Strong competition
Urban Outfitters managed a 739 million dollar (660 million euro) turnover in the first quarter, up nearly 8 %. Nevertheless, analysts had expected more, especially as net profit dropped 12.5 % to 32.8 million dollars (29 million euro).
The major culprit for the weaker results is the Anthropologie brand, despite a 3.8 % turnover increase to 311.4 million dollars (275 million euro). Its parent company has still called that turnover increase a disappointment, mainly because of strong competition from brands like H&M, Zara and Forever 21.
Store-based like-for-like growth also did not manage to reach analysts’ expectations of a 5.3 %. Urban Outfitters only managed a 4 % increase, although the company’s smallest brand (Free People) were encouraging: like-for-like turnover grew 17 %, while Urban Outfitters as a whole managed 5 % and Anthropologie only 1 %.
