The group built and still firmly led by Giorgio Armani is so diversified – and unique in the panorama of the Italian and global fashion industry – that it has to illustrate the operating results distinguishing between consolidated net revenues and induced turnover, represented by the sales of products at Armani brand carried out directly by the group and by third party licensees. Both data relating to 2021 are excellent and have reached the post-Covid recovery objectives well in advance. Net revenues rose 26.3% to 2.019 billion; those induced are double, 4.056 billion, an increase of 23.7% compared to 3.278 billion in 2020.
Earnings also did well
The profitability ratios have been literally reversed: in 2021 the EBIT (operating result) was 171.2 million, compared to a negative figure of 29.5 million in 2020. Even better the consolidated net profit (ie net of management financial and tax charges), which in the last year reached 169.9 million (equal to 8.4% of net revenues). A significantly higher value even compared to 2019, when the pandemic was not even imaginable: that year had closed with a net profit of 119 million, with an incidence on revenues that was three points lower (5.5%) than that of 2021.
Objectives achieved
“In 2021 the group reached the goal of returning over 4 billion in induced turnover and over 2 billion in direct turnover, a goal that we had set for 2022 one year in advance – explain Giuseppe Marsocci and Daniele Ballestrazzi, respectively. deputy general manager and chief commercial officer and deputy director geranle and chief operation officer of the Armani group -. Even more encouraging results because they were obtained by reducing the size of the collections with a careful selection of distribution, consistent with the founding principles of the “less is more” brand, which remains the medium and long-term strategy of the Armani group ».
Cautious optimism about 2022
As confirmed by the founder, who leads the company not only as creative director, but as president and CEO: “The remarkable growth of 2021, confirmed by the positive trend of the first half of this year, makes me cautiously optimistic”, he commented Giorgio Armani, who only in the last two months presented the men’s collections in Milan and the Armani Privé line in Paris, within the French high fashion week. Last but not least, “his” Olimpia won the Italian basketball championship by beating Virtus Bologna in mid-June and Armani joined in the celebrations for the 29th championship in the history of the team. The only difference between him and the players, in the photos, was the height; the smiles and the enthusiasm for having reached a sporting goal arrived after a very difficult two-year period gave the designer and entrepreneur a look many years younger (in the photo above, Giorgio Armani among the models of the Armani Privé fashion show on 6 July in Paris).
The trend of the first half
Returning to the data, the period January-June 2022, explained Marsocci, Ballestrazzi and Armani himself, reinforces the positive picture: revenues at current exchange rates grew by 20% on 2021 and surpassed those pre-pandemic of 2019, “setting the bases for a significant improvement in operating profitability ». Nobody denies the unknowns of the second half of the year, however, from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to any new pandemic waves and the tightening of central bank monetary policies to contain inflation. To make the Armani group’s foundations even more solid are also the financial position and consolidated shareholders’ equity: the first, as at 31 December 2021, was 1.12 billion (+ 21% compared to the end of 2020), the second increased 98 million to 2.108 billion.