MILAN (Reuters) -Italian luxury group Prada targets 40% revenue growth in the medium-term from pre-pandemic levels by boosting its online business and the profitability of physical stores, it said on Thursday after sales accelerated in the third quarter.
At an investor presentation, the Milan-based, Hong Kong- listed company said retail sales in the three months to September grew by 18% compared to the same period in 2019, before the health emergency hit. That marked an acceleration from the 8% growth rate of the first half of the year.
The medium-term sales growth target of 4.5 billion euros ($5.1 billion) compares with revenues of 3.2 billion euros in 2019, and record sales of 3.6 billion euros the group posted in 2013.
Last year, due to shop closures and lack of tourism, Prada’s sales fell to 2.4 billion euros.
The family-owned group, which in recent months has been reaping the fruits of a strategic revamp, said that in the medium term it targets an operating profit of 20% of total sales, more than twice the 2019 level. It also aims to double the proportion of online sales to 15% of retail revenues over that timeframe.
The group’s strategy focuses on direct distribution “to increase store productivity and online penetration,” it said in a statement ahead of the presentation, the second “Capital Markets Day” it has held since its 2011 listing.
It said it had close to zero debt at the end of the third quarter, adding profitability had further improved over the period.
($1 = 0.8821 euros)
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Silvia Aloisi)
