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(Alliance News) - Dr Martens PLC shares were being sold on Thursday, after the boot maker announced wholesale sales had dropped in its financial third quarter, though revenue grew overall from the previous year.
The stock fell by 13% to 281.12 pence each in London on Thursday morning. Dr Martens is down 24% from its initial public offering price of 370p in February last year.
The Wollaston, England-based footwear and clothing company reported that revenue in the three months to December 31 had grown 11% year-on-year to GBP307.0 million, as expected. It said e-commerce had seen strong growth, and retail made a good recovery.
The period is typically the strongest for direct-to-consumer sales, which grew by 33% over the previous year, Dr Martens said.
However, as Covid hit manufacturing and global shipping, Dr Martens took the decision to prioritise inventory for direct-to-consumer sales. This caused wholesale performances to drop by 14% over the previous year. The decline of wholesales offset a strong direct-to-consumer performance in the Americas, with revenue in the region up only 4%.
In comparison, revenue in Europe, the Middle East & Africa was up 40%, as e-commerce grew, retail recovered, and wholesale performed well in the region.
Its Asia-Pacific region put in the worst performance, with a revenue decline of 28%. Third-party sales were hit particularly hard by renewed Covid restrictions, especially in Australia and China.
Dr Martens opened 11 new stores in the recent quarter, bringing its global total to 158, with 24 having opened this year.
"We continued to put our long-term custodian approach at the heart of decision making and proactively managed the business against a changing Covid backdrop, prioritising the higher margin DTC channels in line with our strategy. We remain confident in achieving market expectations for the full year," said Chief Executive Officer Kenny Wilson.
By Elizabeth Winter; elizabethwinter@alliancenews.com
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