Vince Holdings see sales fall, reaffirms annual guidance

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Jun 15, 2018

Vince Holdings reported on Thursday a decrease in net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, despite strong direct-to-consumer sales. 
 

The New York-based luxury brand said net sales fell 6.1 percent to $54.5 million compared to $58 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2017.
 
Wholesale segment sales decreased 19.5 percent to $28.5 million, in line with expectations, while direct-to-consumer segment sales increased 14.9 percent to $26 million. 

For the quarter ended May 5, 2018, comparable sales also increased 12.3 percent, including e-commerce sales. The rise was “primarily due to an increase in transactions,” said the luxury apparel and accessories brand.
 
The company’s net loss narrowed at $5.6 million or $0.49 per share compared to a net loss of $9.3 million or $1.88 per share, for the first quarter last year. 
 
Vince Holding CEO, Brendan Hoffman said the company’s women’s and men’s product assortments in the first quarter drove the double-digit comparable sales in full price stores as well as their more than 25 percent growth in their e-commerce business, adding that “we are highly encouraged by our three recent store openings”. 
 
“In the wholesale channel, we saw better than expected performance at both Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus as well as strong sell-through across all accounts, indicating a favorable response to our product offering. Sales in our wholesale segment declined, consistent with our expectations, primarily as the result of our planned reduction in partners in this channel,” he added. 
 
For fiscal 2018, the company expects net sales to be between $273 million and $280 million. This compares to net sales of $272.6 million in fiscal 2017, while operating income is expected to be between $3 million and $6 million. 
 
Founded in 2002, Vince has developed in to a fully fledged luxury lifestyle brand for both men and women. The brands products are sold across some 2,400 multi-brand locations within 40 countries.

The firm is based in New York and houses a design studio in Los Angeles. Vince operates 41 namesake stores, and 14 outlet stores, as well as an online global store.