Ad-hoc | 9 February 2004 08:30

Wolford AG: Positive sales momentum at Wolford dampened in January

Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Until into the Christmas sales season the Wolford Group registered positive sales momentum that further cushioned the significant decreases witnessed earlier in the fiscal year. However, this trend gave way to a subdued pattern in January. The fall/winter end-of-season sales did not meet expectations and the until then significant positive impetus from prompt orders was absent in January. This brought revenues in the first three quarters of fiscal 2003/04 to EUR 90.4 million compared to EUR 98.8 million in the year before, a reduction of 8.5% in the Group’s reporting currency. In the third fiscal quarter, bottlenecks at suppliers delayed the filling of a significant number of orders, leading to an unusually high order level at the end of the period and thus shifting sales from the third to the fourth quarter. Nearly half (4.0 percentage points) of the sales contraction was attributable to exchange rate movements and about one-quarter (2.2 percentage points) represented the sales of unprofitable own outlets that were closed down. While brand sales (accounting for about 96% of total sales) were stable, contract manufacturing revenue fell by 30% in the past three quarters. For this reason the distribution activities are focused on – among other strategies for business development – winning further private-label partners. As in the first two quarters, looking at the performance of the distribution channels, a positive sales trend emerged in the Retail business, which consists of the boutiques owned by Wolford. The sales share of these outlets was boosted to 27.0%. Sales through this channel grew by 3% year-over-year on a like-for- like basis. Holger Dahmen, Wolford’s CEO since January 7, sees this development as validating its strategy of presenting the brand in a manner appropriate to its premium market segment and controlling the value chain consistently all the way to the end-consumer. For the fiscal fourth quarter the management expects the sales decline to ease, and thus projects sales below the year-earlier level. The sales figures reported here represent preliminary data. Contact: Holger Dahmen, CEO, Tel. +43 (0) 5574 690 Ext. 1210, http://www.wolford.com end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 09.02.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 083400; ISIN: AT0000834007; Index: ATX Listed: Amtlicher Handel in Wien; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, München und Stuttgart 090830 Feb 04