OTB slows down in 2024, records revenue of €1.8 billion

Italian fashion group OTB slowed down in 2024, hampered by the luxury market’s difficulties. OTB’s revenue last year was €1.8 billion, down by 5.4% (and by 4.4% at constant exchange rates). Its net revenue, excluding royalties and other income, was €1.7 billion, down by 4.9%, and by 3.1% at constant exchange rates. OTB, which owns Diesel, Jil Sander, Marni and Maison Margiela among others, was notably penalised by a negative performance in the wholesale channel and by slumping sales in China, while its revenue grew in the USA and Japan.

The group’s profitability was also adversely affected in 2024, though OTB did not disclose its net income result. However, EBITDA dropped by 20.6% in 2024 compared to a year earlier. It was €276 million, equivalent to 16.3% of revenue. EBIT decreased from €140 million in 2023 to €40 million last year, plummeting by 68.5%.

OTB said that the revenue slump was caused by “the generalised sales downturn in the wholesale channel,” without providing actual figures. Its direct retail sales, which accounted for 57% of its total revenue, grew by 7.4% at constant exchange rates in 2024. The Italian group currently operates 608 monobrand stores worldwide, 61 of which opened last year. In 2024, OTB invested €77 million “in the retail expansion of all [its] brands, and in major innovation projects,” the group said in a press release.

OTB achieved its best performances in Japan, the group’s main market, accounting for more than a quarter of its total revenue (26%), where revenue grew 16.3% at constant exchange rates, and in North America, where revenue increased by 13.3%. But results were negative in Asia, a region that in 2023 accounted for 40% of the group’s total revenue, with China to the fore.

Last year, the group led by Renzo Rosso entered a few new markets. In the Middle East, where it is already present, it inked a joint-venture deal with the Chalhoub group, which is expected to boost OTB’s retail footprint in the region. OTB also established a foothold in Mexico by setting up a local subsidiary. The plan is to open some 50 new stores in the next five years, of which 15 will be inaugurated in 2025.

Regarding its labels, OTB only provided details about the results of Diesel and Maison Margiela, which both posted revenue growth in 2024, suggesting that the group’s other labels may have lost ground. From the start of this year, Glenn Martens is in charge of style at both Diesel and Maison Margiela — he’s had a big impact at Diesel, and succeeds John Galliano at the Parisian luxury label. Last year, the two labels respectively posted revenue growth of 3.2% and 4.6% at constant exchange rates. Diesel has opened 16 new flagship stores, mainly in Asia, notably in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo Shibuya, and has also signed an agreement to develop its eyewear collections with EssilorLuxottica.

Jil Sander is in the midst of a major upheaval with the arrival of new CEO Serge Brunschwig, while rumours are rife about the possible departure of creative directors Lucie and Luke Meier. Jil Sander’s 2024 was marked by, among other things, the opening of a 1,000-square-metre flagship in Ginza-Tokyo, and by the launch of a high jewellery line. In January, the label “officially entered the fine perfumery segment” by introducing a first fragrance developed with its partner Coty.

Marni too signed a 20-year license agreement with Coty in 2024. As for Viktor & Rolf, which “continues to enjoy worldwide success in the luxury perfumery segment thanks to its long-standing licence deal with L’Oréal,” OTB has renewed for five years the collaboration contract with the label’s founders and designers, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.

OTB, which is based in Breganze, Veneto, also owns Brave Kid, which specialises in childrenswear, and Staff International, a manufacturing and distribution company that manages the group’s luxury labels, as well as licensed brands like Dsquared2. Staff International relies on a network of more than 550 suppliers, 90% of which are located in Italy. In 2024, the company bought “a majority stake in Calzaturificio Stephen, a long-established, premium Italian producer of high-end shoes, already a supplier of the group,” concluded OTB.