Dive Brief:
- Hugo Boss released its fiscal 2024 outlook Thursday, which projected sales growth of between 3% and 6% to around 4.3 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros, or approximately $4.7 billion to $4.9 billion at current exchange rates.
- The growth outlook represents a marked slowdown from the previous fiscal year’s growth of 15% over 2022, which saw the company hit new record sales of 4.2 billion euros in 2023. Those results were initially released in January and confirmed on Thursday.
- The company also introduced its new denim line, Hugo Blue, at a Wednesday launch event in Berlin. The collection features menswear, womenswear, and gender-neutral streetwear basics including T-shirts, hoodies, tops, shorts, bottoms and outerwear.
Dive Insight:
As a result of the company’s revised outlook, stock prices dropped sharply on Thursday and remained low as of press time.
Hugo Boss said its modest 2024 outlook factored in “the persistently weak consumer confidence, which is currently curbing global retail spending, in particular in distinct European economies” and also looked at the increasing “geopolitical tensions, including the unabated conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East,” which it said in its release posed “additional uncertainty in 2024.”
The release added that “against the backdrop of the ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, the Company’s 2025 sales ambition of EUR 5 billion might be slightly delayed.”
Nonetheless, on March 6 Hugo Boss reappointed Daniel Grieder as chairman of the managing board and CEO until Dec. 31, 2028 “to ensure continuity and long-term business success,” per the release. In addition, the company reappointed Yves Müller as CFO and COO through 2027, and reaffirmed its commitment to its long-term “Claim 5” rebranding strategy, which targets a younger consumer as the firm pivots from its formal menswear roots into a lifestyle brand.
The launch of its Hugo Blue line is part of that effort.
Prior to the Wednesday launch party, guests were given denim jacket jackets featuring iron-on flower badges “embedded with an integrated NFC chip” that connected guests to an immersive Snapchat experience, per the event’s press release. The event also marked the debut of the Planet Hugo platform on Roblox, per the release.
“Targeting its Gen-Z audience, HUGO harnessed the launch event as the perfect occasion to activate gaming and Metaverse spaces as key cultural focus territories,” Nadia Kokni, SVP of global marketing and brand communications at Hugo Boss, said in the release. “With PLANET HUGO, the brand is tapping into gamification, the facilitation of social moments, self-expression and self-exploration: all key aspects of HUGO’s DNA, and values loved by the Roblox community, which has a growing interest in curation and style.”
