Björn Borg full year net sales increase 10.3 percent

The Björn Borg AB Group’s net sales fell 0.7 percent to 170.3 million Swedish krona (20.9 million dollars) for the fourth quarter, while net sales for the year ended December 31, 2017 increased 10.3 percent to 696.5 million Swedish krona (85.5 million dollars). Fourth quarter earnings per share before and after dilution amounted to 0.43 Swedish krona (0.05 dollar) against 0.74 Swedish krona (0.09 dollar), same quarter last year, while full year earnings per share before and after dilution amounted to 1.48 Swedish krona (0.18 dollar) compared to 1.88 Swedish krona (0.23 dollar) last year.

Commenting on the company’s results, CEO Henrik Bunge said in a media statement: “The fourth quarter saw a significantly better gross profit margin than the previous year at 58.3 percent. We are increasing our costs, but this is essentially due to our Benelux acquisition.”

Review of Björn Borg’s Q4 and full year results

The gross profit margin for the quarter rose to 58.3 percent against 48 percent, while operating profit amounted to 16.9 million Swedish krona (2.08 million dollars against 21.4 million Swedish krona (2.6 million dollars). Profit after tax amounted to 11 million Swedish krona (1.3 million dollars) in the fourth quarter compared to 17.9 million Swedish krona (2.2 million dollars).

Excluding currency effects, full year sales rose 9.6 percent and the gross profit margin reached 54 percent compared to 50.3 percent last year. Operating profit amounted to 55.4 million Swedish krona (6.8 million dollars) against 64.2 million Swedish krona (7.9 million dollars) and profit after tax amounted to 37.4 million Swedish krona (4.6 million dollars) against 46.9 million Swedish krona (5.7 million dollars).

Brand sales for the quarter dropped 3 percent to 360 million Swedish krona (44.2 million dollars) and for the full year, sales fell marginally to 1,542 million Swedish krona (189.5 million dollars) from 1,551 million Swedish krona (190.7 million dollars) last year. Excluding currency effects, brands sales were down 2 percent. Brands sales in the underwear product area were down 4 percent, while sports apparel grew 9 percent during the year and footwear 7 percent against 2016.

Among large markets, the company said, Finland posted growth while Sweden grew slightly against last year, while other large markets witnessed a fall in sales due to poor performance of the underwear category. The company’s smaller markets England and Germany, however saw improvement in sales. The company opened one store in Finland in the third quarter of 2017 and as of December 31, the company operated 41 Björn Borg stores, of which 35 are group-owned against 20 last year. The company said, increased in group-owned stores is because of the acquisition of Benelux, where 13 stores were re-classified as company-owned in the first quarter of FY17.

The board of directors has decided to propose a dividend of 2 Swedish krona (0.25 dollar) per share to the Annual General Meeting, totalling 50.3 million Swedish krona (6.1 million dollars).

Picture:Björn Borg website