Hello everyone and welcome to the Ermenegildo Zegna Group Q3 2022 Revenues Webcast. My name is Seb and I will be the operator for your call today. If you would like to ask a question, you can do so by pressing star one on your telephone keypad or press star two if you want to withdraw your question. I will now hand over to Francesca to begin the call. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Seb, and welcome to everyone joining us today to discuss the Zegna Group revenues for the Q3 and nine months ended 30th of September 2022. We will be using the presentation materials posted on our website earlier today. You can find the materials along with the related press release under the Investors page of the Zegna Group website. Today, I am joined by Zegna Group Chairman and CEO Gildo Zegna, as well as our COO and CFO Gianluca Tagliabue, and Rodrigo Bazan, CEO of Thom Browne. First, Gildo will walk through our revenues at high level, provide the group's business updates, and discuss the group's ongoing strategy, guidance and ambition. Gianluca will then spend some time going into the numbers in more detail and at the end of today's call, we'll be leaving time for Q&A.
Before we begin, I also need to point out that we may 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. All such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those discussed in our SEC filings. I refer you to the safe harbor statement which is included on page two of today's presentation and of course this call will be governed by that language. Again, we thank you for joining us today and with that, I will turn the call over to Gildo Zegna.
Hello to everyone and thank you for joining us as we share our revenues for the nine months and the Q3 of 2022. I must say that it was a very exciting quarter for us with a number of significant accomplishments before showing you the numbers. One of my personal favorite moments this quarter was the official launch of our partnership with Real Madrid on 30 September at the Ciudad Real Madrid in Madrid. This partnership will build on and amplify the Zegna one-brand strategy and introduce us to a whole new generation of customer among Real Madrid fans around the world. I also want to take a moment to Thom Browne, our partner and friend Thom, on being elected the new chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Thom has been an inspiring designer and leader in the industry for decades, and this is a great testament to his creativity and the success of the brand that he built. We look really forward to more and more success with the brand in his company. We always want to congratulate Alessandro Sartori, our artistic director, on his recent WWD award which I will discuss later, that was delivered, the day before yesterday in New York. Finally, our loved Oasi Zegna, the heart of the Zegna Group, received the Fashion Award Biodiversity Conservation, Award for 2022 from the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana at La Scala a few weeks ago. This is a living example of our commitment to the environment and the natural resources that make our success possible.
I think that after the summer we had really several good contribution to our you know new avenue or better to our new road that hopefully will take us a long way. If you now go to numbers, please focus on slide number four. I think that both with Z and Thom Browne we have continued to perform strongly despite the challenging macroeconomic environment around the world which you know better than we do. As we wrap up the first nine months of 2022, our strategy is proving successful despite the challenging global environment.
I would say that overall we saw good growth across all segments and I would say healthy growth in every geography where we operate, including a rebound in Greater China region in the Q3 . This quarter, Q3 , our revenue were up 27.5% compared to last year, reaching EUR 356 million. This brings our revenue for the first nine months of 2022 to almost EUR 1.1 billion euro up around 23% from the same period last year. If we now go to page number five, I think that this shows the strength of our brand without repeating myself, I think that these awards have been given us both by the industry and by customer.
I think that we have Alessandro Sartori that's been given the award of best men's designer of the year by WWD which I think is the key, you know authority in the international fashion system, in particular in America, I mean it's very important. In particular in a year in which America is very strong. I think that we anticipate this strong development in America in the past calls and we believe that this will continue. I think that this really shows the good action that are taking place in America thanks to the reposition of the brand and thanks to his creativity.
I think that besides the award of Thom Browne, the nomination of Thom Browne to his new role, the fact that he has shown in Paris during Paris Fashion Week in spring 2023, it's good that you know he has been able to host VIP celebrities and fans of the brand. It shows that Thom Browne is a true international luxury brand and very creative, innovative, expanding also the women's side, the side with strong positioning in the men's. Last but not least, Oasi Zegna, which the effect of that we are very strong in the environmental approach to biodiversity, I think is attributes where we're going.
I think that last but not least, living in an uncertain world where energy surely will be more expensive and scarcer, we launched an energy efficiency plan across the group, starting in Europe, where we know that the cost of energy is probably eightfold higher than in America, which aims to decrease our energy consumption in our Non-industrial sites by 10% over 2023. I think this is a contribution that we ask to each of the 6,000 employees, but in particular the one in Europe, and I think it's a culture to work, you know, in a cost-saving energy environment. If we now turn to slide number 6, we have more details, you know, on the revenue growth.
I think that we saw a bounce in China, thanks to the relaxation of the COVID-19 related lockdowns, in the month of July and August. Despite a weak September, as restrictions started to be reintroduced, we saw revenue growth, 3% in quarter three in Greater China region from last year to reach EUR 113 million. The rebound in China meant that we saw growth in revenue across all our other geographies, for the quarter. I would say that it's important to look at what we did there excluding China, where our revenues were up 44% for the quarter compared to last year.
I think that this was, despite a tougher base of comparison, especially in Europe and America, as the third quarter last year had finally normalized following the disruption of the pandemic. The U.K., the Middle East and the U.S. also particularly strong growth, with revenue increasing by 62%, 86% and 38%. In these three region, EMEA overall group, 43%. I think that the strong performance has also continued at the beginning of this quarter, excluding China, where sales are down, as the situation is still difficult due to the new wave of lockdown. As we speak, cities like Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Wuhan, Urumqi, Wuhan are under lockdown and the Beijing area has been very limited circulation for a few weeks.
Based on these results, so far this year, we are confirming our guidance for revenues and adjusted EBIT for the year, which we'll go into more detail shortly. If we now look at the next slide number seven, before I turn to Gianluca, our CFO, I would like to remind you our strategic priority on the road to our own strategy. For Zegna, we continue to execute on our one-brand strategy. We have shown tremendous success to date, especially within luxury leisurewear product line. We also continue to grow our customer base, reaching younger generation through partnership like the one with Real Madrid and other initiative and collaboration, which will be disclosed along the way. As always, we will do all that with an eye to excellence across all retail operations.
From Thom Browne's side, we are on the path to doubling growth in revenue and have a clear roadmap for that. We are going to double the number of end customer while increasing engagement with existing ones. Thom Browne has great potential through its product mix, and we are seeing impressive growth in womenswear, which we will continue to focus on. Finally, we are leveraging on increasingly sophisticated Clienteling approach and client engagement, and client engagement management that is producing good results.
From my side, and now it's Gianluca's time to comment more on specifics of the quarter and the results. Thank you.
Thank you, Gildo Zegna. Good afternoon, everybody. Page eight, I will give you some highlights of the revenue trend, and then we enter into the next pages in detail by segment, geography, product line, and channels. Overall, the revenues for Q3 were landing at EUR 357 million, +27%. This brings the revenues for the first nine months to EUR 1,086 million, which is almost 23% over the same nine months of last year. Similar to last quarter, the revenue growth cuts across channels, segments and product lines, but this quarter it also refers to all geographies with a return to growth in Greater China due to a relaxed COVID restriction in July and August, not so much in September. If we move to page nine, we enter into the first breakdown of revenues by segment.
You know, we split by segment Zegna and Thom Browne. They both were between 25% and 30% growth. Zegna segment was at 27.2%, and Thom Browne almost 30%. Especially remarkable the acceleration of the Zegna segment after the Q2 , which was heavily affected also by the China DTC performance. If we move to page 10, we can appreciate the growth by geography. As you have heard this quarter, we have seen revenue growth across the region thanks to the rebound in Greater China and continued growth across all the other regions. Middle East was particularly strong this quarter, with revenues almost doubling to EUR 16 million, bringing the year-over-year growth in revenues for EMEA to 44% compared to last year. Growth in the Middle East is mostly referring to Zegna branded products.
All the other countries in EMEA also showed consistent double-digit growth. The U.S., which continues to be an area of focus for us, saw 38% growth for the quarter to reach EUR 50 million, driven by DTC for both Zegna and Thom Browne and by winter 2022 deliveries to Tom Ford license. Both EMEA and U.S. performed strongly even against a tougher comparison base from third quarter of last year, which was kind of normalized. The rebound in DTC that began with the easing of COVID restriction in June in some parts of China continued in July and August before a new wave of restriction was imposed starting in September. This brought our revenue growth in Greater China to 3% year-over-year, compared to a -28% decrease in revenues in the Q2 . Moving to page.
To the next page, which is page 11 by product line. Also here we can see double-digit growth across the board, which is evident in the growth in the graph. Growth in Zegna branded products accelerated for the quarter. This was the first quarter where we released the one-brand collection in the stores, and Zegna branded products reached +18.6% year-over-year, compared to 4.4% in the last quarter. This continues to be driven by luxury leisurewear, particularly knitwear, overshirts and shoes. Also tailoring and made-to-measure lines have seen a strong rebound, particularly in North America. Thom Browne revenues grew 29.8% in the quarter, proving a solid sequential trend for the brand. Now womenswear accounts for almost 30% of Thom Browne revenues and is growing faster than men.
Growth for Thom Browne is supported by strong wholesale demand, good e-commerce growth, also driven by Tmall in China and four new store openings during the quarter. Textiles was up 33% year-over-year, leading to over EUR 30 million with growth across all the textile brands. Tessitura Ubertino, which was consolidated starting from June 2021, in nine months contributed to additional EUR 3.9 million revenues compared to the nine months of last year. Third-party brands grew 64% for the quarter, landing at EUR 32 million. Thanks to strong deliveries for both Tom Ford and Gucci, this latter more than doubling in terms of deliveries compared to last year. Moving to page twelve. Now we see the view by channel. Revenues for the Group's directly operated stores, including e-commerce, grew 20.7%, landing at EUR 217 million.
Growth in DTC for Zegna was driven by strong performance in Europe, particularly in Middle East as well as in the Americas. For DTC Thom Browne, revenues grew 21.6% for the quarter, thanks to a top performance across all geographies, including China, which benefited from additional contributions from e-commerce in Tmall and new store openings. All sales overall grew thirty-two percent for the quarter to reach under EUR 39 million, with Thom Browne showing particularly robust growth of 41% for the quarter. Also, from textile and third-party brands, marked growth of nearly 50% in the quarter. With this, let me turn back to Gildo to talk about the guidance for the year.
Okay. Thank you, Gianluca. I think we are surely keeping an eye on the geographical environment and paying special attention to China as pandemic-related developments and restrictions continue to impact our business. All of this create volatility for the remaining part of the year. This is a fact. However, we are satisfied with our plan execution and for the first nine months of 2022 have exceeded our expectation with a steady and strengthening performance, especially in China, indicating a successful execution of our one-brand strategy. The dynamic retail environment, solid order collection, positive pricing, and healthy demand from our current fall/winter line and the coming spring/summer collections also reflecting on the start of Q4, with the exception of China, where we see presently a downturn trend from the new wave of lockdown and controlled traffic.
However, given our performance to date, we are maintaining our full-year revenue guidance to mid-teens% growth at actual FX versus 2021. We are also maintaining our Adjusted EBIT guidance and continue to expect a solid improvement for the year as top line tailwinds should mitigate the expected increase in industrial cost and logistics and the step up in leasing related overheads and rebranding costs. We know that country mix remains unfavorable due to China volatility, and this may have an impact on the % margin, which, depending on China performance in the fourth quarter, may not land in the range of last year. Finally, we continue to expect an increase in the cash surplus in the second half.
Of course, this is all assuming no further escalation or geographic extension of the war in Ukraine, no significant macroeconomic deterioration, a continuing uncertainty linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in China, and no other unforeseen events. Back to you, Francesca.
Thank you, Gildo. Thank you, Gianl uca. Seb, we are ready for the question and answer session. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, or press star two if you wish to withdraw your question. Our first question comes from Chiara Battistini from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Gildo. Hi, Gianluca. Hi, Francesca. Thank you very much for taking my question.
Hi, Chiara.
Right.
I've got two, and they both relate to the guidance. So firstly, do you mind just giving some color on the four key performance that's implied by that full year guidance? I think if you take a 15% revenue growth figure for the full year, that does imply a modest decline on an absolute basis in Q4. Could that be conservative, especially given your comments about, you know, good trading so far in Q4, albeit with some volatility in China? And then secondly, look, the messaging is loud and clear in terms of, you know, the fact that there is a lot of volatility in China. Because of that, you know, you may not land in terms of the EBIT margin range that you had in 2021.
If I remember correctly, back in August when we spoke, you were already embedding quite a conservative Q4 for China in your forecast. Do you mind just talking us through kind of what's changed in terms of expectations for Q4?
Yeah. Hi, Chiara. If you look at the mid-teens guidance for the year, call it 15% or 16%, implicitly, it's like saying Q4 flat-ish. Why are we assuming this? In August, we were coming from July and August, which were extremely positive in China. September, we saw a different trend, and this trend, with some moments of good days at the beginning of October, is still continuing a soft moment in China. From August now, we are assuming not anymore China Q4 flat, we are assuming China Q4 negative. That is the difference why in August, we were assuming Q4 Greater China flat-ish.
Now we are assuming Q4 Greater China negative in the single digits, but still negative, which is driving to 15%-16%, which is the mid-teens overall guidance for the year, where China is offset by still a solid good performance across the board everywhere else.
In terms of the prudence for the margin is simply the effect of the geographical mix. It's moving from a China-flatish Q4 to a China negative Q4. Again, we have no crystal ball, nobody has today, and we are assuming maybe a conservative stance to have this cautious view in China. Since every week is different, that is what is plugged in in our numbers.
Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Are you okay?
Yes. Thank you.
Our next question is from Susy Tibaldi at UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. My first question is regarding any comment on consumer behavior by region and by nationality. If you have noticed, especially in the most recent months, September and October, any change in the consumer's willingness to spend, and also if there is any category which is doing better than others. Secondly, I wanted to also ask about the U.S. growth specifically, which continues to be incredibly strong. Already last year was, you know, you had a very strong growth and you keep growing very strongly on top of that.
Did you also see significant outflows of American spending into Europe, or is your consumer a lot more local than other players in the industry maybe, and so you continue to see strong trends also, domestically? Then lastly, one more question on the consumers in general. I mean, it would be very helpful if you can give us a little bit of color and some statistics on, you know, year to date, you've done such an amazing growth. Like, can you share with us what percentage of consumers were new to the brands? What kind of loyalty rate do you see? Meaning what percentage of consumer maybe comes to shop with you more than once in twelve months? I think this is.
Will be really helpful for us to really understand a bit better your customer base. Thank you.
Yeah. They are very very articulated questions, but very interesting. Thank you, Susy. Now, on consumer behavior by nationality and by category is very simple. I think that we had over the summer in particular throughout quarter three a good trend in particular in Europe, in the Middle East and in America. I would say that in Europe, we have been blessed by American tourists, and I would say by Middle Eastern as well. We have seen no contraction, I would say, moving into the fourth season.
Categories, I must say the new category in terms of iconic luxury sneaker, our Triple Stitch, the Oasi Cashmere project, that is not only knitwear, I mean, is a sort of a common denominator by using partially traceable cashmere done by Oasi Cashmere, from sports jacket to overshirt, to I would say cashmere outerwear, I mean, is meeting good results across the board. I would say also made-to-measure. I think that, you know, we are really specialized in personalized made-to-measure project.
I would say the new push that we gave in made-to-measure in luxury leisurewear is proving to be correct because I would say the suit business is back, not as strong yet as 2019, but I think it's solid. I think that what is really up is the personalization of luxury leisurewear. In terms of US growth, as a matter of fact, I'm leaving tomorrow for the States, but the situation seems still going well both at the wholesale side and the retail side. I don't think that we should be affected, you know, by this concern that you read or that they are up in the air because our customer is an affluent customer.
Will still be traveling, and will still be spending on services and on the excellent new product that we cater. In terms of colors of the customer, I think that in the new categories, we have seen a good percentage of new customers joining. Not only the fathers, but also the sons or the younger, you know, in the thirty years old. I think that the color we added, some of the new visuals and the pop-up shop that we created really helped in this going. The other good thing is that in Europe in particular, where we were doing lots of business with foreigners, the locals are back.
I think that we have been more attractive with this new rebranding strategy also the local. I would say Europe is a combination, foreigners in particular, American and Middle Eastern, new customer and some of the loyal that they want to change their wardrobe and they are really interested in. One piece of color on the Middle East. I was there two weeks ago, and I did five countries in seven days. I think that this area can be the new China. We are really well-placed, you know, to be there and to open new store with a very aggressive strategy. I think it will be a five-year goal. You know, it's not a five-month goal.
We see that the customer there are willing to buy luxury, and they're interested in what we do. That has been an extremely interesting journey, and I think that more will come from that area. Overall, I remain positive on consumer pattern, as we have been in the past few quarters.
Great. Thanks.
Thank you.
As a reminder.
Thank you. As a reminder, for any further questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from Chiara Rotelli from Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you. Good morning, all. I have two questions. First of all, if you can share with us the number of stores closed in China as of today. Another question on your retail network. If you are seeing some improvement in the store productivity in Zegna. On the other hand, your rollout plan for Thom Browne in maybe for full year 2022, we can assume maybe five-six stores open. If you can share with us how many stores for Thom Browne you have already secured for 2023.
Thank you, Chiara. We have Rodrigo on the line, who should take your question on Thom Browne, and then we will cover your other questions from Milan. Thank you. Rodrigo?
Maybe have Gianluca start to answer the question. I can go into details, giving the background, because I think we're going to cover.
Yeah
the group overall. Gianluca, maybe.
No, no. The question was on the Thom Browne rollout plan.
Okay. The rollout plan for 2022 is confirmed. It's a total of 62 stores directly operated by the end of the year, 103 if you consider shop-in-shops, stores, and franchises. On 2023, we continue on the path that we defined in May in the capital markets. We're committed to that, and we're also committed to the conversion of some of our wholesale business potentially into direct-to-consumer business. We remain confident, we remain investing, even though the situation is volatile at markets. We have a business which is anchored on limited traffic, a very deep penetration of clienteling, and we are successfully working on a Customer Value Management program that starts to provide excellent results.
Maybe Gianluca.
In terms of how many stores are closed today in China, there are six. Six stores are closed today. It's a picture that changes every day, but today it's related to Xi'an, Wuhan, and a couple of cities in the west. Well, Beijing is not closed technically, but you have a lot of controls, and so some severe impact in terms of on traffic. This is not just today, but in the last couple. The situation is very volatile, ciao, Chiara. You know, every week you have to be ready to get different news. We are there reacting the best we can, but right now, this is the reality. But it can change, you know, very fast, also in the positive.
I think that we have to live the week, if not the day.
There was the question on retail productivity.
Retail productivity, good news. We launched the plan, you know, in our Capital Day Market by increasing our midterm productivity by 50%, and I think we are moving swiftly along the plan. I think that our store people and our retail people around the world are taking it very seriously. With re-merchandising, with category management, with store fresh up, and I would say also outreach. I think the outreach is gaining more and more traction around the world. You remember this is something we launched in America during COVID, and now we are, it's only 30% across the country, and our aim there is to go to 50% also, pretty fast.
I think it's one of the area in which we are getting more satisfaction with the conversion rate and as the traffic, you know, remains solid. I think that this focus is probably one of the major productivity gains that we can look forward also in 2023. Chiara, I may add one thing in productivity. If you look at our Dania DTC store base, it has been pretty flat in the last quarters.
Yeah.
Around 140-145. All the growth is basically coming from productivity. Of course, beyond productivity, there is price increase.
Exactly
... there is merchandising, sell-through.
Yeah.
There is some action that we have done by.
Resizing some stores. All the levers that we have displayed in the capital markets, they are coming to life, and the growth that we are enjoying in the DTC is basically corresponding to the growth of subscription.
Yeah. Another, I mean, nobody asked about the pricing. I mean, I think that in pricing, we've been right, you know, to be really in the high single digit price increase, both in summer and both in fall of this year, and we had no price resistance. I think that we surely are going to go in the same direction regardless of the forex next year because we have to cover our costs and protect, you know, our margins. I think it's important just to be, you know, of course, courageous on that. I think that the brand has enough, you know, to do on that.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Just one final reminder. For any further questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We have no further questions on the call, so I will hand back to the Zegna Group team to conclude.
Thank you, Seb. Thank you everyone for participating to our Q3 Revenue Conference Call. The next appointment is going to be on the 25th of January, 2023, for our full year revenue. Thank you very much and have a good rest of the day. Goodbye.
Bye.
This concludes today's Conference Call. Thank you all very much for joining, and you may now disconnect your line.