Answear.com with revenue up 14 pct. y/y in H1 2024.

 

Answear.com, a leading e-commerce provider of fashion, home&lifestyle and outdoor products in the CEE region, summarizes its sales results in H1 2024. Revenues amounted to PLN 632 million, up 14 percent year-on-year, while in Q2 alone, revenue growth was 20 percent year-on-year. During this period, the company made a number of investments, such as the opening of two “Concept Stores” of Answear and PRM at the Norblin Factory, and extensive image campaigns to develop the PRM brand and reposition Answear to the premium segment, and continued to face an unfavorable market environment, which negatively affected profitability. As a result, EBITDA amounted to PLN -6.8 million. Answear.com remains one of the fastest-growing fashion e-commerce sites in Europe and hopes to significantly improve profitability already in the second half of the year, thanks to the investments made.

- A challenging six months are behind us, in which we continued to experience reduced shopping sentiment among customers across Europe, in addition to the appreciation of the zloty significantly reducing our revenues and margins. Nevertheless, we still remain one of the fastest growing fashion e-commerce sites in Europe. We are investing heavily in repositioning Answear.com to the premium segment. In the first half of the year, we spent a record amount on marketing, including a wide-ranging image campaign on TV. We strongly believe that this strategy will pay off for us and we will see its fruits already in the second half of this year, as well as in future periods - comments Krzysztof Bajołek, CEO of Answear.com.

Answear.com spent a record PLN 141 million on marketing expenses in H1 2024, an amount 53 percent higher than a year earlier. The significant increase in the marketing budget was aimed at the development of sales in the new PRM brand, and the implementation of the image campaign “Dress your life with precious things” aired in 11 European markets, promoting Answear in the premium segment. The campaign was a great success and, according to research reports, significantly strengthened brand recognition, as well as brand strength among the target group.

In the past period, the Company opened an Answear and PRM concept store in a prestigious location - the Norblin Factory in Warsaw. This was an important step to build the brands' strong position in the premium fashion segment. Concept stores are an important aspect of image and marketing, exclusive brands often require physical presence and the possibility of direct interaction with customers, which is perfectly provided by high-end boutiques in prestigious locations.

- We view the first half of 2024 as a typical period of investment in the future. In addition to high marketing campaign expenditures, our profitability was reduced by expenses related to the launch of the concept store, the cost of developing the new PRM brand, and unfavorable trends in the foreign exchange market (strengthening of the zloty against other currencies of the region and weakening of the hryvnia). It is worth adding that Answear.com alone generated a positive EBITDA of PLN 3.3 million - adds Jacek Dziaduś, CFO of Answear.com.

Since the opening of the Answear concpet store in May this year. The company has already realized several major events with top fashion brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, New Balance, adidas and RayBan. Three more major events with other global brands are planned and will be completed by the end of the year.

- We are pleased with the first months of operation of our concept store. Although it is still too early to make a full assessment in terms of sales results, from the perspective of the key marketing aspect, we can say that the project is meeting our expectations. We managed to combine our space and brand with renowned global brands, thus enriching our offer and strengthening Answear's image in the premium segment - says Krzysztof Bajołek.