Italian footwear maker Geox has reported its financial results for the 2023 fiscal year, when sales were down by 2.2% to €720 million, writes ILM.

At constant exchange rates, the company achieved growth of 0.3% year-on-year. Geox attributed the decline to the planned optimisation of its directly operated stores (DOS) network coupled with particularly unfavourable market conditions in the second half of the year.

The wholesale business was up by 0.6% year-on-year to €371.8 million, while the franchising channel had a decline of 5.3% to €60.2 million and DOS were down by 4.9% to €287.5 million.

By region, the company’s home market of Italy had growth of 3.1% in the year to €200.8 million. Europe was down by 7.1% to €304.6 million, North America declined by 10.1% to €27.2 million and Other Countries saw growth of 2.4% to €186.98 million.

Looking at product categories, footwear was down by 2.4% to €646.9 million, while apparel had a slight increase of 0.3% to €72.7 million.

Geox ended the year with a net financial position of -€93.1 million, including net bank debts of €90.1 million.

Chairman and Founder Mario Moretti Polegato said: “2023, especially in the second half, revealed an extremely challenging year defined by strong uncertainty arising from the complex macroeconomic framework that directly affected our target market. Therefore, FY 2023 looks like a year of stabilisation after the strong increases recorded in the previous two years with sales slightly down from the previous year.

“The complexity and uncertainty observed in all our major markets persists even in the first months of the financial year 2024, requires us to maintain a prudent approach focused on growth in the most profitable markets.”

Geox also announced that former CEO Livio Libralesso has left the company, succeeded by incoming CEO Dr Enrico Mistron.