Marimekko - Solid EBIT despite challenging market
Marimekko’s Q4 net sales came in below our expectations while EBIT was stronger than expected. Guidance for 2023 implies growth to continue and profitability to remain on a good level. However, soft market is expected to continue also in Q1’23 in Finland.
- Q4 group result: Net sales came in below our expectation, by growing by 1% y/ to EUR 48.4m (49.4/48.9m Evli/cons.). Growth was good in int’l markets while domestic sales declined as expected. Adj. EBIT landed at EUR 6.9m (14.3% margin), beating our and cons. expectations (6.4/6.5m Evli/cons.). Although, profitability was negatively impacted by softer gross margin and increased fixed costs. Adj. EPS amounted to EUR 0.10 (0.13/0.13 Evli/cons.).
- Finland: Net sales amounted to EUR 30.1m (Evli: 29.6m), reflecting y/y decline of 2%. Retail sales developed nicely by growing by 19% y/y while wholesale sales fell short of the comparison period due to a lack of extraordinary deliveries and soft market environment.
- Int’l: Net sales grew by 5% to EUR 18.4m (Evli: 19.8m). Growth was good in the APAC and EMEA regions while Scandinavia and North America developed more moderately.
- 22 DPS: The BoD proposes EUR 0.34 dividend per share for the year 2022 (0.38/0.41 Evli/cons.).
- Market outlook for 23: The company expects Finland to grow with larger extraordinary wholesale sales deliveries than in 2022 as well as both the APAC region and int’l sales to grow. Q1’23 group net sales to fall short of that of the comparison period due to challenging wholesale environment in Finland, lower licensing sales and strong comparison period. 2023 licensing income is expected to come in below the comparison period.
- 23 guidance: The company expects net sales to grow and an EBIT margin between 16-19%.