05.11.22
Net sales for the first quarter for Inter Parfums, Inc. ended March 31 was $250.7 million—a 26% increase from last year, which was $198.5 million.
According to Jean Madar, chairman & CEO of Inter Parfums, Inc., 2022 started on strong footing with sales by European-based operations up 14% and US-based operations up 77%.
Sales for the company’s largest brands—Montblanc, Jimmy Choo, Coach and GUESS—rose 22%, 7%, 22% and 36%, respectively, and many of the company’s mid-sized brands experienced double digit sales growth.
Madar attributes the surge in first-quarter sales to the launches of Montblanc Legend Red, Coach Wild Rose and Coach Dreams Sunset, GUESS Uomo and Kate Spade Sparkle.
“The current first quarter’s sales growth is all the more impressive as in the same period last year,” said Madar. “We had an unusually large number of product launches, several of which were 2020 holdovers. These included our debut scent for Kate Spade, Jimmy Choo’s ‘I Want Choo,’ Rochas Girl and GUESS’s Bella Vita collection, which resulted in a 37% increase in net sales compared 2020’s first quarter.”
Madar added that the strength of the US dollar versus the euro understated the sales increase by its European-based brands, and that when measured in constant euro, sales rose nearly 18%.
“As we previously reported, first-quarter sales of European based products would have been even better, absent the IT problems experienced by our logistics partner handling US distribution.”
In the current first quarter, the company produced and shipped Ferragamo, Ungaro, MCM and Moncler fragrance products, which were not in its line-up in the prior-year period. Moncler’s official rollout began in the first quarter and will continue into the second along with the Jimmy Choo Man Aqua and Lanvin Mon Éclat debuts. Inter Parfums, Inc. will have a large number of extensions and flankers unveiling across many of brands throughout the rest of the year. Donna Karan and DKNY fragrances will be added to the brand portfolio in July.
“We are benefitting from a robust fragrance industry across the globe,” said Madar. “We are pleased to see that our travel retail business has been slowly but steadily improving. North America, our largest market, achieved sales growth of 12%, despite the aforementioned IT issues. Comparable quarter sales in both Western Europe and Asia/Pacific, our second and third largest markets, increased 41%. Our sales in the Middle East increased 27% and in Central and South America sales rose 38%. With shipments in the early part of the first quarter, sales in Eastern Europe rose 13%; however, since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we have been following regulations and sanctions which vary by country. Of note, most of our Russian accounts receivables had been protected by credit insurance or are being paid in advance.”
“The significant increase in sales in the first quarter of 2022 allowed us to better absorb fixed expenses such as depreciation and point of sale expenses, as compared to last year’s first quarter,” said Russell Greenberg, executive vice president and CFO. “Promotion and advertising included in selling, general and administrative expenses represented nearly 14% of net sales in the current first quarter versus 11% in the same period in 2021. Thus far this year, we are in a better position to allocate our advertising and promotion spending across the quarters to lead up to approximately 21% of net sales on promotion and advertising for the full year.”