Geox sees profits drop by 80% and sales by 9% in 2012

Especially in Italy lower sales

The company’s home market Italy took the hardest hit: sales went down 15.3 percent to 285.9 million euro. In the rest of Europe sales went down 8 percent to 341.9 million euro. In the United States sales
rose by 2.7 percent, while the rest of the world had a minimal rise of 0.1
percent.

Geox says the results of 2012 are completely
within their expectations: lower sales were expected as on the company’s most important markets, such as Italy, Spain and
Greece, the economic crisis is in full swing and purchasing power dropped
significantly.

According to Mario Moretti Polegato, chairman
and founder of Geox, the shoe manufacturer has positive expectations for
developing markets such as Eastern Europe and China, which is why Geox invested
heavily on those markets, opening over seventy stores. Over the next five
years Geox will be opening more than a hundred locations of their own in
China, and an extra 400 shops through partnerships.