Gregory Posts Double-Digit Currency-Neutral Sales Growth In 2022

Samsonite International S.A. reported sales at Gregory backpack brand reached $61.4 million in 2022 against $59.4 million a year ago, representing a gain of 3.4 percent year-over-year. Gregory’s sales climbed 12.7 percent on a currency-neutral basis.

On a regional performance, Gregory’s North America net sales were up 13.7 percent vs. 2021. Currency devaluation created headwinds in Asia and Europe, but on a constant currency basis vs. 2021 net sales grew by 9 percent in Asia and 27 percent in Europe

Overall, for the year ended December 31, 2022, Samsonite recorded net sales of $2,879.6 million, an increase of 52.3 percent compared to $2,020.8 million recorded in 2021. When excluding the net sales in Russia and by Speck, which was sold in 2021, sales increased 57.4 percent year-on-year. Further excluding the net sales in China, Samsonite’s sales jumped 65.8 percent.

Compared to 2019, Samsonite’s net sales for the year decreased by 14.6 percent and by 10.4 percent when excluding the net sales in Russia and by Speck. Excluding net sales in China, Samsonite’s 2022 net sales were only 7.4 percent below 2019.

Samsonite’s core brands include Samsonite, Tumi and American Tourister. Smaller brands include High Sierra, Kamiliant, ebags, Xtrem, Lipault, Hartmann, Saxoline, and Secret.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 182 percent to $472.3 million from $182.3 million in 2021 and was only $19.9 million lower than the $492.2 million recorded in 2019. On a constant-currency basis, 2022 adjusted EBITDA exceeded 2019 by 7.0 percent. Adjusted net income was $296.0 million for 2022, up $278.7 million from $17.4 million in 2021 and $80.2 million higher than the $215.9 million in 2019.

Kyle Gendreau, chief executive officer, said, “We are delighted with Samsonite’s performance in 2022. We made tough decisions in 2020 to reposition the cost structure of our business which enabled us to successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and we stayed focused on tightly controlling our fixed and discretionary expenses. During the year, travel continued to recover as governments around the world relaxed social distancing and travel restrictions, resulting in increased demand for our products across all regions. This improved trading environment, combined with our disciplined expense management, enabled us to achieve strong net sales growth and enhanced profitability year-on-year. In particular, our net sales largely recovered to pre-COVID levels during the second half of 2022 with significantly improved profitability. As a result, for the year ended December 31, 2022, Samsonite’s Adjusted EBITDA surpassed that of 2019 by 7.0 percent, despite net sales in 2022 that were still 10.4 percent, lower than in 2019 when excluding the net sales in Russia and Speck. Meanwhile, with the team’s continued focus on cash management and debt reduction, the Group finished 2022 with net debt of $1.4 billion, only slightly higher than the $1.3 billion at the end of 2019. With substantial liquidity of $1.5 billion as of December 31, 2022, we are confident that we have the capacity to support the growth of our business during the ongoing recovery from the disruptions of the past several years.”

“Our net sales continued to show significant improvement during the first two months of 2023, rising by 16.5 percent when compared to the same period in 2019, with strong growth across all regions, and by 20.0 percent when further excluding the net sales in China. In particular, following the discontinuation of China’s zero-COVID policy, our business in China has rapidly improved, with positive constant currency net sales growth in February 2023 versus February 2019, while the pace of recovery in the rest of Asia has continued to accelerate during the first two months of 2023. Compared to the first two months of 2022, the Group registered net sales growth of 60.2 percent for the first two months of 2023 when excluding the net sales in Russia and by Speck, and net sales growth of 64.7 percent when further excluding the net sales in China. The strong net sales growth in the first two months of 2023 continued the growth trend we experienced throughout 2022.”

Gendreau concluded, “We believe long-term growth prospects for travel remain bright, and as long as we continue to treat all stakeholders with fairness and respect in line with our time-honored guiding principle, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ I am confident we will continue to build on our success to grow our net sales at a fundamentally higher margin profile while realizing our ambition to lead the transformation of our industry and become the world’s most sustainable lifestyle bag and travel luggage company.”