Guess international business continues to perform strongly

U.S. fashion brand Guess Inc. reported net revenues of $664.5 million for the second quarter, up 3%, on the back of surging revenues in its Asia and Europe businesses, partially offset by the Americas region.  

The Los Angeles-based company said ​Europe revenues increased 9% in U.S. dollars during the quarter, with retail comp sales, including e-commerce, lifting 11% in the region. In Asia, revenues increased 19% in U.S. dollars, while retail comp sales, including e-commerce, increased 2%.

However, Americas retail revenues decreased 8% in U.S. dollars, and retail comp sales, including e-commerce, fell 6%. Americas wholesale revenues decreased 13%. Licensing revenues increased 13% for the three months.

​For the second quarter ending July 29, the company recorded net earnings of $39 million, a 63% increase from $24 million for the same prior-year quarter. 

“We are very pleased with our second quarter performance, which exceeded our expectations for top line growth and delivered a significant beat in operating earnings and earnings per share for the period,” said ​Carlos Alberini, chief executive officer.

“Our international businesses continued to perform strongly with robust revenue growth and our Americas retail business achieved a sequential improvement in performance compared to the first quarter, as we drove better customer conversion in stores. Most of our businesses delivered better-than-expected operating results, driven by solid revenue performance, strong gross margin results and effective cost management, which contributed to an operating profit of $65 million and a 9.7% operating margin for the period, well ahead of our expectations.”

The second-quarter uptick in sales wasn’t enough, however, to see an increase in overtall revenues and profit for Guess in the first half.

For the six months ended July 29, the company recorded net earnings of $27.2 million, a 15% decrease from $31.9 million, while revenues dropped slightly to $1.23 billion, from $1.24 billion.