Schutz parent company Arezzo & Co. kicked off 2024 with another robust quarter as the Brazilian footwear and fashion giant continues its expansion plans.
According to the São Paulo-based company, net sales in the first quarter of 2024 increased 4.6 percent to 1.07 billion reals ($210 million) from 1.03 billion reals at the same time last year. Recurring net income in the quarter was 78.7 million reals, up 7.7 percent from 73.1 million reals in Q1 2023.
The company noted on Thursday that all its brands showed consistent performance in these first months of 2024. AR&Co, which includes the Grupo Reserva and Baw brands, was the highlight in Q1, with revenue of 318.9 million reals, an increase of 11 percent compared to Q1 2023.
The company’s Arezzo brand presented gross revenue of $377.8 million, up 8.6 percent over the same time last year. Anacapri totaled $93.9 million in revenue, up 2.9 percent, while Schutz reported $187.8 million in sales, down 3 percent from last year.
In the first quarter, the company noted that it sold 4.6 million pairs of shoes (up 1.3 percent) and 709,000 bags (up 5.3 percent), compared to the same period in 2023.
“Arezzo & Co. demonstrated an effective strategy in brand portfolio management and significant protection of business profitability at the beginning of this year,” Alexandre Birman, chief executive officer of Arezzo & Co., said in a statement. “We presented robust growth, even with the strong comparison with 2023, as a result of the execution and delivery skills of our team, aligned to our culture as the largest fashion house of brands in Brazil.”
These results come just months after Arezzo & Co. struck a monumental agreement to merge with fellow Brazilian fashion company Grupo Soma in a deal that sees the union of two of the largest fashion companies in Latin America.
As part of the deal, Arezzo and Grupo Soma will join together in a newly-formed company, with Arezzo owning a 54 percent controlling interest and Soma owning 46 percent. The name of the new company will be released at a later date, Arezzo said at the time.
While specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, Arezzo noted that the new company would have yearly revenues of 12 billion reals ($2.42 billion) with a collective portfolio of 34 brands, including Arezzo, Farm Rio, Hering, Reserva, Animale, Schutz, NV, Anacapri, Alexandre Birman, Cris Barros, Carol Bassi and Oficina, among others.
