Zalando's profit is slightly below expectations

German fashion web shop Zalando has grown nearly a quarter in the past fiscal year and its company profit also nearly grew 5 %, although the latter was slightly below its own expectations.

Strong finish

According to Zalando’s preliminary results, total turnover reached a sum between 4.48 and 4.5 billion euro, up 23 % compared to the year before. It targeted a 20 to 25 % turnover growth, which is perfectly in line with what it actually reached.

Its profit displays another picture: the fashion retailer had forecast a 5 to 6 % profit margin, but that turned out to be somewhere between 4.7 and 4.9 % as its company profit reached between 209 and 222 million euro. Only a year ago, it achieved 5.9 %.

“We pulled off a strong finish to the year, despite a challenging October. In 2017 we delivered on our promise of profitable growth. We are excited to continue on this path also in 2018 and beyond”, co-CEO Rubin Ritter said. Zalando’s fourth quarter turnover reached between 1.32 and 1.35 billion euro, up 21.2 to 23.2 %. Company profit is somewhere between 107 and 120 million euro, which represents a 8.1 to 8.9 % margin.

The full fiscal results and the forecast for its next fiscal year will be revealed on 1 March.