Jimmy Choo today said its digital marketing strategy came to the fore in a half-year that saw sales and profits rise. Looking ahead, the luxury shoe brand is now working to roll out omnichannel services and technology across its global business.
Jimmy Choo said today that that in the six months to June 30, its total revenue came in at 158.5m, 6.5% ahead of the same time last year. Within that, retail sales grew by 9.6% to reach £99.7m. Pre-tax profits came in at £20.1m, well ahead of last year’s £1.3m.
In a busy first half for the Group, brand communication activities included significant PR and marketing activity to support the launch of the ‘Choo Hound’ capsule collection, with a particular focus on social media.
“We continued to build a strong online presence with exceptional social media penetration, reaching in excess of five million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and more than 13 million views on YouTube,” said the company in today’s statement.
It said it had incurred exceptional costs of £0.8m during the first half, largely related to the cost of replatforming. “Following the transition to SAP at the centre in the first half, work continues on refining new systems and processes and the preparation for the rollout of omnichannel and SAP to our operations globally,” it said in the statement.
Chief executive Pierre Denis said: “In line with our strategy, our retail business has led the way with double digit growth despite disruption from renovations, while our wholesale business performed broadly as expected.”
But he said the business was now operating in a “lower growth luxury environment”. Despite this, he said, “the structural advantage of Jimmy Choo remains and we remain focused on executing our growth strategy and pursuing growth without compromising our brand or its luxury position despite the more challenging macroeconomic environment.”
