MANUFACTURING
Levi Strauss Expects Revenues This Year to Be Up Almost 10 Percent
Levi Strauss & Co. has been having a very good year, reflected by the fact that it now has 53 more company-operated stores than last year and plans to add approximately 50 more retail outposts by the end of this year.
More stores this year meant more revenue for the San Francisco company, which reported its second-quarter revenues on July 10.
“This was our third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth,” said Chip Bergh, the company’s president and chief executive. “We remain focused on improving several areas of business, including U.S. wholesale, [business in] China and Dockers.”
Second-quarter revenues for the period ending May 27 were $1.25 billion compared to $1 billion during the same period last year. Net income for the second quarter was $77 million compared with $17 million during last year’s second quarter.
Levi’s business was still dominated by the Americas, where second-quarter revenues grew 11 percent to $670 million, or about half of all revenues. Womenswear sales in the region were up 9 percent.
The next largest region was Europe, where revenues were up 31 percent to $367 million. That was followed by Asia, where revenues inched up 13 percent to $209 million in the second quarter.
One contrast was China, where revenues were down 3 percent during the quarter because Levi’s has closed more than 100 franchise stores in the last 12 months to concentrate on establishing its own company-operated outposts.
As sales in Levi’s jeans and its Signature and Denizen labels are robust, the company is ramping up its marketing campaign for Dockers, which in the past has not been selling as vigorously as the other brands. “There is more work to be done,” Bergh said, “but we are confident the brand is headed in the right direction.”
The company was so optimistic about the first half of the year that it revised its full-year guidance for revenue growth by 8 percent to 10 percent in constant currency. “These results have outpaced the industry and exceeded even our own expectations,” Bergh said.
