Footwear retailer Deichmann-obuv has bridged two difficult years of covidence and last year its financial performance returned to its pre-covidence level. Year-on-year sales rose by 680 million crowns to 2.53 billion crowns and profit by 70 million crowns to 302 million crowns. Despite high inflation and rising energy prices, the company expected this year to be even more successful, according to its annual report in the Collection of Deeds.
Last year, sales rose by a fifth year-on-year to 3.9 million pairs, with Czechs buying about 3.5 to four pairs of shoes a year, according to the Czech Footwear and Leather Association. At the end of last year, the company had 115 stores in the Czech Republic, several more than it had in the years before the covid. The number of employees, which has not changed much, was 669 at the end of last year.
With the covid pandemic fading, people returned to brick-and-mortar stores last year. While sales were up there, online sales were down 13 percent. Compared to a year ago, the number of pairs sold fell by five per cent, while sales rose by ten per cent.
The company wants to continue to maintain its market position and has planned to open two stores and close two stores this year, it is also continuously upgrading the stores.
The retailer is targeting mainly the middle-income strata of the population and is trying to offer value-for-money, i.e. cheaper shoes. The entire group, which operates in Europe and the US, does not have its own production facilities, but increasingly designs its shoes and has its designers make the shoes in-house. It works with manufacturers around the world.
Deichmann-Shoes is a subsidiary of the German concern Deichmann-Schuhe Service, which was founded in Essen, Germany, in 1913 and has been in the Czech Republic since 2003. It operates in 31 countries.
Source: Deichmann and CTK
Photo: Deichmann
