Strong dollar lowers Ralph Lauren's profit

Small turnover growth, but lower profit

Ralph Lauren managed a 1.9 billion dollar (1.7 billion euro) turnover in the last quarter of the fiscal year, pretty much level compared to the year before. Despite those numbers, its 153 million dollar (135 million euro) net profit in 2014 dropped to 124 million dollars (110 million euro) this year. The company attributed the drop to the strong dollar, because if the exchange rate fluctuations are ignored, it would have posted a slight profit growth.

For its full fiscal year, Ralph Lauren managed a 702 million dollar (620 million euro) net profit, a sizeable drop compared to the 776 million dollar (680 million euro) net profit from last year. Turnover did grow 2 % however, up to 7.6 billion dollars (6.7 billion euro).

Sales in its own stores remained pretty level in the fourth quarter, at 841 million dollars (740 million euro) after exchange rate fluctuations. On a like-for-like basis, turnover did drop 4 %, but for its full fiscal year, retail turnover grew 4 % to 4 billion dollars (3.5 billion euro). On a like-for-like basis, retail turnover dropped 1 %.

Ralph Lauren hopes to get a 5 % turnover increase for its current fiscal year and it has also announced it will buy back 500 million dollars’ worth of shares.