Moncler S.p.A. (MONC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler Group 9 Months 2025 Interim Management Statement Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining. The interim management statement call is hosted by Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer; and by myself. I will start providing a brief overview of our results, and then we will be happy to take your questions. Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate. Let me also highlight that given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore, cannot be taken as a proxy for full year trends or results. Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen-only mode. Before diving into the presentation, I'd like to take a second to highlight 2 moments we are particularly proud of. A couple of weeks ago, we launched the Moncler campaign Warmer Together, which celebrates the values that have defined Moncler for over 70 years, love, connection and a shared sense of warm, beautifully embodied by the friendship of the 2 legendary Hollywood icons that you can see on the screen, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. We're extremely proud of the resonance and the attention that this campaign has received, reaching the highest level of social engagement ever for the brand, and we will have the chance to talk about it in more detail during our full year results presentation in February. The second highlight and still linked to the same values that I've just talked about is the opening of Casa Moncler, our new headquarters, where we moved in early September, gathering more than 700 people under the same roof. We all feel it is more than just a new space. For us, it is a new home, a symbol of creativity, collaboration and belonging, a real milestone in our journey. And I hope to welcome as many of you as possible here in Milan in the new building in the coming months. Now let's move to Page 3, where we will briefly comment the group 9-month revenue development, focusing on growth at constant FX. In the first 9 months of the year, the group registered EUR 1.84 billion of revenues, in line with last year, with Q3 at EUR 616 million, down 1%. The Moncler brand revenues were in line with last year in the first 9 months and down 1% in Q3, with both the DTC and wholesale channels slightly improving sequentially. As a reminder, Q3 remains the largest wholesale quarter in the year. So the one with the channel mix mostly skewed towards wholesale, which was down 4% in the quarter. Stone Island revenues were down 1% in the first 9 months and in line with last year in Q3 with a double-digit positive DTC channel, offsetting the decline recorded in the wholesale channel. Now moving on to Page 4. I would like to highlight some key Moncler brand initiatives launched during the course of the third quarter. First, when it comes to our main collection, the launch of the Pre-Fall 2025 collection accompanied by a very strong campaign shot in London, starring Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham. The campaign embodied metropolitan sophistication and minimalism with a strong focus on fabric research and easy layering options in a very versatile color palette. Talking about Moncler Genius, we had 2 drops during the quarter. We launched the debut collection by iconic editor and stylist Edward Enninful, who envisioned adaptable, functional and layerable looks designed for seamless transitions between climates. We also presented the collection by A$AP Rocky inspired by vintage ski garments and characterized by a bold color palette and great practicality. And the picture that you can see on the screen is a limited edition of a reimagined iconic Moncler Maya co-designed with A$AP Rocky and very few pieces will be available in December at selected directly operated stores. Finally, as a testament to the importance of the online channel within our omnichannel strategy, during the quarter, we unveiled our new moncler.com website, featuring an enhanced user experience and stronger product focus, leveraging Google's generative AI to transform the website from a point of distribution into a true brand destination, where product truly takes center stage. And I would encourage you to take a look online in case you haven't seen it yet. Moving on to Stone Island on Page 5. Let me highlight a couple of important brand initiatives launched in Q3. First, we unveiled the next chapter of the community as a form of research project, the ongoing collaboration between Stone Island and members of the brand community that were captured in archival icons and signature items from the new autumn/winter collection. We're very happy about this campaign that has been further enhancing the brand's visibility globally. Secondly, in September, we presented the next chapter of our long-term partnership with New Balance by revisiting the New Balance 574 in 3 monochrome colorways inspired by the ethos of the Stone Island Ghost sub-collection. Talking about numbers, we're going to start with the Moncler brand on Page 6, looking first at the performance by geography. Starting with Asia that, as you know, includes APAC, Korea and Japan. Revenues were flat year-on-year in Q3 at constant exchange rates, in line with the previous quarter. China continued to outperform the rest of the region, while Japan and Korea registered a weaker performance, essentially offsetting the growth recorded in China and the rest of Asia Pacific. In EMEA, revenues were down 4% year-on-year in Q3, improving sequentially compared to the minus 8% registered in Q2, with tourism flows remaining subdued in the region and below last year levels, albeit slightly improving compared to the previous quarter. Finally, the Americas region was up 5% in Q3. Bear in mind that this region has been particularly penalized by the wholesale performance, which was negative in the quarter. And this has partly offset the double-digit growth registered by the DTC channel, which was driven by strong local U.S. consumption. Moving to Page 7, focusing on revenues by channel. Both DTC and wholesale showed slight sequential improvement compared to Q2. The DTC channel in the third quarter was flat year-on-year at constant exchange rates, slightly improving compared to the minus 1% registered in the second quarter despite persistent macro headwinds and still relatively weak consumer sentiment overall. Looking at the geographies that performed better in DTC. I can mention America and China, which outperformed in this channel and continued on a solid growth trajectory, while EMEA and Japan underperformed, still affected by weak tourism flows. Looking at the wholesale channel in the third quarter, it was down 4% year-on-year, improving compared to Q2, although still impacted by the ongoing upgrades of the quality of our distribution through door closures and a general network optimization. As mentioned earlier, Q3 is still the most significant wholesale quarter in the year. So the quarter where the share of wholesale as a percentage of total revenues is the largest in the year. And while we talk about wholesale, you might have noticed that in the first 9 months of the year, our wholesale channel was down 5% at constant FX compared to our guidance of high single-digit decline for the full year. The better-than-expected performance so far has been driven by reorders from our partners, thanks to a good sell-out. Hence, we are pleased to say that also for our full year, we now expect wholesale revenues to be down around mid-single digit at constant FX versus the high single-digit decline indicated before. Now moving on to Stone Island regional trends on Page 8. You can see that Asia continued to outperform with revenues up 9% year-on-year with all the main countries in the region registering a positive performance. Among them, China, APAC and Japan were particularly strong. EMEA revenues were down 3% year-on-year, but this masked a very different performance of the 2 channels. DTC was on a strong double-digit growth trajectory with solid local consumption, while the wholesale channel was negative, affecting the overall performance of the brand in the region. Americas was down 3% in Q3 year-on-year, but both the wholesale and the DTC channels improved sequentially compared to the second quarter. Looking at the trends by channel on Page 9, you can see more clearly the different development of wholesale versus DTC and the ongoing shift from one channel to the other. In Q3, DTC revenues were up 11% year-on-year, driven by a solid performance in Asia and EMEA. This is a very solid figure, also considering the fact that, as a reminder, this is mostly organic growth as this year, we have negligible contribution coming from space. The wholesale channel was down 8% in the quarter, although this was entirely due to a different timing of deliveries in Q3 versus Q4 compared with the same period last year. In fact, we expect this to reverse in the fourth quarter. We can, therefore, confirm that the performance of this channel in the second half of the year is expected to be less negative compared to the performance of the first half, leading to a single-digit decline for the full year at constant FX. Finally, let's briefly go through our store network on Page 10. At the end of Q3, the Moncler DOS network reached 294 units, a net increase of 7 units compared to the end of June, with most of the openings done in September at the start of the fall/winter season. The most notable retail projects that I would highlight are the opening of the store in Austin, U.S. and the expansion of the [indiscernible] store in Beijing. Looking at Stone Island, the network counts 92 stores, a net increase of 1 unit compared to the end of June. And among the various opening relocation or expansion projects this quarter, I would highlight, in particular, the relocation of the flagship store in New York. On Pages 11, 12 and 13, you can see some pictures of these important projects. I'm going to stop here now, and I will hand over to the operator for your questions. As usual, I kindly ask you to speak to a maximum of 2 questions per person to give everybody the chance to participate. Operator, feel free to open the line. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. I have 2 questions. The first question is on China. Could you please give us an idea of how you performed, I mean, locals as well as the cluster in Q3? And how do you see the environment currently in the country? And the other thing is on current trading. What have you seen in the past 3, 4 weeks in your retail also compared to what you delivered in Q3 in light of the tougher comp and the weaker consumer environment?

Melania, about your question, China. China in Q3 performed positively, was positive both China Mainland as a market and the Chinese cluster. So everything, let me say, fairly good, in line with our expectations and consistent with what we believe is the strength of our brand -- of Moncler brand in China. Q4, nothing special to add. The quarter, October started well and the results are positive, still positive with a good Golden Week, substantially in line with last year when -- you may remember, Golden Week was particularly strong. So overall, we are confident about how China business and business with Chinese customers are evolving. And again, notwithstanding, of course, the overall situation in China, but we don't see any significant important sign of weakness. Again, your question was about China only, correct?

I guess, Melania, you wanted to know about current trading in general as part of Q4, I would imagine.

[indiscernible] in general, I mean, nothing different from what I said. Overall, October started well, results are positive, honestly, in all the different regions. So let me say that we are prudently satisfied, prudently because we are talking about only 20 days of the quarter, the most important quarter of the year, and we still had 2.5 months. And with December that is the most important month of this quarter that last year was particularly strong. So quite challenging based on comparison. Having said that, so far, so good. But nothing, we -- honestly, we as management team, would extrapolate to predict the result for the year-end. But again, good results, we are fairly happy with.

The next question is from Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.

The first question I have is on the U.S. Firstly, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the strong performance you saw in DTC in the quarter, if that's driven by traffic conversion? And also to what extent you're recruiting consumers beyond the major cities? And instead in wholesale and the pressure you saw, to what extent that was self-inflicted versus a difficult channel as we know. And on the U.S. as well on pricing and how you think about the strategy for pricing in the U.S. given the still large differential versus Europe? And the second question is on wholesale for Moncler brand for next year, if you're already ready to give us an early indication on how to think about that channel into next year, please?

Yes. Okay, Chiara, thank you. Thank you for your question. About the U.S. performance, first of all, let me clarify something. Of course, you understand very well that the performance in the U.S. was better than what we reported simply because the wholesale channel was weak, but the DTC channel did well, I would say very well. I mean, with all the retail metrics positive, except traffic, honestly, but conversion, UPT, average selling price, I mean, all these components and most importantly, the controllable components that are driven by the capability of our store team that are conversion and UPT were positive. So I mean, overall, we are satisfied about the U.S. Talking about pricing, price gap, this was the question, I guess. Price gap with the U.S. is in the region of 125 -- 125, 128 a little more or less, which is you may comment a little bit higher than other peers. We are targeting a slightly lower price gap for next year. But I mean, this is the price gap right now. And talking about wholesale, overall, of course, not U.S. only, this year, as I said at the beginning -- in the beginning speech, we are doing a little bit better than what we expected and what we communicated at the beginning of the year based on the result of the selling campaign. The reason why wholesale channel is doing mid-single digit down as compared to the high single digit is, again, as Elena said, is due to the reorder sellout. So that channel is performing fairly well. For next year, difficult to predict also because we are at the very beginning of the selling campaign for the most important season of the year that is the fall/winter '26. Honestly, we believe that -- I mean, the result next year maybe even a little better than this year. I can't anticipate flat, but in any event, we are targeting a flat result. We may or may not be able to do it. But in any event, I think that all the activity, all the work that has been done over the past 2 years to further clean the distribution has been not completed, but at a very developed stage. Moreover, of course, we reported already this year the impact of some important accounts that have been closed, sad to say, but I mean, you know that some important e-tailers have closed their business with a material impact on our business. So next year, it should be better. But again, too early to anticipate any specific number.

The next question is from Chris Huang, UBS.

My first one is on the cluster trends that you saw in Q3 and especially locals. So if you can come back to that local trends for Moncler brand DTC in the third quarter. I'm asking because I'm mindful of the fact that your third quarter has a big exposure to tourism. So I would imagine that somehow makes the underlying trend more difficult to really read. So if you can provide us a little bit more color on the European locals, Americans locals, if you can provide any numbers to that. The other one is a follow-up on the commentary you made on current trading in Q4. So Luciano, if I heard correctly, you said that October globally, Moncler brand DTC was positive. Does that mean you're comfortable with the latest consensus I see on Visible Alpha around 2% Moncler brand retail? And connected to this, can you remind us of the cadence within the quarter last year? Because I think some of your peers started to see really tougher comps in the last 6 weeks of the year because after the election in the U.S. But given that you have a smaller exposure to the U.S., so how did the comps look like within the quarter? Is it more a homogeneous comp development within the quarter? Or is it also a lot more tougher from mid-November onwards?

Yes. Chris, thank you for your question. Starting from the last one, honestly, quite a complex question, Chris, difficult -- very difficult to answer. Again, our current view is what I said. The first 20, 25 days of October are good. We are still in October. And so again, we are satisfied. I mean we are happy when the trend is good than when it is not. But having said that, it's very difficult to predict what may happen in November and most importantly, in December, when we will face a very challenging base of comparison because last year, December was very strong. Everything numeric is something I can't answer. I can't because I'm not able to. And also very difficult to understand how much may depend or may have depended last year on external factors that, of course, are factors we look at, but I mean, much less than what we are looking at our own performances and our own way to improve performances. So long story short, difficult to answer this question. About the local customers, I mean, overall -- overall, contribution of locals and tourists is not much different than last year in Q3. Of course, different pattern in the different regions because, I mean, locals good in Europe, still good in Europe, but with a decline and evident decline in tourists, mostly driven by the American tourist -- by the decline of American tourists for evident reason you know very well, mostly associated with the depreciation of the currency, decline in tourist in Japan as well and increase in tourism in Korea. I mean, factors that are totally dependent on the price gap between yen and renminbi that made Japan more convenient in the past, less in Q3 and between Korean won and renminbi that made Korea more convenient in Q3 and mostly in the duty-free business that did very well -- did well in Korea in Q3. So overall, overall contribution of tourism locals more or less the same than last year. But again, Europe weak for the lack of Americas. Japan, the same for the lack of Chinese, for the Chinese, Korea better.

The next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

I have 2 questions. So the first one is in terms of pricing. Was the pricing contribution around mid-single digit in Q3, more or less in line with the price increase you implemented this year? And looking forward in 2026, have you -- can you already start to communicate the price increase you are going to implement? And my second question is about the EBIT margin. So like-for-like are still in negative territory in Q3. It will all depend about Q4. But where do you stand regarding consensus? Are you still comfortable with an EBIT margin around 28%, let's say, 28.3% in order to be precise with what you have on your website?

Okay. About the first question, pricing contribution in Q3 was in line with more or less what we said for this year that is about mid-single digit. Much more difficult the question about 2026 because it is something that is much more difficult and something we are still working together, Roberto, Roberto and I. Of course, we face an important FX impact for next year, an important depreciation of all the most important currencies. If and to which extent we will be able to offset this deterioration of FX is something difficult to predict. But in any event, I mean, our pricing for next year overall will still be in the region of low single digit -- low, high single digit, not more than that.

Low single digit, not low high.

Okay. EBIT margin for this year, I mean, I know that the consensus reports 28.3%. Okay, 28.3% that is implied in the consensus is fully consistent with a good top line. Of course, I don't know what will be the top line. As you said, because I know that you know that very well, our operating margins totally -- I mean, mostly depend on the top line, on the sales density, and this is something we don't know yet. But again, the 28.3% is coherent with a good top line.

The next question is from Luca Solca, Bernstein.

My first question is about activations and events that you are anticipating for the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year? And how would you say that they compare against what you did the previous year? I think it's very clear that in the case of the Genius event, we're not going to have that. But I understand you have other things up your sleeve. And I was wondering how you assess the magnitude of those initiatives relative to what you had the previous year and if this could be a tailwind or a headwind when it comes to your organic growth progression. The second question is about the demand that you see by price point. It was clear last year that the higher portion of your collection is doing very well indeed, Grenoble in particular. I wonder if you see this trend persisting? And how would you then assess the combined impact of mix and like-for-like price increases and where would that leave volume in the 9 months?

Yes. So Luca, thank you for your question. I mean, activation of events. I mean we are -- I mean, all of us, you, but also we as a management team, normally very focused on big events that have been historically very, very impactful, very, very successful. But events are not the only way we communicate the brand. I'm saying that because something that is not to be considered an event, but it is something remarkable. I would like to remind you is the recent campaign we launched that is Warmer Together, a campaign that delivered honestly, very, very strong results in terms of reach for sure, but also with a very, very high, let me say, the highest ever engagement rate. And overall, a lot appreciated by everyone around the world across all the different regions. So I don't know if the event in Shanghai last year was more impactful than this campaign or the other way around. But again, I invite you to consider also that even without that event, our pressure, our communication of the brand is still quite important. Something still to happen in the next 2 weeks, there will be the launch of [indiscernible] under the Genius pillar. And something important, very important as well will be the campaign of Grenoble. You know how much Grenoble is important strategically for our brand. So this is something you will see in a few weeks. Talking about the demand by price point and -- yes, of course, I mean, something I'm sure you know, but I was talking about this current quarter only. But as you know, Grenoble we are planning for the first quarter, the first month of next year, an important event in Aspen for Grenoble. And I reminded me -- I mean, I forgot to tell you, but I'm sure you knew that. Talking about demand by price point and talking about Grenoble because Grenoble implies a quite high price point. And notwithstanding that -- notwithstanding that I mean, this is the demonstration because Grenoble has been doing quite well over the past years and is still doing well. It demonstrates that where the product is good, where the communication is good and I mean, where there is a strong identity of the product and the coherence with the identity of the brand, notwithstanding the price, there is a demand. Having said that, of course, we believe and I mean, since ever, and we have been working on our pricing architecture to protect the enterprise of our collection because we believe that enterprise is important for recruiting younger people. Of course, enterprise for Moncler is the outerwear is over higher than EUR 1,000. But again, it is lower than our average, of course. And so working on enterprise product is very important, but we also believe there are huge opportunities in building step by step a higher and higher value collection to capture that kind of customer, high-end customer that is very close to our brand and buys and buy even more high-end product. So again, this is the strategy and results, I mean, more or less are consistent with the strategy. Of course, the real problem right now, I'm talking about October, but I'm talking about this year and to some extent, last year is, of course, a clear slowdown in the demand for several different reasons. But I think that this has nothing or a little to do with the demand and the attraction for our brand and for our product.

The next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.

This is Daria from Bank of America. Could you please share with us what space impact was this quarter given also several store openings? Has your thinking for the annual impact of space, which you normally comment on changed in any way? And then my second question would be about your Fifth Avenue store that's due to open next year. When exactly is it due to open? What percentage of space there will be selling versus nonselling? Will this store come as a replacement of some other stores that you already have in New York City? Just curious on how to best think about the impact from this addition given the size and momentum of your brand in the U.S.

Okay. First question, which is easier. I mean, about the space, space contribution. Overall, for this year, we expect mid -- more or less mid-single digit. In Q3 was not much different than what I said. So this is a simple answer to your question. But of course, tell if you wanted to have more color. About New York Fifth Avenue, the precise date, honestly, let me smile a little bit because we still don't know exactly. Honestly, it's not a small store and sometimes we make mistakes also when we open small stores. You can imagine opening a store of over 2,000 square meters. And so it's something that precisely we don't know yet. But I mean, our view right now is to open the store at the end of the first half of the year, probably around June in order to capture fully the full winter season. How much is selling, how much is not, something honestly, I don't know, but I can tell you that, of course, selling will be predominant. But of course, we will have consistent space also for our stock. Talking about other stores, we have other 3 stores in New York, one in [indiscernible] Street, one is in the stores, [indiscernible] Fifth Avenue and the other one is in Madison, Madison 59, which is quite close to the store we are opening. So I mean, there might be an overlapping, and we might decide, but we have not yet to see whether or not we may close that store, something that we will be evaluating. No decision has been made yet. But for sure, that store may have an overlap in terms of customer base with the store in Fifth Avenue, even though, of course, store in Fifth Avenue is expected to be more tourism, Madison Avenue for sure, is more local. But again, something not decided yet, but you are -- I mean, your comment is correct.

The next question is from Ed Aubin, Morgan Stanley.

So 2 for me as well. Luciano, on the margin comments you made, sorry, for the year EBIT margin, you said that 28.3%, which is the consensus would be consistent with the good top line. So I'm not going to ask you to -- you don't have a crystal ball, but just a sensitivity analysis, assuming that you would make the consensus, which is Moncler retail about 2% to 3% up in Q4. Does that qualify as good top line or not? So that would be question number one. And then question number one, just to follow up on the selling space questions you got. Could you give us a little bit of an early indication of what you have in mind for the -- in percentage terms for '26? Are you going to continue to grow about mid-single digit? Or given that your like-for-like has been negative in recent quarters, would you slow down a bit the pace of expansion? So yes, what do you have in mind for next year?

Yes. I will go to the first question, you said something totally correct that we don't have the crystal ball. And so we based our view on what we know and difficult to make predictions. Of course, again, operating margins are mostly dependent on the top line in Q4 more than in any other quarter. What I can say is that, again, the EBIT reported in the consensus is consistent with a good top line. Of course, a good top line means top line, we would be happy -- difficult to know and difficult to tell you simply because I don't know is whether or not we will be able to make it. Again, talking about numbers, I mean, very difficult and honestly, quite premature. I can tell you that, again, October was good. Next weeks’ still to be done. What also I said that is important to remember that December last year was very strong. And the year before was also very strong. It was very strong the year before. So again, December will be more and more challenging. Overall, all the quarter is challenging. So again, I'm sorry if I can't help you to predict or to plan our operating margins, but I can tell you what I know. About space contribution next year, I mean, right now, I mean, I can tell you that we are in the region of low mid -- more than mid-single digit based again on what we know that the new openings, also the space of some important stores like New York, we just talked about. Again, take this number as an overall indication. Of course, the number as always depends again on the new openings and also on the expansions, the projects of expansion, relocation of existing -- of existing stores. So overall, this is what I can tell you now.

The next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

The first one is on online business. Was the third quarter similar to the first half of the year? Or were there any differences? And the second question is on the wholesale channel for Stone Island. Do you expect performance to stabilize for next year for Stone Island? Are there any comments that you can anticipate for 2026?

About online, honestly, providing the contribution of online business on the total is something -- I mean, we don't look that much, not any longer since when we realize -- fully realized that online is a very important component of our omnichannel business. But of course, online still -- I mean was suffering. I can tell you that now after we launched the new site -- the new website, I mean, we are very happy about the new website because, I mean, first of all, it is way better than before because we saw an increase in traffic, because we see people coming to visit the store to spend more time -- much more time than before in visiting the store, the online store. So again, all qualitative comments just to say that online business itself is important, but much less than in the past. What is important is the online business, the online site to get new customers, to get people, to recruit new customers and also to convert the new potential customers in the online site or in the retail store, which happens all the days. Talking about our sales force Oriana, first of all, let me say that, I mean, the results in Q3 have been penalized by some timing issues that will be fixed and offset by better results in Q4, just to comment the Q3 results. Talking about 2026. I mean, you may remember that 2 years ago, we reported high -- last year, we reported a high double-digit decline in the wholesale business for several reasons you know, but I mean the reasons are, of course, the overall decline of the wholesale industry that impacted Moncler as well, the decline of the retailers, but also the fact that in this specific situation, we decided for Stone Island to the same we did in the first for Moncler, and we are still doing for Moncler that is to be even more selective with our wholesale network. This year, as you see from the numbers, the results, I mean, we expect will still be negative, but way, way better than last year. Next year, I don't know, but I expect this positive trend to continue. Will or will not be flat, difficult to predict. But for sure, we will be close to that.

The next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have 2. Coming back on your marketing campaign featuring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Is this the beginning of your offensive in the U.S. market, which appears to be a focus for '26? And beyond the openings of your Fifth Avenue store and the Moncler Grenoble show in Aspen, could you share more details about your ambitions in the U.S. in coming years? And any Genius event scheduled there, maybe in H2 '26 as the last 2 were in Europe and Asia Pacific? And second question, do you have any data on market trends for luxury -- the luxury down jacket segment? And any idea of your performance compared to the market? I'm just curious, are you seeing increasing competition in this category? And as seen in other luxury categories such as jewelry, are you noticing the emergence of local competitors? For instance, one of your Asian competitor, well not really competitor, but just launched a higher-end down jacket line with a well-known creative designer. So I'm just curious about the level of competition in this segment.

Thank you for your question. About the current campaign I talked about before, the Warmer Together featuring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. I mean, you are right. But what I said before is very important to reiterate the campaign was only enormously appreciated everywhere in all the different regions from East to West. And this was the target of this campaign. Of course, we are talking about 2 icons, 2 American icons. And to your point, of course, the campaign has been particularly well appreciated in the U.S. also with the recent event of a couple of days ago, we held Fifth Avenue in Rockefeller Center. Talking about the U.S. ambitions, of course, yes, this campaign for sure, is very important for the U.S. market, but again, not only. Talking about our ambitions, we have important ambitions, but not urgent, not urgent because developing our ambitions and developing the opportunities, the potential we see that are very strong in the U.S. takes time because, of course, we have to work -- to keep working very well on the brand, on the brand communication, on the brand awareness because in the U.S., for sure, we have differently from other regions, still problem of brand awareness that is very good in the main cities, but not that much in the other regions of the U.S. and constantly in parallel to develop a broader distribution network that right now, as you know, is still behind in terms of potential behind all the other regions. So U.S. ambitions are still there. U.S. potential is still something we see doable, developable and something we will be working not only this year but also next years. About your second question, of course, there is only one player that recently communicated a collaboration with a very high-end designer -- luxury designer that is a Chinese brand, a very respectable brand, developing huge volumes, much, much bigger than Moncler. Whether or not that brand may be a competitor, difficult to say. I can tell you that right now, I will say no because I mean, based on the knowledge, the deep knowledge we have of our customers in China, I can tell you that normally, they shop Moncler, they shop other luxury brands in different categories, but I don't think they buy the product of that brand. I don't know in the future, considering this recent collaboration. But right now, honestly, we don't see any visible competition in our field.

The next question is from Piral Dadhania, RBC.

My first question just relates to the impact of U.S. tariffs on your margin profile for the second half of the year. Could you just clarify for us whether the mid-single-digit price increases that are embedded in the autumn/winter '25 collections is enough to neutralize the impact of U.S. tariffs or whether you have or anticipate taking any additional price increases for that market, please? And I'm sorry, my line went a bit bad in -- for your previous question, but could I just ask around Arc'teryx in China? I don't know if that was what you were referring to before, but have you seen any potential improvement or increase in traffic or as a result of the misstep -- the marketing misstep that Arc'teryx undertook in Quebec roughly 1 month ago. So have you seen any improvement in the China performance of the business in the last month or so on the back of that?

Okay. Your first question about pricing and tariffs in the U.S. Tariffs, I mean, as we probably said, I mean it was an up and down in terms of communication, as you know. At the end, considering the current level of duties, the impact is not particularly material, even though we increased the prices a little bit to offset the tariff impact. But again, this is not for sure, the most important issue we face in the U.S. The most important issue we face, as you know very well, is the FX is the deterioration of the U.S. dollar. Impact that is not relevant at all for this year in 2025, but simply because thanks to our hedging policy, we have no impact at all on our margins. Of course, much more complex will be next year. And as I said before, something we are deeply and closely evaluating together, Roberto and I mostly and our teams. And of course, confident to develop a balanced pricing structure to protect the demand on one side and to protect the margins on the other side. I hope I answered your question, but let me know. Second question, I mean, honestly, I don't know. I know, of course, what happened with that brand. Difficult to quantify whether or not that event may have helped traffic in Moncler stores, very difficult to say. I think that -- I mean, that event may have impacted that brand, but I don't think that the customers are escaping leaving Arc'teryx to come to Moncler. I hope they may do to some extent because, I mean, there is some kind of overlapping our collection with us even if with a different -- totally different price point. I think that our Grenoble collection is developing, building more and more a strong technical credibility. So Grenoble is not luxury only, not luxury only as much as it was in the past that now the credibility of Grenoble as a performance, a technical brand is growing day after day. And so it may happen that some people looking for performance are coming more and more to our stores to buy Grenoble. But giving you an indication, any view about what may happen after the backlash, difficult to say.

The next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.

Luciano, I'll keep it to one given the time. I think historically, you talked to the need to deliver mid-single-digit like-for-like to maintain margins. So I wonder whether you started to look at initiatives to improve the equation. I presume we could see that reduction in the rate of space expansion next year may be a starting point along that journey. Would love to hear your thoughts on that, please.

I mean you are correct, mid-single digit is what normally is required by our business model to protect our operating margins. Even though, of course, I mean, considering the current trend that is something that started, let me say, last year and second quarter of this year, we started to look very closely, very deeply to our expenses in order to react to a trend that is not what it was in 2023 or in 2024. About the I mean the reduction in space, honestly, I'm not sure to understand because what I said before is that next year is in any rent expected to grow. I misspoke before, it was low single digit, low mid. I said maybe not high, but it is low mid-single digit, but still growing. And so I don't see any reduction in space. For sure, I mean, all the expenses, what we call the for all expenses, expenses within the store and the structural expenses, the G&A are under a deep observation, let me say, as usual, but of course, now more than ever because we are implementing projects to become more and more efficient, it's a long story. I'm not going to tell you. But of course, it's not something we cut horizontally. It's something we tend to cut by becoming more and more efficient and also with the help of artificial intelligence, but I mean something I'm not sure you are interested right now. But in any event, for sure, we are working now more than ever and more than in the past on cost savings. But let me understand if I answer your question or if you have any follow-up questions.

I don't know. But by all means, Luciano. My question was, it sounds like you had a greater focus on cost overall since Q2 by the sounds of it. And I was looking into that whether the change in the pace of expansion. So I didn't talk about store reductions, but a reduction in store openings was part of that. But it sounds as if a lot of the cost focus is on individual store expenses by the sounds of it.

Again, Okay. But in any event, I don't see any significant impact in our retail expansion, honestly, also because next year, something we discussed a few minutes ago. I mean we are opening for sure, we are planning to open some stores, but one very important that from the space point of view will be particularly material is the New York Fifth Avenue. So again, on that side, nothing significantly different from the past. Something very important and a little bit different from the past is our focus on expenses on our organization in order to make it more and more efficient.

The next question is from Thomas Chauvet of Citi.

I have 2 questions, please. One on category performance for the Moncler brand DTC. If we look at the 9 months growth, so plus 1%, you said there was a 5% pricing, mid-single-digit space contribution. That would imply roughly high single-digit percent volume decline. Could you give us a sense of how the categories have compared in the 9 months of down jacket versus knitwear versus footwear or any other smaller category emerging? And then secondly, a follow-up question on pricing. You confirmed Luciano low single-digit percent for next year, so a bit lower than the pricing trend in the last 3, 4 years. Is that enough to cover input cost inflation, but also the potential unfavorable FX headwinds you mentioned? Or are you willing to absorb some of these headwinds into your gross margin next year for the benefit of supporting volume and demand?

Yes. Tom, thank you for your question. I mean your calculation is correct. Of course, reporting flat or whatever number is for our DTC business. And with the space -- a positive space contribution, this implies a negative comp. And within the negative comp, assuming a mid-single-digit price mix increase, there is a decline in volumes, which categories? Let me tell you the good more than the bad. The good is that there are some categories, specifically knitwear that keeps growing very nicely and better than outerwear. Outerwear is still, of course, the most important category, is still doing very well. But of course, with a pace lower than knitwear. But again, overall, our volumes are declining, knitwear better than the other categories. And this is what I can tell you. About pricing, your elaboration is correct. Of course, when we implement our pricing strategy, our first goal is to protect the gross margin, but the ultimate goal is to protect the operating margins. And so something we did in the past and something we are evaluating for 2026 when I said that we will try to mitigate the price increase to low single digit is exactly to generate in some geographies, considering the U.S. where the impact of FX is particularly important to consider the demand first and the impact on the demand more than the impact on margin. If -- I mean, difficult to say now whether or not we will be able to make it happen. But if we will be able to generate more revenues in the U.S., more traffic and more revenues even with a slight because we are talking about not material impact on gross margin, this will impact positively our operating margin. So I mean, pricing is not a rocket science. Of course, otherwise, it will be much easier to do it with a spreadsheet with excel. But I mean, our belief right now is that pricing will be in the region of what I said. And in some regions, specifically in the U.S., maybe less, of course, than the impact of currency. But this is something we believe is good for the brand, good to generate more traffic and hopefully more revenues.

The next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita.

I have 2 questions as well. The first one is about Korea and actually rather the Koreans as a cluster. If you can remind us how much does it account for Moncler and what we are seeing there in terms of trends? What was the performance in Q3? And if you are seeing any acceleration in line with what your general comments were for the group -- for the brand, sorry. And second question is instead on Stone Island. The performance in Q3 was pretty good. I was wondering if you can provide some more color in terms of the drivers for this retail performance in terms of main KPIs, in terms of contribution full price of primary versus secondary or whatever you can add to understand the quality and the sustainability, let's say, of this trend?

Yes, Paola, thank you for the question. About Korea, Korea represents high single digit, close to 10% just to give you a number. Business in Korea is down and business with the Korean cluster is down. Why is that? I think that one reason is that in Korea, as you know, we have been growing a lot over the past 5 years, 6 years, at least from 2019, including 2020 and 2021, the years of COVID. Korea was the only region that grew in 2020. So probably for this reason, there is some kind of expectable slowdown. And overall, I mean, we are not worried about Korea, but simply because the brand is very strong in Korea, business is still doing very well. Of course, we have quite a challenging base of comparison for sure. And this is one reason why we are suffering a little bit. Second question about Stone Island. Stone Island, we reported an 11% growth rate in the DTC business in Q3, vast majority organic growth, notwithstanding weakness in traffic, a decline in traffic that impacted Moncler, but Stone Island too. Notwithstanding the decline in traffic, the other retail metrics are significantly up. I'm talking about average selling price that is the result of a clear product strategy that you know very well because I said several times, the shift of our collection from the more enterprise categories that made the success of Stone Island in the past to the strategically most important categories that are out that made the identity and the origin of Stone Island at the beginning in the early '80s. And I mean, the great work that our people are doing in the store that is conversion and UPT. Of course, thanks to a collection that obviously customers evidently like because they come to visit the store, they see the collection and they leave the store after they buy something, and more than something because also UPT is a metric that is doing well. So overall, good results, still very early, very early, still a long journey to develop that kind of sales density that is important to make Stone Island profitable as much as Moncler, but very, very encouraging, very, very encouraging and also very motivating. Also, again, October, I mean talking about the current trend is still in line with the results of Q3. So again, nothing to celebrate, not yet too early, but something to be very, very satisfied because there is behind a very important work that Stone Island team developed over the past years.

The next question is a follow-up from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

I just wanted to understand the timing of the next Genius event, just to follow up on what you mentioned about the opening of the flagship store in New York. Does that mean that the next Genius will happen around the same time or as it was my understanding initially? Or could it come earlier than the opening?

Anne-Laure, we don't know yet. What we know for sure is what they said. Next year, we will hold in the beginning of the year a Grenoble event in Aspen. And what I said is that we will open New York store hopefully in June, and we will most likely hold a grand opening event in September. All the rest of the marketing calendar is still something under evaluation, something we don't know yet.

[Operator Instructions]

So we have a couple of questions on the webcast. I think the first one has been answered about the competitive environment for down jackets and outerwear in general. We have a couple more related to cash usage, dividend policy, M&A plan, so something related to that. I think this would be the last one.

Okay. M&A strategy, something that did not change, not at all. Of course, we have a significant amount of cash. And what we are proud of is that we keep generating cash. Of course, we don't know yet this year. But in any event, this has been the result of the recent years. Our strategy is to return significantly this cash to our shareholders, which implies an increase that we did in the payout ratio. Next year, I don't know yet. But in any event, we will continue this strategy to return as much as possible cash to our investors. M&A, again, is not in our radar screen. It's not the strategy we have. But it does not mean that we are against any potential acquisition, but if and only if should we find another beautiful project, another beautiful company like Stone Island in 2020. So right now, nothing in our -- not in our desk. And honestly, nothing we are thinking of also because, again, something I keep saying, we want to remain very focused on Moncler and Stone Island because both brands have a huge potential, but in order to develop and to take advantage of this potential, we all need to remain -- all including [indiscernible] to remain very focused on these 2 brands.

Okay. I think that there are no more questions. So I thank you very much for being with us tonight. For any follow-up questions, as usual, you can contact myself or [indiscernible] tonight or also in the coming days. Just one thing. We have published today our 2026 financial calendar, which you can see in this last slide. And the next earnings release will be on February 19, when we will report our fiscal year 2025 results. Thank you again, and have a great evening, everyone.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephone.