Safilo Group S.p.A. (SFL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good evening, and welcome to the Safilo Group First Half 2026 Results Conference Call. This call may contain forward-looking statements related to future events and operating, economic and financial results for the Safilo Group. Such forecasts, due to their nature, imply a component of risk and uncertainty due to the fact that they depend on the occurrence of certain future events and developments. The actual results may, therefore, vary even significantly to those announced in relation to a multitude of factors. Today's participants are Mr. Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Michele Melotti, Chief Financial Officer; and Ms. Barbara Ferrante, Director of Investor Relations. I will now pass the call over to Mr. Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Trocchia, you may begin, sir.

Thanks very much. Good evening, good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Safilo's' first half 2026 results. After a resilient start of the year, the second quarter developed within a softer demand environment across our core markets, a backdrop which inevitably weighed on our sales performance in the period. What I would like you to take away this evening is how we responded to this situation. In a more demanding market, we stayed firmly focused on the levers under our control. We protected the quality of our business through disciplined commercial execution, a favorable price/mix and continued cost control. This is the same approach that has guided us over the past few years and once again deliver where it matters most, another quarter of solid margin expansion and strong cash generation, which further reinforces our financial flexibility. That flexibility is precisely what allow us to keep investing in our strategic priorities even in a less supportive environment. Let me briefly frame the highlights of this first half before handing over to Michele for the details. In the first quarter, net sales had grown by 0.4% at constant exchange rate before customers in North America and in Europe turned more cautious on ordering, leading our sales to a mid-single-digit decline in the second quarter. We are not downplaying that softness, but we are managing it with discipline, prioritizing the quality of our business. To be underlined is the strength of our profitability. We delivered further margin expansion, supported by structural improvements we have built into the business and by a onetime benefit from tariff refunds, which we will cover later on. To finish, let's talk about cash. Our solid cash generation allowed us to fully fund our strategic investments with our own resources, including the acquisition of SPY+ and Serengeti, which was completed immediately after the end of the quarter. And in June, we also launched a new buyback program, consistent with our commitment to efficient and disciplined capital allocation. With that said, let me hand over to Michele, who will take you through the results in more detail. Michele?

Thank you, Angelo, and good evening, everyone. Let me start from the top line and from the dynamics behind it. In the second quarter, net sales were down 4.5% at constant exchange rates, bringing the first half to a decline of 1.9%. One point worth flagging is that after the significant currency headwind we faced in the first quarter, the impact of foreign exchange rate eased considerably in the second. So reported and constant currency figure are now much closer together. The quarter was affected by a clearly weaker market environment that set in from late March and run through April and May before we saw some sign of improvement in June. This is an important point. The softness was concentrated and the quarter ended on somewhat better note. By category, the partner were consistent with the nature of our product. Sunglasses being the most discretionary purchase were the most affected, while in prescription frame, we saw some deceleration compared with prior trends. What we did see and what plays to our portfolio was a degree of polarization in certain markets, where premium and luxury proved generally more resilient. And within this context, Carrera, Smith, David Becker and Kate Spade all confirmed solid momentum. By region, starting with Europe and then moving across our other markets. In Europe, second quarter sales were down 2.7% at constant exchange rates, essentially stable over the half year at minus 0.5%. The quarter was mainly shaped by a more challenging trading condition in France and Germany, though for different reasons. In France, the optical market declined broadly across distribution channel and product categories, reflecting a more uncertain business environment. This was also compounded by an unfavorable calendar effect with 2 fewer business days in May. In Germany, our sales softened, particularly in the Internet pure player channel, while our performance with independent optician held up better. Our sales told a positive story, continue to grow in Eastern Europe, in particular in Turkey and Poland as well as in Italy, where sustained tourist flow supported optician business across both prescription frame and sunglasses. In the Italian market, the growth of Carrera, David Beckham, Polaroid, Tommy Hilfiger, Boss and Mar Jacobs, together with the launch of Victoria Beckham more than offset the deconsolidation effect from the disposal of Lenti, a small headwind seizing from the third quarter and the reduction in the product supply business. In North America, second quarter sales were down 4.4% at constant exchange rates with the half year at minus 0.8%. The key factor in the quarter was the independent optician channel. The market there was weak, particularly in May, when the overall eyewear business recorded a high single-digit decline. Department store and retail chain were instead more supportive, helped by stronger demand from premium brands, particularly in June. By brand, Kate Spade, Carrera, David Becka, Marc Jacobs and Carolina Herrera outperformed, while Blenders remained in the negative territory in a still difficult environment. In the sports channels, SMI delivered a positive performance, thanks to a solid bike business across both direct-to-consumer and sport shops and the strength helped it offset the preorder -- the soft preorder of winter sport product where the previous season has been uneven. In Asia Pacific, where second quarter sales were down 17.7% at constant exchange rates, performance was held back by a combination of factors, a particularly demanding comparison base as the region was up 11.5% in the second quarter of 2025, soft market condition in China and the rescheduling of the Xiamen optical fair from its usual timing later in the year to June, which resulted in a weaker-than-expected customer attendance and reduced commercial traction during the period. On the positive side, business in Australia continued to grow, supported by the good performance of Smith and Carrera. In the Rest of World, second quarter sales were down 5.1% at constant exchange rates. We continue to feel the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, but the region gradually stabilized as the quarter went on. Elsewhere, India improved, supported by a more focused go-to-market approach and a strengthened commercial organization, while Latin America stayed muted with growth still concentrated in the lower-price segment. Before I turn to the individual lines of the P&L, let me briefly address the onetime item that supported our performance this half year and helps explain the bridge to the underlying trends. Following the February 2026 Supreme Court ruling on the EPA tariff and the refund mechanism subsequently implemented by the U.S. custom authority, we filed claims for duty previously paid in the United States. And at the end of the quarter, we received refunds for EUR 22.2 million. Of this amount, EUR 20 million was recognized in the P&L, mostly as a reduction of cost of goods sold, while the remaining EUR 2.2 million was recorded as a reduction to inventory at the end of June. This benefit will be partially used in the coming quarter for additional new investment to further strengthen the group operating infrastructure and accelerate marketing activities across key markets and brands. Turning now to our gross margin. This rose 11.5 percentage points in the second quarter to 73.1% -- of this increase, 8 points related to the tariff refund, while 3.5 points came from improvement in the underlying business, driven by favorable price/mix effect. Three were the main contributors. First, we benefited from the lower weight of dilutive business following the deconsolidation of Lenti and the reduction in the product supply business I mentioned earlier. Second, the pricing action undertaken last year; and third, we benefited from a more favorable brand and channel mix, reflecting the greater resilience of our premium brand and the positive performance of higher-margin channel. In this respect, I would highlight the online channel that remained positive -- a positive contributor in both the second quarter and the first half, supported by the continued strong performance of Smith D2C business and by the growth in the Internet pure player channel across most markets, with Germany being the only exception. These factors were further supported by a positive year-on-year impact from lower tariffs and from a more favorable sourcing profile as the action taken over the last 18 months to diversify production outside China continue to deliver benefit. For the first half, gross margin was up 6.1 percentage points to 67.2%. Here, 3.8 points related to the refund and 2.3 points to the structural factor I've just mentioned, a continued favorable price/mix effect, the positive currency effect concentrated in the first quarter and the reduced impact of tariff from the second quarter. The same dynamic carries down to the operating level. In the second quarter, adjusted EBITDA was EUR 49 million, up 75.2% year-on-year with the margin reaching 20.5%, an increase of 9.4 percentage points. For the first half, adjusted EBITDA was EUR 86 million with a margin at 16.8%, up 5.2 percentage points. Excluding the impact of the refunds, the adjusted EBITDA margin was 12.1% in the second quarter, up 100 basis points and 12.9% in the first half, up 130 basis points. This improvement was achieved while absorbing lower operating leverage on softer sales, cost inflation and continued investment behind our brands. Moving further down the P&L, the adjusted operating profit for the first half was EUR 68.3 million, with the margin up 5.2 percentage points to 13.3%, benefiting from the same dynamics that supported EBITDA. Adjusted group net profit reached EUR 49.4 million, up almost 47%, with the net margin improving by around 3.3% points to 9.6%. Below the operating line, net financial charges rose to EUR 5.6 million from EUR 2.9 million, mainly reflecting a neutral impact from Forex exchange difference compared to the net positive effect recorded in the first half of last year. Finally, we booked EUR 0.8 million loss on the option related to non-controlling interest following the final adjustment on the purchase of the remaining 20% of Blender, which brought us to full ownership of the brand. Excluding the impact of the refunds, the adjusted group net margin in the first semester was up 30 basis points from 6.3% to 6.6%. Turning to cash, where the half year again confirmed the strength of our model. Free cash flow was EUR 23.8 million in the quarter and EUR 36.4 million in the first half compared with EUR 43.5 million a year ago when the figure had benefited from the proceeds of the Lenti disposal. Cash flow from operating activities rose markedly to EUR 78.8 million from EUR 40.7 million, supported by a solid economic performance and by the tariff refund. During the period, we also deployed capital into our strategic priorities, EUR 5 million for the additional share inspects in Q1, EUR 21.5 million for the acquisition of SPY+ and Serengeti, and EUR 6.3 million for the remaining 20% of Blenders. On a normalized basis, excluding both the tariff refunds and the strategic investment, free cash flow amounted to EUR 29.4 million in the second quarter of 2026 and EUR 46.9 million in the first half of 2026 compared to EUR 17.2 million and EUR 31.6 million in the corresponding period of 2025. As a result, net debt fell to EUR 5.4 million at the end of June, equivalent to a positive net financial position of EUR 29.6 million pre-IFRS 16, already incorporating EUR 2.4 million of share purchases under the new program. This compared with EUR 46.1 million at the end of 2025 and EUR 42.4 million at the end of June last year. With that, let me hand it back to Angelo.

Thank you, Michele. Let me close by returning to the two acquisitions we completed on July 1 because they capture well how we intend to create value. SPY+ and Serengeti are 2 iconic brands, highly complementary to our existing portfolio, and they expand our reach across 2 attractive spaces. SPY+ and Serengeti is our gateway to technical luxury with an authentic American heritage and a strong reputation for premium, high-quality lenses. SPY+ brings California action sport credibility, reinforcing our sport and outdoor ecosystem alongside Smith and Branders. Importantly, we funded both entirely with our own resources, fully consistent with the disciplined approach to capital allocation that has defined our decisions during the last years. So let me leave you with this. The second quarter was without any doubt, more demanding, and we are not underestimating the environment, but we manage it in the way we believe a quality business should, protecting margin, generating cash and investing selectively for the long term. As we look ahead, the positive sign observed towards the end of the second quarter and at the beginning of the third give us greater confidence for the second half. We remain focused on capturing the opportunities that may arise from a gradual recovery in market trends. Thank you for your attention, and we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Oriana Cardani of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Thank you for taking my three questions. The first question is on the gross margin in the second half of the year. Do you expect tariffs to refund also in H2? If so, can you provide a guidance? And excluding any refunds, do you see room for an increase in gross margin compared to the second part of the year and of what magnitude? The second question is on the future investments in infrastructure and marketing activities made possible by cash from refunds. What portion of the EUR 20 million refunds will be allocated to these new investments? And over what time frame? And can you provide some color on this infrastructure and brands, which will be involved? And the third question is on the outlook -- sorry, on the current trade. Can you give details of the factors driving the good exit rate of second quarter and some comments on July performance?

Thanks, Oriana. So I'm starting on the first question related to gross margin. So overall, we expect that some of the benefit we saw in H1 should naturally become a bit less pronounced. The positive impact from the deconsolidation of Lenti and the pricing action implemented, I mean, around May, June last year are now fully in the base and therefore, won't provide the same year-on-year rate we have seen in the first half. On the other hand, we will continue to see a lower tariff. And I would say, very much consistent to what we have been experiencing in Q2, of course, assuming that the current framework will remain unchanged. On tariff specifically, of course, the overall refund process has not yet been completed. But we would expect that any further amount will be fairly residual compared to what we have already recognized in the first half. Okay.

Thanks, Michele. So answering to question #2 about future investments, we are planning to invest approximately 1/3 of the tariff refund benefit. As I said, 2 areas. One is infrastructure, which is mainly IT and digital. We can -- we are going to accelerate some investment on the Smith D2C on the Rx. So it's really related to the area of digital IT mainly in the sport area. The other part of the investment is media support. behind our priority brands. So it's going to be behind Smith, behind Carrera and behind David Beckham. So media investment, we think that we may have some opportunity in quarter 4 where we can boost some marketing support with 2 aims from one side, obviously support and make the brand bigger on the other side also to support an additional traffic and some additional sellout with some of our main customers. So mainly behind the priority brands with the priority customers. Going on the last question on the current -- or the current trading, we can say that, again, we need to take all these things with measuring the emphasis on it because we are talking about a few weeks -- but by sure, we see that July is providing a confirmation that the business is exiting the second quarter on a better trajectory than what we saw in April and May. Obviously, this is an encouraging sign because we see that both customers, customers are getting less nervous somehow they are getting used to this new normality. So we see signs from the customer and also on our D2C mainly in North America, we see positive sign on the Smith D2C. So I would say that directionally, by geography, we could expect a recovery from the quarter 2 slowdown, and this recovery will be more visible in North America compared to Europe. In North America, we see -- we are getting some more positive sign. In Europe, remain -- the picture remains a little bit mixed with France, which definitely in this moment is the market which is suffering more. And the second market is Germany, mainly in the independent, not so much on the big chain, but mainly in independent. Where on the other side, South of Europe, Italy, Iberia, we see clear signs. So we look to the H2 should be better compared to the H1, mainly in North America, if I should summarize.

The next question is from Harrison Woodin-Lygo of Berenberg.

First of all, congratulations on another quarter of margin expansion underlying ex tariff refund. I suppose building on that, could you guide to any operating cost levers you can pull going forward? Or is margin expansion really just reliant on gross margin given the limited impact of operating leverage? And then secondly, a question on Blenders. So Blenders has been weak for a while. What do you think can help to turn this brand around? And if you expect it to continue to remain weak, would you consider a disposal?

Okay. Start from the first point, of course, Q2 -- in Q2, operating leverage has been negative. of course, fully -- I mean, fully offset even more from the gross margin improvement. As I briefly commented before, we would see the gross margin less supportive in H2, but of course, still positive, confirming some of the underlying driver we have seen in Q2. And on the other side, of course, the operating leverage will highly depend on the top line evolution, assuming a better evolution of the sales starting from Q3, and we should start seeing eventually from the second part of the semester, a more supportive operating leverage.

I answer on blenders. Yes, I think Blender is still not where it should be. But I think the fact the decision that we are now becoming 100% owner, so that Chase, we have commonly decided is leaving so that we can run the company in a more integrated way compared in the Safilo portfolio. So there is no intention to take different decisions. I think that especially in the new having SPY+, I think now we are going to play more sort of piano strategy in the sport arena, blenders covering more the lifestyle, SPY+ between Blenders and Smith with a sort of sport dimension, but with a very strong California angle and Smith on the top with a more performance angle. So I think that step-by-step with the right time. We took the decision to don't follow some very aggressive price strategy than other competitors have done. We have decided not to follow that. But I mean, there is absolutely a role for blenders, especially in the new stronger brand portfolio in sports.

Okay. That's clear. I was wondering, could I ask a quick follow-up on the operating expenses. Just on marketing. So you've said that you're going to continue to invest. Previously, you said that marketing as a share of revenues is sort of at its peak. Now how do we expect this to evolve from here? Do you still see it at its peak and it's going to taper? Or are you going to continue driving close to 13% of revenues?

But I mean, the marketing, the additional investment is going to be a one-off. It's not going to be sort of in the base. So it's not going to be in the structural base. So that's not going to be the effect in 2027. We think that there are some market dynamic and some dynamic on some brands where we felt that can be a good decision to invest this year, but it's not going to be into the base. So 2027 should be seen with a normal base, and it's not going to be out there.

The next question is from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita.

A few questions. I'm starting just to have some better understanding. When you say June, July, so improving, we can assume that there was some positive growth. So you were back on positive growth or just improving compared to the first 2 months. Second, I'm interested in understanding so the European really underlying performance in the second quarter being -- you were mentioning also Lenti and the SPPA. So if we can assume that the underlying has been more closer to flattish. And the third is on the price strategy because clearly, last year, you raised prices because you had tariffs, so the clients absorbed the higher prices. I wonder if today, there is a strategy to give back some of these tariff refunds to clients, not just through the marketing investments, as you mentioned, but also the price environment will be more deflationary.

Okay. I answer to. We see the two months where we really saw the dip in terms of the softness of the market has been April, May, and the first half of June. That was where we saw the biggest slowdown of the market. As of the second part of June and the first weeks of July, we see definitely an improvement in terms of customer behavior and in terms of consumer reaction. Especially looking to North America, I think we should expect that not only the numbers are going to be better than quarter two, but North America should be positive. We see a faster change in the demand, mainly in North America, less in Europe.

Specifically on Europe, Q2, if you exclude both the reconsideration effect of Lenti and the reduction on the product supply business, we see a substantially flattish performance on the key markets in the region.