Store closures push Macintosh into red numbers

Strong Fashion increase

Macintosh Retail Group managed a 405.4 million euro turnover in the first half of its fiscal year, a 6.8 % increase compared to the year before. Fashion had a particularly excellent turnover increase, up 10.1 % to 286.2 million euro. Living dropped slightly, from 86.5 million euro to 83.9 million euro.

Nevertheless, the company has had to deal with a 31.2 net loss, nearly twice as much as the 17.3 million euro loss it suffered last year. This time around, it was mainly because it has shut down 13 non-core stores in the first half of 2014.

“Shoe” market share on the rise

CEO Frank De Moor has not expressed dissatisfaction at the results. “Over the past few years, we have worked hard to build the new Macintosh cross-channel proposition.
Strong shoe formats with appealing offerings and online and brick-and-mortar stores form the heart of
this proposition. What we have been able to establish recently is that both online and offline customers
are responding well to the changes that were initiated.“

Kurt Staelens, who will become the group’s CEO on 1 August, sees a positive evolution. “Because of the developments in turnover and earnings we have seen over the past months, I am
confident that our Rebalancing for Profitable Growth strategy is based on the right priorities. The
recently announced new financing package will help us to continue our strategic course with vigour,
allowing us also to fully capitalise on the momentum of rising consumer confidence.”