is the mix as was coming out from the speech of Gildo [crosstalk] It makes the like-for-like price increases are set on a low single digit to offset basically the cost component inflation, and that would be also the case for 2025. I think there was also a question about the incidence of the.
Association. Yes. Natasha was asking if 15% in 2025 is a reasonable number.
Yeah, we are in the mid-teens range. We are in the mid-teens range for the Triple Stitch family as a whole. The incidence has, of course, gone up both for volumes, but also for the mix, again, because we have increased the incidence of the more sophisticated items like SECONDSKIN, Triple Stitch, Venti and Monte, which are the mid-heel or high-heel boots. And so they carry average higher price.
Okay. I don't know if there is any other question.
Now, it was a question, of course. I said it's driven by new openings, so the comps on Browne has been negative. They have been negative also in Q4. Q4 less negative than Q3 and less negative than the average of the year, so it has been negative the back quarter of the year, but still negative, and we have seen improvements across the regions. That is the picture, so yes, it's [phase] on Thom Browne.
Thank you. Natasha?
That was very helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Natasha. Shall we go for another question from the call? And then I have a couple from the webcast.
Thank you. Our final question from the telephone lines comes from Daria Nasledysheva with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Congratulations on the forward set of results. This is Daria from Bank of America, and I have two questions. The first one would be, could you please comment on sequential trends throughout the quarter? Has there been an improvement throughout, or was there any particular turning point after third quarter when you started to see the reacceleration and trends? And my second question would be, if within the quarter, you could comment on any particular differences in geographic performance across your brand portfolio that you also expect to carry on into next year.
And if you could please help us contextualize within different brands in the portfolio, the outperformance that you attribute to brand-specific versus the underlying market improving. Because I think that's what investors are trying to answer today. All the good results that we're seeing so far in the sector, are they really driven by individual brands that are performing, or generally the market sentiment and underlying dynamics getting better? I hope it makes sense. Thank you very much.
Okay. Very clear there. Thank you. Okay. So the first question is basically how the quarter has moved sequentially if there was a sequential improvement, if I understood well. Are you asking DTC, I believe? So I asked Gianluca to answer by each brand, but in any case.
In general, we have seen strong acceleration in America in Q4. It was by far much stronger than Q3 for Zegna and Tom Ford.
Also in the quarter, month-by-month outlook.
December was the best month out of the three. December was the best month. I think there is something specific of us, of the Zegna, especially on the Zegna side. Of course, the mood has been welcoming, but Zegna has been on a solid trajectory since some quarters, and I think that Q4 was becoming the determination of this strategic repositioning. On Tom Ford, it's positive. I think we are very pleased to see positive signs across all the stores on Tom Ford in the U.S. And that is.
Also Europe, I think.
[inaudible] I spoke.
We had a good December in Europe too.
Yeah, I think the major step up was U.S., the major step up. I think also in Europe, we have had the best quarter of the year, driven both from the continental Europe as well as Middle East, where we are not seeing any sign of slowdown, given also by macroeconomic uncertainties. We are performing very well. In the Middle East, it's mostly Zegna, Zegna brand. Greater China, slight improvement. Good improvement versus Q3, slight improvement if we compare it to the other quarters, but it's early to draw a conclusion, as Gildo was mentioning. We have seen a sequential good performance in the rest of APAC. That was also a positive Q4, better than Q3. Thom Browne. I think in overall, we have seen an acceleration.
That's Latin America. Nobody ever talks about Latin America because there are not many brands, but I think Zegna is a key leader in menswear, and we have been doing very, very well in Latin America too. Not many doors, but Brazil and Mexico, and I think that it's good to mention that. If you are well-positioned, if they know you with a good service, we are all direct there, you get a good traction.
Instead of letting the Latin Americans buy around the world, they buy locally if they find the service and the product. So this is an interesting strategy, which very few brands in luxury have, and you have to go after niches, and we have been there 30 years, and so we are taking advantage of this, of the competitive advantage of Zegna. One day, we get there surely with Tom Ford that is good, highly demanded also.
The second question, I think, was partially already answered by Daria. It's on the geographic difference per brand. So if there is something that really was different for each brand by geography that, let's say, characterized, if I understood well, Daria, the performance of the brand, and I think we can comment that Thom Browne did very well, in particular in Korea and Japan. Of course, also other markets, but Korea and Japan in Q4 also through the year has been for sure geographies that continue to reckon and to award the brand. Zegna, again, we said about America several times, Middle East, and Europe. These are the three main key geographies that did very well, and Tom Ford is America and Europe, as we said. So there was any other, let's say, question or if we were able to answer to your questions?
Yeah, this is perfect. Thank you very much. Overall, if I put all of this together, definitely there is a big part that's idiosyncratic, all the work that you're doing with the brands, but there also has been a sequential improvement in the market, and there was a broader acceleration into the end of the quarter.
Yes, so you are right. Again, we underlined also previously because we want to be absolutely fair that the acceleration for Thom Browne was also thanks to there was also a better comp, but also thanks to new openings.
Listen, one important point, which I don't want to be forgotten, is Zegna only sell at full price. So the incredible performance we had in December, all at regular price. If you go around in the U.S., how we did in December, ask this question, how much full price, how much wholesale? We did 100% full price. So this is an incredible achievement in two years, coming from the wholesale world, coming from a sale world. So I think it's going to be known also for the other two brands. So our goal is to go in that direction with the entire branding system of our group because it's the way to go.
Thank you very much. This is very helpful.
Can I? Thank you, Daria. I just take two quick questions, actually, from the webcast. Sorry if we are a little bit longer today. The first one is, how many stores do we plan to open in 2025? I think here we are not going to provide numbers. We might be more also yes, more details in March. The underlying assumption that you should have is that, in particular, for Zegna brand and even for Tom Ford, there will be a much bigger contribution from comp than space, only limited space, while Thom Browne will have also a space contribution in 2025. As Gianluca said, we are going to open a couple of important flagships, including Tokyo and New York, through the year.
The last question, and this is for Gianluca, it says, during the speech, Mr. Zegna talked about important projects that have been confirmed during 2024, and he talked also about the decision to bear some short-term pains. Today, revenues were, if I'm right, above consensus. Is it fair to assume the 2024 results consensus now a bit conservative?
Gildo said that we have taken some difficult decisions and decided to move on with important projects, continue investing in people, in marketing, in structure, so I believe that this was already mentioned several times. That's why I don't see today reasons why we should depart from the consensus that is in terms of adjusted EBIT that is reported in our public consensus in the website today, and I reminded, roughly in the range of 175. Of course, books are not yet closed, but since we are coming from decisions of not taking out the pedal from the metal, but continue investing, I would expect still to see consensus where we have reported in the public consensus in the website.
I think we have answered all the questions, also from the web. So I thank you, everybody, for all the, as usual, very interesting questions, and today also the many questions. So thank you. If you need any follow-up, Alice and myself are available anytime. And just a reminder, FY2024 financial results will be released on March 27. Thank you again, and have a nice afternoon or evening.
Everybody, thank you.
[Foreign Language]. Bye.
Thank you, everyone for joining us today. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect your lines.