Levi Strauss makes progress in 2014 thanks to its last quarter

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Feb 15, 2015

It was a good last quarter, ended on 30 November, for Levi Strauss. The American group, which owns Levi’s and Dockers, saw its sales go up 8% to 819 million dollars for the Americas zone, 7% to 272 million dollars for the Europe, Middle East, Africa zone, and 4% to 182 million dollars for Asia-Pacific.

In the end, the group's sales for the three months increased 7% after exchanges (and 10% before crossing borders). A performance that made it possible to boost the group's annual results.

For its entire financial year, the denim giant saw its revenue increase 1.5% to reach 4.354 billion dollars. But its gross margin suffered from many promotional offers and sales. Its operating result dove from 427 million dollars to 288 million dollars. The group partly attributes this drop to the costs associated with its global restructuring plan, which reached 143 million dollars for the 2014 financial year.

For 2015, management has announced investments in direct sales operations, be they through stores or e-commerce, but also new cost reductions.