Ahlers withdraws sales and earnings growth forecast amid COVID-19 concerns

The management board of Ahlers Ag has announced withdrawal of the forecast for the fiscal year 2019/20 due to impact of the coronavirus situation on its business. The company said in a statement that major burdens are expected, which will reduce sales revenues and earnings in the current fiscal year. The company added that in the first quarter, EBIT declined 55 percent from 3.3 million euros to 1.5 million euros due to shifts in deliveries.

Earlier, the company had announced that it expected revenues from continuing activities to increase at a low single-digit percentage rate and largely offset the expected decline in revenues from discontinued operations of 8.7 million euros over the full fiscal year. Accordingly, the management board expected group sales revenues to remain stable or decline slightly in the fiscal year 2019/20, driven primarily by the premium segment, which comprises the Baldessarini, Pierre Cardin and Otto Kern brands. The company further anticipated consolidated earnings in the fiscal year to improve significantly compared to the two previous years and the company to return to profit in terms of EBIT.

In the first quarter, Ahlers said, orders could not be invoiced due to delayed jeans deliveries and the resulting shortfall in sales revenues and gross profits is the main reason for the decline in EBIT. Besides the shift in deliveries, the discontinuation of ladies’ trousers and Jupiter Sportswear also led to a drop in revenues. Overall, first quarter revenues fell by 13 percent to 51.2 million euros.

Picture:Facebook/Baldessarini