MILAN — Due to a “less than buoyant market for furnishings,” upscale French furniture-maker Roche Bobois revised its full-year revenue forecast down to 418 million euros from 429.6 million euros it forecasted in August, the company said. In addition, the Paris-based firm said revenue in the second half was negatively impacted by delivery delays. “Revenue could have been better, without the temporary postponement of deliveries amounting to 5 million euros in the second half, owing to a logistics delay at a supplier in Italy,” the firm said in a statement released Wednesday.
The firm confirmed first-half revenue fell 7.8 percent to 204.4 million euros. In August, the company said that while its home market sales in France remained stable, sales generated in top markets like the U.S., Canada and in Europe (excluding France) slid 6.6 percent and 6.7 percent respectively in the second quarter of the year, versus the same period a year earlier. In the period, total retail sales came to 385.2 million, which was down 3.5 percent at current exchange rates.
Retail sales across all brands, including franchises, fell 3.6 percent to 299.8 million euros compared with 311.1 million in the first half of last year.
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Net profit in the period slid to 8.1 million euros from 19.6 million euros in the first half of 2023, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization plummeted 26.6 percent to 36.6 million euros. The firm also said that full-year EBITDA would be down by 15 to 20 percent in 2024 versus 2023.
Looking ahead, the group said it will continue opening directly operated stores over the next year — “albeit at a slower pace than 2023.” Following the opening of a second store in Toronto at the end of June, the group plans to open stores in Montreal-Royal Mount, also in Canada, as well as a store in Las Vegas and one in Austin. The group is also aiming to open two more directly operated stores in France, along with four new stores in China and five other franchised stores overseas.
Roche Bobois has been strategically focused on fortifying its position in the Chinese market in order to better tap into the growth potential of the world’s second-largest economy. As a single market, China currently teeters between Roche Bobois‘ third and fifth top markets.
Earlier this year Roche Bobois Group said it took a majority stake in Shanghai Rock Castle Furniture, its lucrative franchisee in China.
Sector wide, sales of top furniture-makers have been impacted by declining consumer confidence based on raging political conflict worldwide, as well as the shipping crisis in the Suez Canal and high inflation and interest rates.
