Moncler Aktie

Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler First Half 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining our call tonight on Moncler Group's First Half 2026 Financial Results. Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other result of information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate.

Let me also highlight that given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore, cannot be taken as a proxy for full year trends or results.

Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen-only mode. Before starting our H1 review, I would like to hand over to Leo Rongone, our new Group Chief Executive Officer. As you all know, Leo joined the company just 3 months ago, and he would like to share some first observations and thoughts after his first few weeks into the company. Leo, over to you.

Thank you, Elena. Good evening, everyone. It's a real honor and a great privilege to speak to you today for the first time as the CEO of the Moncler Group. Before handing over to the team for the Q2 results and the Q&A session, I'd like to share a few reflections on my first 3 months within the company, an important time for me of the listening, learning and meeting so many talented individuals across the organization from quarters to our regional offices from our stores to our production [indiscernible].

These initial months have been critical to gain a deep understanding of the group to shape my perspective and to identify where we can continue to evolve and where we will focus our energy from now on. You know I have admired Moncler from the outside for many years, has always had great respect from what Remo Ruffini and his team have built over the years.

Now experiencing the company from the inside my amination as we increase even more. What I've found since joining the group is truly remarkable. An organization that perfectly combines outstanding creativity with strong operational discipline. You will know is the rare balance. And to me, one of the key reasons behind the enduring success of this group I've also been impressed by the uncompromising commitment to product excellence, quality, meticulous attention to details and a constant drive for improvement are not simply processes here, they are deeply rooted in the culture of the company.

There is something else. The way we tell our stories, in an industry that's becoming even more crowded and noisy, our communication is uptime and engaging. We are able to make our voice heard to build genuine and lasting connections with our communities. This unique capability is a real competitive advantage. Most importantly, however, is the people who have really inspired me. Across every function and every region, I have found a strong sense of ownership, a deep commitment to excellence and a true passion. I've also met a solid leadership team that has built two of the most iconic and desirable luxury brands. This is an asset it value, and I'm fully committed to preserving and strengthening.

Looking ahead, I see exciting opportunities for the group. As far as Moncler is concerned, our strategic priorities are clear: building relevancy in regions where we have great potential, cultivating a dialogue with our customers across all seasons and unlocking the full potential of our 3 brand dimensions you are already familiar with, collection, [indiscernible] and Genius. The focus now is on a further step-up in execution and making sure each of these priorities translate into tangible and consistent results over time. To do so, we will explore new ways of pushing creative and technical boundaries.

Innovation in materials, for example, will be key to embody the true value of the mountain throughout the entire year, beyond the single season and to elevate our product experience, the mountains encourage while being intentional leading and a deep human connection, something we deeply rooted in our values and identity. Moreover, there is a significant potential to further expand the brand's legitimity beyond the core order category. Always respecting our brand DNA.

Talking about Stone Island, have found a brand with an exceptionally strong identity, a unique culture innovation and one of the most authentic and engaged communities in the luxury sector. The foundation that has been built over these past years are very solid and the progress we are seeing today reflects disciplined execution of a clear long-term strategy. Looking at the future, we will continue to focus on product research strengthened the pot of our global distribution and invest in consistent culturally relevant brand communication.

By doing so, we will deepen our relationship with our loyal community while introducing Stone Island for a new generation of clients around the world. For both brands, the way we engage with our clients represent a clear opportunity. Over the years, we have built a strong platform and the power saleability to reach and inspire wide audiences. Now we want to translate this strength into even more direct more frequent and more personal interaction with our VAC, building stronger relationship with them over time. To conclude, these first months have only reinforced my belief that many more remarkable chapter of this group story has yet to be written.

And I'm deeply honored that driving them alongside Remo. His vision leadership has been the driving force behind the Moncler extraordinary journey so far. Together within an [indiscernible] management team, we will keep working with a long-term perspective. committed to helping this group reach its full potential, always guided by the health and desirability of our brands. I'm very excited by the journey had, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person over the coming quarters when there will be the opportunity to share more on my perspective.

But tonight, we are here to talk about our Q2 results. So now let me hand over to Elena, Gino and Luciano for the H1 review and the Q&A session. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Leo. For our audience, I mean, of course, there will be the opportunity to meet and get to know Leo in the coming quarters. and to have corporate discussions with him. But tonight, we are here to talk about our Q2 results.

So I will now move on to host our H1 results presentation. and Q&A session, of course, together with Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer; and Gino Fisanotti, Chief Brand Officer.

Before handing it over to Gino and Luciano, let me just present the key highlights of today's results on Page 4. Group revenues in the first half of the year were EUR 1.29 billion, up 9% at constant FX. In the second quarter, group revenues were up 5% at constant effects [indiscernible] MoCA brands accounting for 84% of the group's H1 turnover was up 9% in H1 and 3% in Q2. The [indiscernible] brands accounting for 16% of the group's H1 turnover was up both in H1 and in Q2.

In the first half of the year, the group also reached an EBIT of EUR 254 million with a margin of 19%. Net result was EUR 165 million with a 12.8% margin, and our net cash position at the end of June exceeded EUR 1.1 billion. Let me now hand it over to Gino for the key highlights of the Moncler brands in the second quarter. Gino, over to you.

Okay. Thanks, Leo, Elena, ciao. Good afternoon, night to everyone connected. Before we go into the business of the presentation with the channel, I just wanted to take a second to share a bit of the strength we are seeing within the running the very first 6 months of the year. I think we we've seen very robust results, not only in terms of the execution and the quality of the work that we were able the teams to put out there, but equally robust in terms of the global reach and impact, the community engagement we saw and more importantly, the organic brand interest in Moncler brand.

In this case, I think the first 6 months were led by some very special and some first-ever executions for the Moncler brand. I have to say that the fee-driven forces over the last 6 years have been, of course, Aspen with a show of renewable. But then our return into the Winter Olympics was a very special moment for the brand with the whole story. And then last one least something that we'll start covering now in detail our first formal spring/summer end-to-end work. So if we go to the next slide, that I think is Slide #5. We can start talking about our official first end-to-end work against spring/summer.

I think when I say end to end, and this is something we use a lot internally. It's about meaning that we connect all the different consumer touch mends under one single effort and narrative from product to retail, from marketing to digital platforms, from wholesale to e-commerce, and even from tape media to traditional media and so on. So this is the first time we officially wanted to bring something like this and I know this is a conversation. We have so many systems with all of you. And hopefully, you were able to see what was done in the last few weeks. This spring summer campaign, to be honest many more than just a seasonal effort for us. This represents a kickoff of a long-term commitment that we have as a brand, and we strongly believe that this kickoff means for us the opportunity to become relevant and meaningful across the entire year.

Then, of course, this campaign was called Have a [ puffy ] Summer, but for us, Have a Puffy Summer means some are the one way. We believe that we with this campaign, we're able to create a unique opportunity for the brand to tackle this very interesting transition that happened between the spring to summer through a solution that we believe is a system of rest, which are fully expressed through the power of layering that we showcased in the campaign and, of course, through the retail experience. This network push a different home for the brand while remaining outride to who we are, despite our strong heritage and of course, DNA each winter. From very impactful executions across media pop-ups in Europe or Asia, all the way down to countless press coverage, editorials and digital and retail execution. This was just our very first season and efforts that we'll keep building on the back of this very, very important first step.

To be honest, and to share with you, and I'm sure we'll go into details later in the Q&A., we are happy to see the level of results we were able to achieve during this period we're able to experience not only a strong global reach at a global scale, but more importantly, great results in some big consumer and community engagement on top of the performance of the collection itself.

Last but not the least we're equally excited about the learnings we were able to capture the season to keep building even stronger plans and execution towards next spring season and the ones to come. So with that, I'm happy to go for into the next slide that has other highlights for Q2. First of all, on the back of the special season and we discussed about spring/summer for Moncler, of course, we did our first efforts as well as spring/summer around Grenoble, and if you think about renewable, I always think we discussed about this that we said of this very important run I mentioned just a few years ago. And even our first spring/summer product started very shy less than 2 years ago. So to be honest, I think we are very excited to see the acceptance and the global acceptance that this collection is having the performance of this dimension of the brand is having.

And of course, the opportunity for us to keep reaching an inviting new and more customers into the brand. Then following into the next part of the last few weeks, of course, we just launched our pre-fall '26 for Moncler production. And we introduced this collection of setting what we call the language of deals. Behind this collection, and this is the great attention we pay not only to the layering and the solutions that we are going to, again, in this case, from the transition from summer into fall. Last but not least, a few weeks ago, we hosted a Moncler global headquarters, a new season of Studio Shanti.

For those who don't remember what it is, to set is our annual platform where we present are coming footwear collection to media editors, celebrities and people from the sneaker culture and beyond. I have to say that despite I think I repeat myself that we don't want to become a footwear-led company. I think we're happy with the calculated efforts regarding this caster. We are really happy with the progress we are making in terms of this dimension of footwear decision introducing new styles like the [indiscernible], sorry. and especially new products and collaboration that creates some press coverage before launch like the Clarks to Grid or some of the fragment collaborations that are about to come on top of new innovations like the [indiscernible], a new concept that will be launched in 2027.

Sorry, one more thing. I got one more. I said last on these. But one final thing for me to share with you all is I'm going to take the opportunity to thank, of course, the entire motor family for the app was made, but we were -- we are extremely proud to share with you that Moncler was able to win the very first Grand Prix Award at Cannes festival same for other recognitions like Gold and the [indiscernible] as a great testament to the work done behind Warmer Together campaign that we launched a few months ago featuring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

Clearly, we're not just happy because of the award or the recognition itself. But as we mentioned many times to each of you in the past, we strongly believe that we have a brand in the power of storytelling and by share our values on in a way that can create emotional connection and long last in relation with our customers out there, something that I think Leo just mentioned a second ago. I think when we get the news and we learn about this, I think Remo Ruffini said that advertising come and go, but emotional connections and creativity remains forever, and we strongly believe that, that's the opportunity to keep doing season after season. So that's all from my side. Of course, we'll talk later. I will pass it to Luciano to go into the next part of the presentation. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Gino and good afternoon and good morning everybody. Thank you for attending our call today. We are now at Page 6, where let me spend a few more Page 7, sorry, where we report some highlights of Stone Island marketing initiatives One is the no seasons project that was represented during the brand design week featuring iconic outerwear item designed in the early '80s in shifts of the most iconic fabrics of Boston Ireland, all of them in the same on. Second activity is about the [indiscernible] collaboration with the new balance, the visit in the world of football and featuring 2 professional football players, Andre, with Brazil and [indiscernible] playing for England.

Last, still very important project presented at the end of June. That is called the community as a form of research and featuring the World Champion table Danish player using wearing a pinnacle item of the full winter collection. Okay. Let's move now to Page 8 where we report our results for Moncler brand revenues by geography. In the second quarter, multibrand grew 3% positive and a good growth rate, not good as much as in the first quarter, but still something we are happy with, with a very strong contribution of Asian market, plus 12%, good contribution of American 4% and a weaker softer Europe EMEA region down 8%, mostly due to a softer tourism flows, particularly from Asia, but also from Americas and also still with a very weak online performance.

Americas, the plus percent represent is a weighted average of in the direct channel that is higher, slightly higher than the 4%. And this is something important light because, of course, that the channel is a very important approach. Let's move now to next page, Page 9, where we report the same revenues of Moncler brand by channel. Both [indiscernible] grew 3% in the quarter. And with the comp store sales in the first half of the year, of 7%. Again, the most channels and mostly the DTC channel was affected mostly in Europe by the weaker tourism loan. [indiscernible], was positive first quarter is positive in the second quarter, better than what we originally expected, also thanks to the good reorders coming from the wholesale market, which represent evidence a good sellout of our sale network.

Okay. Let's go now to Page 10, where we report Stone Island revenues by geography. On Ireland, as Elena just said, for the fourth quarter in a row reports double-digit growth rate of 11%. Good growth would grow in all the different regions, particularly strong in Asia, very, very strong in America, of course, on a smaller base, but still very, very encouraging our project in the future and a weaker but still positive growth in Europe. Asia, of course, includes APAC and China very good. And Japan and Korea both very, very, very strong.

You may remember that Korea until last year was not party good, but now I mean also in the first quarter, is doing very well and, of course, much better than in the past Okay. Let's move now to Page 11, still revenues to value revenues by channel. Again, behind the average growth rate of 11%, a very nice remarkable and encouraging 15% in the DTC channel that, of course, is particularly important and encouraging for the management team and a good solid in the wholesale channel. Next page, Page 12, we report our retail network for both brands.

We opened stores in the quarter for Moncler, one in Monterrey, one in Vancouver acres, and the shared the one in the airport of Osaka Airport. Okay. Let's move now to Page 13, where we report as usual, our profit and loss for the first half of the year. an anticipated some important numbers. Of course, the top line, we already gave you some comments, a total of EUR 1.29 billion. we were slightly below EUR 1 billion in gross profit, EUR 995 million with 77.2% better than last year, slightly better due to a positive channel mix, a very good contribution of selling expenses below last year and a good contribution of GLA that has been affected by one-off EUR 8 million related to the new governance structure, EUR 8 million in the first half of the year that will be at the end of the year, less or slightly less EUR 10 million.

So most of this one-off has been reported in the first half of the year. Marketing expenses in line with last year, 9.5% with our usual expectation we didn't change of a 7% contribution of our marketing budget on the year-end. At today, an operating margin better than the 18.3% reported last year. Just a comment on the net financial expenses that are higher than last year due to higher interest basis on these liabilities. At the end, the group net result 12.8%, slightly better than [indiscernible].

Okay. Let's move now to Page 14, where we report net CapEx, EUR 89 million with the distribution between infrastructure and the distribution in line with last year, slightly higher in percent of revenues, but still with -- I mean, with an expectation for this year to go back to incidents by the year-end. To go back because last year, due to some important investments we made last year, the incidence was closer as you see 6.9%. So many projects on the distribution side, including the upcoming new opening of our store in New York is revenue, but also many projects on our infrastructure.

Okay. Let's move now to Page 15. I where we report net working capital at 10% higher than last year due to a higher inventory level due to strategic decision in investing in some strategic raw materials, particularly in down for several different reasons. But everything under strict control, nothing to highlight. And still with a plan for the year-end to go back to substantially in line with what we reported last year, that was 9.7%.

Net financial position at Page 16. Okay, EUR 1.12 billion at the end of June as compared to the EUR 981 million last year, end of June last year. Just comment about our liabilities that are equal to EUR 1.19 billion as compared with EUR 1.19 billion last year.

Okay. Let's go briefly to Page 18, where we report a cash flow statement. I do make a comment on balance sheet. But of course, please if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask cash flow statement, the free cash flow, very good, much better than last year, EUR 34 million versus EUR 15 million last year, mostly due to the better operating margin, better EBIT than last year. Important to highlight that net cash flow was negative, but after the payment of EUR 374 million of dividends.

Okay. So we are done with the presentation now. Thank you for your attention and ready to answer your questions.

Yes. We will now hand it over to the operator for your questions. I kindly ask you to speak to a maximum of two questions per person. Operator, you can now open the Q&A line. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]. First question is from Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.

The first one would be, could you please give us some color on the performances by cluster for the Moncler brand but also in terms of volume price mix able pricing was low single digit in Q2. And then the second one, has -- did you see any difference in trends throughout the quarter per month? And anything you can give us on current trends you've seen so far? What's the mood like in Q3 for these first few weeks.

Okay. Thank you for your question. About the cluster, cluster cost nationalities. I can tell you that Chinese and Americas were positive. Koreans and Japanese rates and Europe, of course, negative single-digit about the contribution of price volume in the second quarter, pricing was predominant volumes were flat issues likely negative in the second quarter, in the first quarter.

As you may remember, they were positive about the second quarter, we reported a slightly negative volumes Something about the okay. The quarter has been a good not great, but a good, very good in the first 2 months of the quarter. Honestly, April and May were both a very good month of the quarter. June softer. Much softer due to an evident and a clear decline in traffic in all the different regions. Something we observed in June was a behavior of the customers of people that is more and more they buy now well now. I mean this is something different from the past that we started seeing a couple of years ago. Last year and this year, even higher than last year.

That, of course, implies a little bit delay in purchasing of the following season. On the other hand, the good news, not visible in the results, but strategically very good for us for the management team is that in all the 3 months of the quarter, equally April, May, but also June, the 3 summer collection performed well performed very well. Of course, the very good performance of summer collection in June was not enough to offset the decline in the pointer collection. But again, it is still a very good and [indiscernible] because, as you know, as you said, I mean, the effort and the investment we made for this collection was only the first but a very important set of the non-ore project that, of course, we see Moncler more intentionally, even more [indiscernible] next year.

Something I said during the presentation that, of course, impacted the slowdown in traffic, most in evident significant decline to this that, of course, impacted euro EMEA more than the other region. But of course, this an explanation, not only of the softer results in a year, but also of the software results overall. And this is something we saw again mostly in June. Remember that our business historically with the tourist was still is very important.

In the second quarter, mostly in the quarter, much less in Q4 and Q1. But this year, even more than last year, we faced a decline in tourism coming from Asia and from America to Europe.

Next question is from Anna-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

My first question is on the speed between space and like-for-like in Q2, would it be possible to have an indication of what was the space contribution in Q2? And how should we think about it in the second half of the year and full year?

And then my second question is about the U.S. So we have seen strong performance across the few companies that have already reported is slightly [indiscernible]. Is it only linked to the normal seasonality of the business and all the campaign was received the stringer campaign was used in the U.S.?

And maybe a last one, still be the U.S. So when you have the big flagship company in New York in September, and even we haven't had in [indiscernible] since October 2024. Should we expect a genome that opening or a different concept that you will deploy around that? Thank you very much

Okay. Thank you for your question. First question, I mean, of course, you know that we don't report this information by quarter not because, I mean, we have something to hide, but because the space contribution in 1 quarter is honestly not particularly meaningful I can tell you that for the year-end, we plan for this year in line with the water we said, and I'm sure you remember, in about a 4% space contribution. Of course, in the quarter was slightly below.

But again, nothing particularly important honestly. And about the performance in America, again, I wanted to highlight that we report, of course, is the weighted average between wholesale and that needless to say, most changes driven by our deliveries plan. Of course, in America, there is a, I will say, business is with the department stores with the [indiscernible] and now is out of the [indiscernible], but I mean no study shot. Of course, we delivered less than what we could deliver. But what is very important to night is that the DTC business was higher than that. So overall, I don't know. I mean I do know, but I mean it's meaningless to compare Moncler with other brands that for sure have become more relevant in that region the [indiscernible] Moncler is now.

But in any event, I can tell you that our growth rate in North America and in the U.S. specifically, is something we are happy with and encouraging to keep investing in that country.

What Luciano said, I think we discussed it probably last few calls as well about the journey, the brand is into the U.S., right? So I think we can even correlate this to probably the last 2 calls we have I think the chance that we are happy with the results we have.

That said, I think it's important to keep reminding ourselves that this journey in terms of the level of maturity and awareness that we have in the U.S. is very different from what we have in Europe and in Asia. Therefore, we keep seeing this as the opportunity and the challenge in terms of execution.

I will say, you mentioned something about -- specifically about spring summer or the campaign. I think I will reinforce what we kind of said, we are happy. I think things work well. For us, of course, sometimes we expect more to go to into that potential. I think as we discussed at the beginning of the year, we just come at the first 3 months of the year with execution we did in Aspen, the opening of the new [indiscernible] store. And of course, we're going to September when we'll open [indiscernible] and Moncler's biggest store in the world.

Of course, the expectation here is, again, building blocks towards that opportunity to unlock that market. Again, we don't believe in today's world, that there's a silver bullet that will unlock everything in one go. I think what we're doing right now is, of course, working heavily in terms of leveraging the opening of the store in the context of something that is an offense altogether for the U.S. across all the different touch points.

So in a nutshell, I think I could understand more or less some comments about these type of genius or something. Again, we will open this call, as I mentioned before, in September. We are working to that for a few months now. We are excited about what you come. But personally, I would say on behalf of the team, we're equally excited about the journey we're embarking into and something we started on the back of last year, beginning of this year. Of course, results are positive. We expect more. We all want more, but we have to do the work and build a stronger foundation and will come as a consequence season of the season.

Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.

Next question is from Luca Solca, Bernstein.

Maybe a stupid question, but you do have a global retail network. And I would like you to maybe help me understand how is it that tourists not coming to Europe caused you a dent in revenue growth? How come that these tourists cannot be recaptured elsewhere in Asia or in America? Is it because maybe they exploit the big geographic price differences and so that you continue to have a significant price gap between Europe and Asia? I wonder.

My second question, given that we have the pleasure of having Leo on the call, I was wondering if Leo after 3 months on top of appreciating the great strengths that the Moncler Group has, if you identified any specific areas where you could potentially bring your experience and improve how the company performs? And which would be these areas?

Luca, your first question is very good and right question. Actually, I may have been not precise, but my comment about tourism flow was mainly related to Europe, to explain the soft performance of Europe that's unfortunately something we have been facing for a while because also previous quarters were not particularly good for Europe.

But you are right, I think that people that did not come to Europe purchased in their local markets. But I think that this is also the reason why Asia was so good, because plus 12%, honestly, I believe it is quite remarkable. It's not the over 20% of the first quarter, but I think that nobody expected to replicate that, let me say, unusual number due to the Chinese New Year, whatever. So 12%, mostly driven again by China, Korea and, to a lower extent, but still positive single digit, by Japan. And the same for the U.S.

So again, you are right, I mean, in part because, of course, it's difficult to provide a scientific answer. But I think you are right.

And on the -- yes, on the second question, I mean, of course, Leo will share some thoughts. Clearly, there will be then look at dedicated opportunities in the coming quarters to meet him and discuss all these broader topics with the time and attention that they deserve. So here tonight, we will focus on Q2. But Leo, over to you for some thoughts.

Yes, of course, I can share a bit of color, and thank you for the question, Luca. So as was mentioned before, together with extraordinary abilities that are very clear in this group, I've also noticed a few opportunities we're going to develop. So based on your question, I'm going to stick to your curiosity, let's say, on the clients.

And I would say that for sure, Moncler clients, let's say, frequently rank among top spenders in other brands in the luxury industry. And we have demonstrated in the past years to be able to talk to large audiences, wide audiences.

So a clear opportunity that I see and, for sure, would be a key focus starting for both brands on this is that we can translate this ability into something which is more curated, let's say, allowing this trend into more direct, more frequent personal interactions with our VICs. I'm sure that this dedication to key clients will further nurture our business globally, especially in those countries we have -- where we see today high potential to express our business.

Next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.

This is Daria from Bank of America. Thank you for taking my questions; I have 2. First one would be on profitability with 19% EBIT margin in 1H and actually 60 basis points higher excluding the one-off. Could you please share any comment on margin outlook for the full year considering the cost control that you have exhibited? Consensus currently models just 10 basis points improvement on the year.

And my second one, sorry for this question, but can I please quickly follow up on the current trading? You have very helpfully answered on the shape of the quarter. Should we assume June trends continuing into July? Or has there been any sort of inflection since?

Thank you, Daria, for your question about the profitability I'm sorry, but our usual answer is that we don't know, but simply because operating profitability is totally mostly dependent and driven by the top line, which is difficult to predict. Of course, first half of the year, profitability was good for 2 main reasons. One is what you said, because, I mean, our attention to cost control is quite high. And we tend and we all work to become more and more efficient in everything we do.

But the other important point is that the top line in the second quarter was fairly good, but it was much better and very good in the first quarter; that also is much more relevant than the second quarter. So this is what made profitability -- operating profitability very good, but as you pointed out, taking out the one-off would have been significantly higher than last year.

What may it be for the year-end is difficult to say. Of course, as you know, we have not a target, but an ambition, a goal to protect our profitability that over the past years has been in the region of 29%, 29-plus percent. And this is still our ambition. But honestly, difficult to predict now what may be. It will totally depend again on the top line in the second half of the year that, of course, needless to tell you is the most important half of the year.

About the current trading, I mean, nothing to highlight more than what I said. June was softer than the first 2 months of the quarter. July, I mean, we have only 2 weeks behind us. I mean beginning was in line with June, and then a little bit better. But please don't make me comment business results of yesterday or the current trend of today because it will be totally, totally meaningless.

Again, from the qualitative point of view, we see, and let me say again, there are 2 factors. One is negative for the result of this period of the year, that is the buy now, wear now approach behavior of people, of customers. But the other that is very positive, because strategically it is extremely important for the brand and for the future and for our project, is the very good performance in April, May, June, and also for what it was the first 2 weeks of July of our spring/summer collection. So this is something that, sorry to say it again, but it is something we are very happy with, okay?

Next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

The first one concerns the share of new customers within the overall customer base. What percentage of the total did new customer represent for Moncler and the Stone Island in the first half of the year? Should the strong momentum for Stone Island be attributed to the acquisition of new customers or to an increase in the value of existing customers?

And the second question is on sales contribution and price effect. Could you already provide some guidance regarding these 2 drivers for 2027 in particular? What are your expectations regarding the price increases for next year?

Oriana, on your first question about customers, I didn't get it if you were asking specifically about Stone Island or both brands. Maybe I can just give you some color on Moncler.

I think this is a figure that we provide typically on a yearly basis. We don't give Q1, H1. But what we have been seeing over the past few years, and it's been pretty stable, is that about 50% of our revenues are coming from new customers. About 50% of our revenues is coming from existing customers that are already loyal to the brand.

From the point of view of numbers, we are slightly more skewed towards new customers. It's about 60-40, 60% new, 40% existing. Of course, this means that the loyal customers, the existing ones, are spending a little bit more. But the share of revenues is equally split. And Gino, maybe you want to add.

No, I think, Oriana, the only color commentary there is beyond the factual data that I shared with you, of course, the opportunity regarding new customers around spring/summer is a real opportunity. I think as we were mentioning before, this is something that, as a reminder, this spring/summer was executed deeply in a few doors of our entire network. We will keep increasing this.

This is driving a new interest and the new customers into the brand. So spring/summer, again, if you were referring to this Q2, we have good reception from existing clients. But of course, it's allowing us to start capturing new demand and new clients into the brand and even some specifics that hopefully we'll start sharing later about gender behavior, et cetera, regarding the product proposition we have around spring/summer.

And on Stone Island, I mean, as you can see from our numbers, it's a very nice balance between capturing new customers and also keep cultivating our loyal familia. I think that for Stone, this is very consistent with the strategy that we have. So keep a very strong connection with our loyal audience, but also adding new and recruiting new customers into the brand.

And on this, I mean, results, as you know, are very organic. All the retail KPIs on Stone Island are positive, very encouragingly. It's a very high-quality growth coming from just the underlying development of the brand. As you know, there is no space. And so we are seeing both type of customers buying into the brand.

And Oriana, about your question about expectation on pricing, I understand that you are talking about Moncler. Moncler, for 2027, honestly, it's quite premature and early to give you a precise number. I can tell you as a rough indication that we expect space to be still in the region of 4% and the pricing based on the current production cost increase and the current level of currencies, of course, should remain low to mid-single digit. Of course, any more precise indication will be provided in the next future when we have a better understanding of what may happen next year.

Next question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. Congratulations to Mr. Rongone on your appointment. So my first question is on online. I understand this is performing a little bit weak, and I remember it was also the case in Q1. I mean anything -- is there anything specific happening to this channel? Is there anything that you can say around it?

And my other question is on the spring/summer collection. I actually had the opportunity to visit some of your stores in the past week. And it seems to me that, yes, there were not too many products that you could -- that would be worn immediately. So I was wondering whether you intend to change the cadence of the deliveries to give more floor space to spring/summer products.

I think on the first on online, just I think Luciano mentioned a bit this before, but I think the reality of the picture of online, I will almost tell it in 2 halves. I think we have a weaker performance in Europe from the beginning of the year. So this is something we saw in Q1 and Q2, while the other part of -- or the other regions have been performing in par or, even in some cases, better than physical retail. So I think this is a bit of the context.

I think we have a good performance in the U.S., in the Americas, solid performance in all the different Asian markets. I think in Europe, specifically, we are seeing a bit of a softer demand and a bit of a softer traffic, while the other regions is exactly the opposite. So right now, as you can imagine, we're working through those details. We understand that there's opportunity for us to do better in certain markets within Europe. But again, I will say the overall picture is almost 2 halves. It's Europe and the rest of the world with very disparate performances between Europe and the rest.

Regarding spring/summer, I think it's a great question. And I think I want to go back to a few comments we make at the beginning. This spring/summer for us was, as I mentioned before, the first ever, right, effort. And I think the other important reminder is when we execute this initiative, we literally use a small percentage of our retail network to fully deploy the collection and everything we have done around summer because we really wanted to learn about this, as I mentioned before, was the very first step. In some cases, we found out that some of the styles and the new products were performing quickly pretty well, better than we were expecting.

And then, of course, I think this is, as you mentioned before, I think as you were going into June, we're already having pre-fall and in some of the stores, they started to have a more fall type of assortment versus a bit more of a spring/summer. I think as you mentioned before, this is -- what I mentioned today, we are taking the learnings of this spring/summer as we go to next year as well.

One of the areas we're focusing more is to make sure that our offering will be not only relevant as we believe we have the product, but even extended to make sure that we can cover the season on entirely and not having a specific push on the very beginning of the season and then run back into old behavior. So again, take it as we said at the beginning, we are happy. At the same time, we are the first one to know that we have tons to do and tons to improve, and this is part of the process.

Next question is from Erwan Rambourg, Goldman Sachs.

Welcome to Leo Rongone and thanks for your enthusiasm. So 2 questions on my side. First, given the magnitude of the New York opening and potential events around it, maybe, Luciano, can you mention what influence it has? Will it be visible on the cost base? And do you have any other major openings that are planned in H2 that could weigh on the cost base?

And then secondly, can you talk maybe about Korea, South Korea, how relevant it is in terms of Asia growth given the wealth creation we've seen recently? What is the weight of Korea? Is it relevant? Is it a real standout? Or is the growth in Asia really broad-based?

Starting from Korea. Korea represents about 10% of our business overall. It is still growing very nicely. Remember that Korea has been very strong for Moncler since many, many years ago, even during COVID. Korea was the only region that was growing and kept growing in 2020, 2021. And so again, last year, there was some kind of slowdown in Korea, but this year is still growing, with very, very high sales density. But again, I'm saying that because we keep growing, but of course, we start -- we have a base of comparison that is quite important.

About New York Fifth Avenue cost impact, let me see if I understand the question because, of course, there will be an important cost impact associated with the cost of the store, with the rent and with the cost of people that will operate that store. We don't disclose the cost, but let me say again that, for sure, it is an important cost. Of course, what we expect from that store is to perform very well. This may not be 100% the case in the first 3 months after opening of 2026. But of course, we have great expectations for that store in the next years. But please tell me if I understood correctly your question.

No, I was wondering if it had an impact in terms of the weight of H1 versus H2 in terms of your cost base relative to a normal year. I was also wondering if you had other big projects that were lined up for H2 outside of this New York opening.

Yes. So there are other projects, but for sure, this is the most important one. Of course, all the expenses associated with New York as well as all the stores are reported in selling expenses. And so again, it will depend how much will be the top line and, as a result, how much will be the productivity of the store. There might be some dilution, maybe, but I don't know, honestly. But nothing I need to highlight right now because I don't know.

Also, again, I expect the first weeks after opening to be good, I hope. But for sure, not as much as we expect the store to perform after 1 year and after 2 years, okay?

Next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler.

I have 2. The first one on Stone Island, which delivered a very strong performance in the first half. Could you please elaborate on what explains the relative underperformance in EMEA? I would assume the brand is less exposed to tourist flows than Moncler.

And also now that the wholesale to retail transition has largely been completed and the brand momentum appears particularly strong, does this give you greater confidence to accelerate store openings in line with the ambitions you initially outlined at your Capital Market Day a few years ago?

And secondly, on licensing, if I'm not mistaken, your fragrance licensing agreement with Interparfums expires in December this year. There is an option to extend it for another 5 years. Has the decision already been made regarding the renewal? And more broadly, would you consider entering into a long-term licensing agreement with a bigger player such as L'Oreal, for example, and allocating maybe a less selective distribution strategy in order to build a much larger beauty business as many of your peers have done?

About Stone Island, Stone performance was very good. To your point, in Europe, less than in other regions, for sure. But I mean, Europe for sure at this time, we discussed a lot about Moncler, but I think for all the brands, Europe right now is not particularly a strong region. There is a slowdown in demand. And this is what makes the growth rate of Stone Island good but not strong, not as much as in other regions.

Also in the region, in Europe, there is a very important relevant wholesale business that is under review, under, let me say, scrutiny because we keep selecting that channel, we keep selecting the best wholesale doors, and of course, this implies a negative impact in terms of wholesale doors. But I mean, overall, the organic growth even in Europe is good, is very good.

Talking about the future and how much the current momentum may imply, let me say, a distribution growth over the next years. I believe that, I mean, for the time being, to the best of our knowledge, we don't have very important plans of new openings for 2027. And so our approach, our strategic approach, will still be to make our channel, that channel to grow organically. But of course, maybe next year, during next year and, hopefully, the year after, we may start to open still on a selective basis some additional stores. But we want first to make sure that the brand achieves a relevant top line and significant sales diversity. Other question is?

Yes. Charles-Louis, I think shortly, I think, yes, it's true, our license expired regarding fragrances. I think we decided together to put a pause for a second and decide our next step. And I think this is the process we are in right now in full transparency. And I think for us, as a brand always is, in this case, is being extremely selective in terms of the strategy we have and try to make sure that we have a relevant proposition at the highest level in the market.

So more to come, but thank you for the question. We're in the process of reevaluating the best next step forward. Thank you.

Next question is from Carole Madjo, Barclays.

A couple of questions from me as well, please. The first one on spring/summer. Can you come back on how much of your offering in store in Q2 was spring/summer compared to being your classic fall/winter offering? And how should we think about the split evolving in the year to come?

Second question, similar question, still on the spring/summer. Any comment on the economics of the spring/summer versus fall/winter in terms of basket size, sales density? Anything to keep in mind here around that?

And last quick question. To come back on your comment on see now, buy now, what do you think is the reason behind this trend? Have you seen it across all the key markets? Or is it maybe a bit more in place in Europe where there was really hot weather in June? So any comment around this see now, buy now trend and how long do you think it can last going forward? Could be interesting.

Okay. The first one about spring/summer impact in terms of product in second quarter, for sure, April, very important; May, very important. In June, we start to deliver to our stores the pre-fall or I mean the first delivery of the fall/winter season. So overall, spring/summer is predominant in the second quarter. But in June, as I said before, fall/winter season is important too.

About economics, I mean, some of your questions, something that we don't look at, honestly. I mean I can tell you that spring/summer collection did very well in terms of conversion rate because this is something that we monitor and we look at specifically for spring/summer, also in terms of basket, in terms of UPP. But in terms of sales density, honestly, it's quite premature to give you numbers also because, again, this was -- this year the very first, let me say, intentional investment that we made in the -- for this season.

About, I mean, you said see now, buy now. Actually, what I said is slightly different, is buy now, wear now. I mean see now, buy now is the behavior we saw in the past, honestly, when some people coming to the store wanted to buy prematurely a product of fall/winter season because they saw them, they liked them and they bought them, even though they knew that they could wear them in September, October, November.

What I said is the buy now, wear now. So they may see the collection, but they prefer to buy the collection in season. And so they buy now what they can wear now. And so product that for sure is lighter, again, a spring/summer product, and this is one component of the good result of the summer and, of course, fall/winter product too, but to a lower extent as compared to the past.

Yes. Sorry, I meant just what you said, buy now, wear now. And do you see this trend across all the key markets or just in some particular regions?

Yes. This is the trend that we saw in all the markets. Honestly, this is across the markets. Of course, in some markets, less than others, and this is demonstrated by the results. I mean in Asia, we do see this approach, this behavior. But of course, the results are very good and much better than in other regions. Of course, in Europe, this, together with, as I said before, the tourism, the decline in tourism, made the number of Europe negative. But the buy now, wear now behavior is something we see across the different regions.

Next question is from Chris Gao, CLSA.

Thanks for taking my questions; I have 2. So my first question is also about the buy now, wear now behavior. So just wondering if the consumer behavior will continue, does it mean that more demand of your fall/winter products will shift from June to the second half of the year, maybe in the winter? And if that will be the case, for your store-level plans, events, what could be your plan ahead of your peak season to better drive the sales? And also, would you do something in terms of your supply to make sure when people come to buy now, wear now during the peak season, you have enough of the inventory to supply so that you won't see the shortage of supply? This is the first question.

My second question is regarding Stone Island. We have been seeing a very strong B2C growth here. So could you help us break down a little bit about the contribution of volume, mix, pricing at the back of the strong B2C growth? And also, how should we look at the midterm EBIT margin trajectory? How will it contribute to the group EBIT margin elevation?

Chris, I will take the first one. Good to hear your voice. I think, again, a few things. I don't think we need to overdo what we are discussing about buy now, wear now. Of course, we are obsessed about trying to understand customer behavior, right? And that's what we do every single day and try to understand what's going on. And I think as Luciano said, we see a bit of this starting last year and this year. This doesn't mean for us a radical change in the way we do business, right? I think, of course, we still have customers who come to us and buy when we launch pre-fall and we launch fall and winter later in September, et cetera, et cetera.

Of course, opportunity for us, as we discussed already, is to extend our offering as we go into spring/summer, have that opportunity to understand that spring/summer can be even a bit longer than we originally planned. But then, of course, we keep leveraging the core of our business, as we have been doing and improving it every time we come.

I think what we are trying to do in the context of this conversation is to share a bit of the behavior we're seeing right now. But again, none of those things will radically change today the way we are doing business. But of course, what we do is try to monitor day by day the learnings we can get from customers and see if there's a certain slight delay in terms of weeks, but not a dramatic change there.

Chris, about your question on Stone Island, the growth rate, of course, implies a growth in volumes, for sure. But also the second component is price/mix, and not the price itself because we didn't increase the prices significantly, again, about low single digit. But what it was and still is quite important is the price/mix impact, due to a continuing shift in the categories we sell. You may remember the long story that in the recent past, I mean at the time of the acquisition, business was doing very well, but mostly driven by entry price categories like freshirts, like T-shirts.

And right now, I mean right now, the day after the acquisition, we decided strategically to reinvest in the categories that made the origin, the identity of the brand that are outerwear and [ midwear ]. These categories now are performing very well, and the contribution of outerwear is way higher than what it was a few years ago. And this, of course, implies a higher average selling price.

Talking about profitability, needless to tell you that growing organically as Stone Island is doing implies a better operating profitability and a higher opportunity to increase that profitability. Having said that, of course, I mean, it is still a long journey also because, I mean, profitability -- the profitability, as you know, is driven by the sales density. So sales density for Stone Island is much better than 1 year ago, that was better than the year before, but still not at the level we want and we believe that the brand can achieve. But in any event, yes, with such organic growth rate, if this will continue as we hope, profitability will improve.

Next question is from [ Jean Daniel ], ODDO BHF.

I wanted to come back on a point raised by Carole on the mix between spring/summer and pre-fall and fall/winter during Q2 and Q3. Could you tell us historically how much of the sales in Q2, Q3 were driven by fall/winter compared to spring/summer? And I suppose this mix must be shifting pretty rapidly.

I understand your question. I mean we don't disclose in details this kind of information, honestly. I can tell you that in Q2, spring/summer is extremely important and more important than fall/winter. In Q3, spring/summer is less important than fall/winter simply because we sell spring/summer in July, in August, in September, our most relevant sales start to be with full winter season. So again, this is the pattern of our business. April, May, spring/summer, June, we start with the fall/winter. July is still a mix of the 2. August, more or less the same, September predominantly fall/winter season.

And Jean, just as a reminder, I mean, we provide an indication for the full year in terms of sales. Last year, we had about 25% spring/summer sales versus 75% fall/winter. I mentioned this in the past, but it's worth reminding everyone that actually the share of summer -- spring/summer has slightly increased sequentially over the past few years.

And the only thing that I would add to what has already been disclosed is that, as you might imagine, particularly in Europe, when you have tourists coming to buy, often, not all the time, but of course, if you have Asian customers coming to Europe, sometimes in July, August, given that we have pre-delivered fall/winter in the past, perhaps they were anticipating the purchase. And so given that we are proceeding and feeling this lack of tourists in Europe, this has been felt a bit more in this region.

Next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.

Congratulations also from me to Leo on his appointment. I just have a quick one, particularly given the time. Gino, on your point that only a small percentage of the retail network carried the full spring/summer offer in Q2, can you perhaps share what proportion exactly of the retail network did have the full assortment? And I'm wondering, are there any constraints on merchandising the full offer really driven by average store size that you're looking to overcome maybe for next year?

Thank you for the question because you allow me to clarify something. So what I meant is, of course, the collection, the full collection was spread out across the entire network. When I talk about a certain part of the network was the full experience around spring/summer. I think if you look about this, this is not a collection that we put on a specific jacket, a specific knitwear, specific cut and so on. This was almost around 2024 looks full of like layering. So what we tried to do was, while the collection was spread out everywhere, is in this x amount of stores that we have and a percentage of these stores was the full execution. And again, it's where you were able to see the whole layering system, where you were able to see the whole collection, where having not only windows but e-store execution, where the whole customer experience was regarding this layering system in the way it was approaching the retail experience.

So that's what I meant when we said, for us, it's very important that we are, as always, trying to learn from what we do, knowing that this is entering a different behavior for us as a company and a different behavior that we're asking customers to start looking at ourselves. So that's why for us is while the product was spread out and available in the entire network, for us, it was very important to take the lessons and learn from the stores that we want full execution. And this is something that you will see gradually as we go season after season. Not only the product and the offering will get better, but in terms of the experience it will provide for customers. And I think this is something that when Luca was asking Leo about opportunities there, I think he was mentioning about how we can even elevate our experience at retail, especially into VICs. This is something that we will keep evolving, not only in terms of the network and the amount of doors we have, but even in the experience we will provide around that.

Next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita SIM.

Just 2 follow-ups for me. The first one is about Korea, which was mentioned as one of the main drivers for the DTC performance of Moncler in APAC. But at the same time, the Korean cluster was mentioned as flat. So if you can comment a little bit here about the different behavior of tourists in the country and local customers and the different weight this have in your revenues there, and what you expect or what you see as a future evolution of this region?

And a second question, lastly, is about the initiatives for Q4. You have surprised yourself in the last few years with different events or a very powerful marketing campaign of last year. I was wondering if you can [indiscernible] something, not in detail, but at least let us understand how -- I mean, the magnitude of your efforts we should expect for the core winter season going forward.

Yes, Paola. Your first question about Korea, you are totally right, Korea cluster is flattish, but Korea market performed very well, which implies that apparently they didn't travel as much as in the past. Honestly, I don't know why. I can tell you that this is a trend I saw also in some publication, if I remember correctly, [ Global Blue ]. But in any event, Korea business with Korean in Europe is down as compared -- significantly down as compared to last year. But the business with them in their local market is good. And so at the end, the cluster is more or less stable, but with this peculiarity, as I told you.

The only thing I wanted to add is that, of course, we've captured Asian tourists into Korea. And so the fact that Korea was the strongest market that we've had in Asia is reflecting both good local consumption, but also tourists going into the country. And a lot of the explanation, as you know, comes down to FX.

And can you please -- sorry. I was wondering if you can add the exposure to local demand in Korea versus inbound tourism.

I mean, of course, I'm not providing numbers, Paola, but I can tell you that in Q1, the inbound tourism from China was quite relevant. Second quarter much less. But in any event, demand in Korea from locals is good, is very good. I mean there is -- I mean, this is common to other brands, as you know, and as far as I know, as I understand. And this is due to several different factors, including, let me say, the wealth effect, but also the fact that Moncler brand in Korea has been since ever and, of course, it is now very, very strong.

So again, long story short, very strong demand in Korea, let me say, mostly from locals in the second quarter, and a much weaker, significantly weaker business with Korean customers in Europe.

Paola, I will quickly answer your second question regarding Q4. First of all, I was happy to hear that you said that we keep surprising you every year in the past few years in Q4. We will try to keep that promise up. We will try to keep surprising you with the work we will deliver.

I think, as you know well, I think we are talking today a lot about the work we're doing in spring/summer and all the different initiatives we have. That is always an add-on on top of what we will do always around Q4 and our core season. So I think it's important to remind ourselves. Of course, I cannot share the deals, but we feel confident about what we have planned for the second half of the year.

I will say, just to tease a bit more, if you like, I just mentioned that in September, we'll be opening the flagship store in New York. And from thereon, you will see kind of a relentless approach towards the end of the year and beginning of '27. So count on us again on trying to surprise you again, and then you will tell me.

Next question is from Piral Dadhania, RBC.

So my first question is just on the gross margin, please. Could you help us walk through the main moving parts? We would have thought that maybe there was a bit more margin optionality given the positive regional mix, the positive channel mix and likely Grenoble outperforming the mainland collection. So could you just help us understand where those headwinds come from? I imagine it's probably to do with raw materials and inflation, but any help there would be useful.

And my second question is just on -- again, sorry, coming back to spring/summer and the way you set the business up. If we read between the lines, is it fair to say that perhaps the inventory availability and the risk-taking wasn't as high as it could have been. And therefore, there was kind of a product availability issue for some customers in store, which impacted conversion, and that's something that you will address with perhaps better or higher inventory levels next year? Is that the right way to think about what you've been saying this evening?

Okay. About gross margin, I mean, the improvement of gross margin is totally driven by channel mix. Gross margin overall, I mean, the impact, there are several different factors impacting gross margin. Honestly, nothing material to highlight. Of course, markup was substantially in line with last year. The need of reserve for obsolescence was substantially in line with last year. I mean some negative impact of FX, of course. But again, honestly, nothing particularly relevant to highlight.

Of course, when I'm talking about channel mix, that was positive. This implies both brands because, again, at this point, not only channel mix of Moncler, but also the impact of channel mix of Stone Island that I mean has been growing in the first half of the year, mostly in the DTC business.

About your...

I'm happy -- again, I'm happy just to give you a short answer there. I think the question just on channel for us was more about there was a feeling, a sensation that we were maybe short of inventory on certain things if we didn't take the enough risk. I would say the answer is for me is a bit the opposite. I think there was a risk that we took, but it was a calculated risk.

I think -- I want to go back in perspective. I think when you think about it, it's the very first real effort against spring/summer in almost 75 years of the company. So again, it wasn't easy for us to think that on the communication, on the message, on the approach, on siding, on the amount of different [ classifications ], it's not that simple to put all that together and then go pull on into an uncalculated risk. So the risk was there. I strongly believe that we like to be on this scenario versus the opposite scenario of having a lot of inventory and not able to connect with customers.

So I think what we have been saying for the entire call is we're very happy with the results. We have good results, not only in terms of the performance of the collection, but even as brand overall that gives us the confidence to keep building into this. And for us, I think we always said from day 1, this is a building block. We don't have a silver bullet that can make us spring/summer relevant in the first season. And again, as I mentioned before, we feel more confident being on this side of maybe we were short of certain items and we didn't have enough inventory than being on the other side of this conversation.

Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.

Can you hear me?

Yes, of course.

Sorry for the bad connectivity earlier. I hope you can hear me. If not, I'll take this offline. Two quick questions, please. Firstly, coming back to the DTC growth by nationality. The Chinese cohort was up over 20% in Q1. Luciano, you said the cluster was positive in Q2. Can you be a bit more specific? Was it still up double digits? And how did domestic versus offshore compare?

And secondly, could you come back to the reasons behind the softer performance in June versus April and May, especially as you started delivering the pre-fall into stores?

Yes. Thomas, nice to hear you again. I mean about the nationalities, I mean, China, Chinese cluster was up. Again, let me say yes, yes, double digit. The other nationalities, as I said, Americans also were up, and the Korean and Japanese flattish. And the Europeans, unfortunately, negative. But let me know if I answered your question, yes or not?

Yes, yes. Was the Chinese cohort better offshore than onshore? You talked about Chinese and Korea.

No, I think it was -- look, it was good both onshore and offshore for us. So there was no particular difference.

Let me also take this chance to take the second question because I believe we've been quite clear about the performance over the quarter, June and the reason behind it. I don't know if you were able to follow the entire call, but otherwise, happy to take it offline.

Okay. We'll take it offline. It's quite late. Yes, I did follow the call, but I want some clarification. We can discuss that in a few moments, Elena.

The next question is from Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.

I have just 2 very quick follow-up questions, actually. The first one, on profitability on the second half of the year. Rather than talking about profitability, thinking about the OpEx development in H2. You delivered very tight cost control in H1. Should we extrapolate that into H2 or should we think about an acceleration of OpEx? And to that, when thinking about the New York opening, I'm guessing that the rents are already in the OpEx base, so it would be an acceleration of employees, but not rents. Am I correct?

And the second question, just to come back on the like-for-like very quickly on Q2. I know you don't comment on quarterly like-for-likes, but just trying to square the 7% for H1. Is it fair to assume that like-for-like in Q2 was positive and actually space was negatively impacted by online?

So about OpEx, in the second half of the year, we don't see any material significant element to highlight. As I said before, let me think, as I said before, the one-off will be much, much smaller. It will be about EUR 2 million, slightly less than EUR 2 million, as compared to the EUR 8 million we reported in the first half.

Talking about selling expenses, I mean, you are totally right about the rent New York. For any store we open, we start report in our results the rent cost at the time we take over the store, so independently on when we open the store. And of course, something I didn't highlight, but the rents without revenues is a metric we monitor, and in the first half of the year was quite important and higher than last year.

So honestly, at this point, to the best of my knowledge in the second half of the year, I don't see any significant element. Of course, there might be elements that are very volatile and so very difficult to predict associated with the cost of energy because, I mean, honestly, right now, apparently is better than what we expected just a couple of months ago. But I mean, this is a completely open issue. But this may be a risk. But right now, we don't assess that risk as particularly material.

The other question?

I think you've asked about the like-for-like in the second quarter.

Like-for-like in the second quarter, of course, we don't disclose this number, but let me give you some qualitative answer. The first quarter was very, very good. And so 7% is the weighted average of a very, very good comp in the first quarter and much less in the second quarter. So this is -- and was also the -- there was another question, I don't remember.

No, I think it was the last one. So yes, I mean, just slightly positive is a good assumption. We are generous today.

Ms. Mariani, there are no more questions registered at this time.

All right. Thank you very much to everyone. Just a quick reminder of the next release. Our Q3 2026 results will be released on October 21, post market close. And our quiet period will start on September 22.

Thank you again. For any follow-up questions, as usual, you can contact me any time. Have a great evening. And for those of you going on holiday, we wish you a wonderful summer break. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.

Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler First Quarter 2026 Interim Management Statement Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining our call tonight. I will host this interim management statement call together with Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer. I will start providing a brief overview of our results and then Luciano and I will be happy to take your questions.

Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate.

Let me also highlight that given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore, cannot be taken as a proxy for full year trends or results.

Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen-only mode.

So starting with an overview of our Q1 results on Page 3. I'm delighted to announce that as a group, we achieved revenues of EUR 881 million, up 12% year-on-year at constant FX, and up 6% in reported terms, reflecting 6 percentage points of negative impact from currencies. These results reflect double-digit sales growth achieved at both brands. Moncler brand revenues of EUR 767 million, up 12% year-on-year at constant FX; and Stone Island brand revenues of EUR 114 million, up 11% year-on-year at constant FX.

Now if you move to Page 4, we're going to briefly touch upon the key highlights related to the Moncler brand. This has been an amazing quarter for the brand, probably the best we have ever seen in terms of brand impact and engagement, particularly when it comes to Moncler Grenoble.

Starting last December, we had embarked on an intense 100-day journey of storytelling and activations related to this brand dimension. We have started back then with the launch of Moncler Grenoble latest campaign. And then in Q1, we unveiled the Fall/Winter 2026 collection in Aspen within the Rocky Mountains during a unique 2-day brand experience with the Moncler Grenoble global community. And during this experience, we opened our second Moncler Grenoble-only store in Aspen after St. Moritz 2 years ago, so obviously, the first Grenoble flagship in America.

But this 100-day journey extended well beyond Aspen. As shown on Page 5, it included several other activations. Just after the Aspen event during Milan Fashion Week, we unveiled the Beyond Performance Exhibit in Milan, an immersive experience on the Moncler Grenoble universe and identity in courtyard of Portrait Milano.

Also importantly, we returned to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1968. We co-created with Brazilian designer, Oskar Metsavaht, the ceremonial uniform of Team Brazil. This was announced just 24 hours before the opening ceremony, and it quickly became the most relevant news of the day for both the luxury fashion world and the sports industry. The uniform and the moment itself became an iconic image of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the impact on media and social media has been beyond any expectation on our side.

We were also incredibly lucky to be represented by -- at the Olympics by our Moncler Grenoble global ambassador, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who won the first ever Olympics gold medal for Brazil. I'm sure many of you had the chance to see this very emotional images from Lucas. And on the back of his incredible journey, we launched The South Star, a campaign to celebrate Lucas' fantastic achievements, but also his personal story and values.

Together, all these initiatives delivered exceptional visibility and engagement, generating over 6 billion in potential global reach, 435 million in digital engagement and over 3,200 press articles worldwide, making this the most impactful Moncler Grenoble brand chapter to date.

But this quarter was not just about Moncler Grenoble. Moving to Page 6, you can see a selection of other brand highlights related to Moncler Collection and Moncler Genius. First, we launched the first-ever Spring/Summer collection developed in collaboration with Rick Owens, marking an evolution of a creative partnership that was historically mainly and just focused on Fall/Winter.

Second, we presented Moncler Collection Spring 2026, supported by a global campaign shot in Rome, featuring actors, Francesco Scianna and Celeste Dalla Porta, which generated 182 million potential reach worldwide and 2 million global engagement just within the first 30 days.

Finally, Moncler further expanded its footwear offering with the introduction of the new Trailgrip LP. This model represents the lightest technical sneaker developed by Moncler to-date, supporting the continued evolution of our footwear pillar.

Let's now move to Stone Island on Page 7. Also for Stone, this was an incredibly eventful quarter, marked by a series of initiatives that further reinforce the brand's positioning around community, research and innovation and increase the visibility of the brand worldwide.

From a product and innovation standpoint, Stone Island continued to push the boundaries of material research and fabrication with the launch of Prototype Research_Series 09, where for the first time knitwear became the subject of prototype experimentation. We also continued Stone Island's global partnership with Frieze returning to the Los Angeles Edition of Frieze Focus and reaffirming the brand's long-standing commitment to supporting emerging galleries and artistic experimentation. As part of this initiative, the brand collaborated with American artist Jamal Cyrus on the latest iteration of its Frieze uniform T-shirt series.

In parallel, Stone unveiled the next chapter of its Community as a Form of Research project, presenting the Spring/Summer '26 collection. We further expanded the brand dialog with its global community with this new chapter, bringing together a variety group of individuals sharing Stone Island's values such as former football icon, Paolo Maldini, an amazing brand ambassador whom you can see on the page.

Finally, the quarter included the opening of a new flagship store in Naples on one of the city's most prominent streets, once again developed in collaboration with the OMA/AMO studio. And for the occasion, Stone Island released A SORPRES, a short documentary exploring the unique relationship between the brand and the city of Naples.

Talking about numbers, we're going to start with the Moncler brand on Page 8. We're very happy to say that in the first quarter of the year, the brand grew by 12% at constant currencies. And looking first at the performance by geography, Asia was the best-performing region, growing by 22%. All countries grew year-on-year in this quarter and improved sequentially compared to Q4. China and Korea, in particular, were very strong and outperformed the rest of the region. Overall, local consumption was positive, but we also registered very good tourist flows within the region. So both locals and tourists contributed positively to the growth of Asia.

Growth was also good in the Americas region, which was up 7%. Here, we continue to observe very solid growth in local consumption in the DTC channel, but the wholesale channel also registered a positive performance in the quarter.

EMEA revenues instead were down 1%, underperforming the other regions. And here, I would highlight 2 factors in particular that affected the performance of the region. First, still subdued tourism trends from customers overseas while local consumption has been holding up; and second, a relatively weak performance of the online channel in the region.

Looking at Moncler revenues by channel on Page 9. We're very pleased to say that in Q1 Moncler DTC revenues were up 14% at constant currencies. We have registered very good retail KPIs and positive traffic into the physical channel. So physical retail has continued to outperform the online channel, which instead remains a bit more subdued in the quarter, even if it has improved sequentially versus Q4.

Wholesale revenues were up 3% year-on-year. This was due to a good reception of our Spring/Summer 2026 collection, which resulted in higher reorders. And it is also important to highlight that this positive performance in the wholesale channel was achieved despite the ongoing efforts to upgrade the quality of our distribution given that in the quarter, we have continued to optimize our third-party network. Let me remind you that for fiscal year 2026, we continue to expect wholesale revenues for Moncler to get close to flattish, so no change in our yearly outlook for this channel.

Moving now to Stone Island on Page 10. Q1 revenues were up 11% for the brand, boosted by continued solid double-digit growth in the DTC channel. But looking specifically at the trends by region, Asia was the strongest region, up 25%. All the main countries registered strong double-digit growth, so I'm talking about Korea, Japan, China and the rest of APAC as well. So very much a broad-based growth within this region.

The Americas region was also up 24%. The region is still small for Stone Island, but it grew at a double-digit pace, both in the DTC channel and in the wholesale channel, so very encouraging signs.

EMEA revenues were up 3%. Also here, both channels were positive. And when it comes to the single countries, what I can tell you is that Italy, the largest single country in the region, slightly outperformed the rest of EMEA.

Looking more specifically at Stone Island trends by channel on Page 11, the DTC channel, which is now representing the majority of sales, grew by a strong 17% in Q1. We were very pleased by the development of all the retail metrics, particularly given that this performance is entirely organic, with no contribution coming from new space. All regions were positive in this channel. But as I have just mentioned, Americas and Asia, in particular, outperformed. And also for Stone Island, the physical channel continued to outperform the online channel across all regions.

Finally, in wholesale, revenues were up 4%. Even for Stone Island, we continue to be extremely selective with our third-party partners. So we're very happy to say that growth was driven by a positive reception of the Spring/Summer 2026 collection.

In terms of fiscal year 2026 indication, also for Stone, our ambition for this channel is to get close to flattish with trends in the first half of the year expected to be better than those in the second half of the year.

Last, but not least, let's briefly look at our store network on Page 12. As of 31st of March 2026, the network of Moncler mono-brand boutiques counted 295 directly operated stores, net-net unchanged compared with December 2025. However, I would like to stress again an important development during the quarter, which was the previously mentioned opening of our second Moncler Grenoble-only store in Aspen in correspondence of the events -- of the event we had at the end of January. A beautiful store, definitely one of a kind, as you can see on Page 13.

Looking at Stone, the network of mono-brand stores counted 94 directly operated stores, a net decrease of 1 unit compared with last December. But also for Stone, I would like to flag the opening of our store in Naples, which I've just mentioned, and of which you can see some nice pictures on Page 14.

So we reached the end of the presentation. I will now hand it over to the operator for your questions. [Operator Instructions]

Operator, you can now open the Q&A line. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. I have 2 questions. I was curious to hear your -- the initial feedback from your clients on your Spring/Summer collection for the Moncler brand, and also on the Grenoble one, since if I remember correctly, you should have had 3 drops in -- during the first part of the year?

And my second question is on Stone Island. Of course, this is -- the brand is doing particularly well with retail growing double digits for 3 quarters in a row. Could you please give us a sense of how it is going, let's say, more recently, let's say, in April? And also how the 3 collections, Marina, Stellina and Ghost are doing and what they represent on sales?

Yes. Melania, about your first question, some feedback, honestly, is quite early, but I can tell you that the feedback is very good, very positive not only from our customers, but let me say from everyone because of the campaign, as you may have seen, is very, very strong, very impactful. So again, our expectations are relevant.

And sorry to say that, but not just in terms of business that is important, but this is a very important brand campaign. I mean for the first time ever, we wanted to be very intentional about this current season, when normally we are not as strong as much as in Fall/Winter. And I mean we are very happy because the feedback and also the mediatic impact is very strong.

About Grenoble, Melania, first quarter was very good, was very good also because of everything we implemented what Elena said before, I mean, that event in Aspen, for sure, was particularly impactful, but also the event in Milan and also the success we indirectly had with Lucas Braathen in the Olympics. And business-wise, I can tell you that the first quarter Grenoble was particularly good.

One more thing, Melania, if you were making reference to delivery to on the back of Gino's presentation in February, it's actually starting now and marketing will come mid-May. So too early to tell.

About Stone Island, Melania, let me comment Q1 first, which is the third quarter in a row we report double-digit growth for Stone Island. And important to highlight, of course, something I'm sure you saw, growth comes mostly from the DTC channel. And let me say that the total -- the totality of that growth rate is organic only because, I mean, there is no space that impacted the growth rate.

So very happy about the current trend of Stone Island that is continuing -- substantially continuing. Of course, April is just -- we have just a couple of weeks behind us. So very -- still very premature to get to any conclusion, but this positive trend is continuing in the first days of April.

Maybe one small thing about [indiscernible] collections which you have asked. I mean the one that I would highlight as being the strongest among them is definitely Ghost. You might remember, it was a very low single-digit percentage of sales just a few years ago, and now it's approaching 10% of sales.

So very good results. Ghost, as a reminder, is the most elevated part of the collection tone on tone, very good reception so far, outgrowing the rest of the collection and contributing to the positive mix evolution of Stone Island.

Next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

Congratulations on a very strong Q1 performance. My first question is about, I was wondering about the performance of the like-for-like and I was wondering if you can help us to have -- to know what was the space contribution in Q1 and the split between the space contribution and like-for-like? I know you don't break it down, but just assuming that it was around mid-single digit, it will mean that the like-for-like rebounded strongly in Q1 to high single-digit rate. Is it fair? And was it mostly volume driven and with a bit of pricing? That's my first question.

And my second question is the performance by cluster. It would be good to have an idea of the performance with the Chinese cluster in Q1, both onshore and offshore, and how does it compare with Q4? I know it's still early days, but is it -- is that strength continuing into Q2?

Anne-Laure, thank you for your question. Of course, we don't report like-for-like, but I can tell you that the space contribution is not particularly relevant in Q1. I mean it's not particularly meaningful, sorry, in 1 quarter only. But as a matter of fact, is totally quite in line with our indication for the year-end, which is closer to mid-single digit.

Talking about the contribution within the organic growth, volumes were positive. And even more importantly, the average selling price was up. And not just, I mean, totally, totally driven by mix, but not just -- not only mix between winter and spring, but back to the previous question from Melania, because Grenoble performed quite well, and as you know, Grenoble has a higher price than Moncler collection. Also not only because of conversion, but also the UPT for Grenoble was quite good. So this is overall the picture about the organic growth in the first quarter.

Talking about the cluster in first quarter, Chinese cluster was up double digit. Koreans and Japan, close to double-digit, slightly below 10%. And Americas and Europeans still positive single digit. So again, Chinese cluster is still very strong as much as in Q4. So I mean everything was good. All of the different nationalities were positive. Of course, the strongest was Chinese, but I mean all the other 2 Asian nationalities were very good as well.

Next question is from Chris Huang, UBS.

I'll stick to 2. The first one, just to come back on the Moncler brand DTC. If I understood correctly, I think the previous commentary you commented on the start of Q2 was more Stone Island. So could you maybe clarify a little bit, in case I missed it, how has the mood of consumers started for you in the second quarter on the Moncler brand specifically?

And secondly, on the Middle East, last week when we heard from some of your other peers in this sector, report, they were calling out the Middle East impact somewhere between 1 to 2 percentage points. I know that you have a smaller direct exposure to the region for the Moncler brand. But are you able to perhaps help us a little bit better understanding the impact, direct, but also indirect, in terms of tourism? If you can give us some sense in terms of the numbers, headwinds, that will be extremely helpful.

Okay. Thank you, Chris. Yes, I mean you're right. Actually, I gave some indication about the first 2 weeks of second quarter about the Stone Island, not about Moncler because this was the question from Melania, if I understood correctly.

Anyway, talking about Moncler, let me start from Q1 to elaborate the current trend in the second quarter. Q1, January was very good. January was very good unexpectedly because of the different timing of the Chinese New Year. Second quarter was very, very strong. This was, let me say, fairly expected for -- sorry, February; Elena corrected me.

So January, very good. February, very, very strong for the same reason. Chinese New Year this year was in the second week of February. March, softer. Softer, first of all, because there was a significant decline in traffic coming from outside the region in Europe due to a decline in flights, I mean that there are numbers, there are public numbers that have been reported by Global Blue that say that the tax-free spending in Continental Europe in March dropped significantly after January and February and also because of the current conflict in Iran. That of course, prevented some Asian people from coming -- from flying to come to Europe.

The beginning of the second quarter was in line with March, so quite uncertain. I mean not softer than again, January and February, but affected by the slowdown in tourism that is affecting mostly Europe.

Talking about the Middle East, our business, as you correctly pointed out, the Middle East is less than 2%. Of course, that business is significantly down. But I mean, that 2% -- I mean even the decline of that 2% is not impacting materially our overall business.

Maybe one small thing I wanted to flag, Chris, is that when you think about the shape of evolution of the first quarter, you also have to keep in mind that there is kind of a natural slowdown post the Chinese New Year, given that we were quite strong in China and with the Chinese cluster, you can absolutely expect that after a strong February, then you have a bit of a normalization in March. So this was the other factor to keep into account on top of what Luciano has mentioned.

And then about the Middle Eastern, the only thing that I can add is that the cluster was down around 50% in March. But again, not a meaningful direct impact on the business and not as much as others. Then the second derivative effect that we will see. But the first one we have seen, it was more related to incoming tourism from overseas customers into Europe that was worse in March compared to the previous 2 months.

Can I just follow up on that comment you made on March? I think it's -- most of the peers seem to be seeing a little bit of softening after Chinese New Year. So given that you did 14% in Q1, is it fair to assume that March was still trending in the range of high single digits?

Chris, would you kindly stop for a second because we have a technical issue. Okay, no, your voice is back. So if you could just repeat your follow-up, that would be great.

Okay. No worries. So I was saying that it makes sense that March was softening a little bit after Chinese New Year, given that your -- timing of the event. But given that you did 14% in Q1, is it fair to say that March was still in the range of high single digit or even double digits? Any directional color you can give.

I can't give you this kind of precise number, Chris, I'm sorry. I can tell you that the March was positive, but softer than the previous 2 months.

Next question is from Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.

Congratulations on the great set of results. I have 2 questions. The first, could you tell us what your exposure to tourism is in Europe, particularly in Q1 and how that differs versus the rest of the year?

And then my second question is just on the margin. Is there anything to keep top of mind on the phasing of H1 versus H2 this year? I just know that last year, your A&P was quite high in H1. It was 9.6%. So anything you could tell us, that would be helpful.

Sorry, Natasha, we couldn't hear you very well. So the first question was about tourism contribution to European sales, right?

Yes.

Yes. Okay. First. And the second one, again, sorry. It was related to margins, sorry, we couldn't hear you very well.

Sorry. On the margin, is there anything to keep top of mind on the phasing of H1 and H2 this year given your A&P was 9.6% in H1 last year?

Okay, Natasha, thank you for your questions. Starting from the second question about potential phasing in margin, what I can tell you is, of course, not about the margin, but I can tell you that we're talking about A&P, advertising and promotion marketing, the timing between H1 and H2 this year is expected to be substantially in line with last year. So nothing materially different this year from last year.

Talking about the impact of tourism in Europe is on the year-end, I mean on the fiscal year, about 50-50.

Yes. Just to specify a little bit, 50-50 means 50% local, 50% tourists coming from outside of the region.

Yes. So when we talk about tourism, this is something important to clarify. Thank you, Elena, for everyone. When we talk about tourism, we consider only tourism from outside of the region. Of course, we detect, we monitor also the tourist inside of the region, but what is much more relevant for our business is the one from outside.

The only thing I would add, I mean, we don't really go into the specific details related to each quarter. But as always, I mean, it's true for last year, and it's going to be hopefully possibly true also for this year.

The first and fourth quarter are typically slightly higher than average in terms of exposure to locals. The second and third quarter are typically more exposed than average to tourism flow, is something you've heard multiple times from us, but it's the typical seasonality you see in a year.

Next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

Yes. The first one is on the CapEx plan. Are there any investments impacted by events in the Middle East that could be postponed? Or do you see no need to make changes to the investment plan due to this geopolitical context?

And my second question is on ForEx. If you can give us an update on the expected ForEx impact for this year?

Okay. Thank you, Oriana, for your question. About the CapEx impacted, I mean, CapEx plan impacted by the situation in Middle East, no, nothing, nothing relevant. Obviously, I mean, lucky or unlucky depending on the point of view, but we are still a very small business and also a business plan for Middle East. So nothing material at all. And the other...

And the second, what's the impact from currencies...

Impact from currencies. Of course, the first quarter was quite high, I mean as Elena pointed out, was 6% for the year-end based on our current visibility is below 4%, between 3% and 4%, on the top line, of course.

Next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.

Congratulations on the super strong results. This is Daria from Bank of America, and I have 2 questions. So an incredible showing in Asia. However, while Europe also improved sequentially compared to the previous quarter, Americas slowed a little bit, while you also had the activation there in January. Is there anything to read into this? Or was there any one-offs that we should be considering for the remainder of the year in terms of American demand? That's my first question.

And my second question is, could you please help us understand what the Stone Island acceleration to this extent means for margins? Should we expect this to become quite meaningfully accretive compared to the past couple of years, if we think about the profitability bridge?

Daria, about your first question, I mean, first of all, we are happy about our performance in the U.S. I don't know if your question was more related to something that consider the event that we held in Aspen, we should have expected better than what we reported. But honestly, I think that the number we reported was good. It was very good.

Of course, you know that, I mean, this company in the U.S., I mean, as everyone knows, I'm sure you do, is still under-penetrated in the U.S. And I mean this under-penetration depends also on brand awareness that in the U.S., North America, is still lower, not as strong as in other regions.

And let me say that, not in the U.S., everywhere, because in the main cities where we have strong footprint like New York, not only the brand awareness is good, is very strong, it is still weaker in, let me say, minor cities where we start to have some stores. We started last year to open some stores. So overall, the U.S. is long journey. It's a project that, I mean, started last year. This year, we have been even -- and we are even more intentional with the 2 big events, Aspen and the new opening in New York Fifth Avenue.

Overall, nothing negative at all about the demand for our brand. Great expectations, for sure. But I mean, it will be a long journey. It will take some time, but we are very confident.

About Stone Island, I mean, I can tell you something that for you as an analyst is quite obvious. Stone Island is growing very nicely after a couple of years when we faced some challenges, some difficulties. And it is growing totally organically. Of course, you know that in our business, Stone Island is not DTC, is not relevant as much as Moncler, but still 50% is quite important. So any organic growth in the DTC business delivers stronger margins.

Having said that, honestly, I mean, it is quite premature to get to any conclusion or to extrapolate the result of the first quarter over the next 3 quarters because it is very early. It would be very imprudent to do that. But in any event, if Stone Island should continue as we hope to grow double digit and mostly organic as it did over the past quarter, for sure, the operating margin will improve and for sure, I mean, it will be maybe less dilutive than it was in the past couple of years.

Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.

Two questions, please. The first one on the store network. There were no openings [indiscernible] one, on a net basis, as you said, Elena, that drove mid-single-digit space contribution, I guess, from last year's opening.

When it comes to this year's openings, can you remind us of the phasing of the flagship in New York? Any other major openings in China or Asia for the remainder of the year that you may want to anticipate given the stronger brand momentum in the region?

Secondly, on gross margin, I know you'll update us, Luciano, on H1 profit in July, but can you perhaps comment on the tailwind you're expecting in the first half, in particular, so you had return to mid-high single digit volume growth in Q1, already channel mix, massive tailwind, geo mix, possibly any other headwinds or maybe tailwinds we should be aware for H1 and full year?

And just a clarification, when you talked, Luciano, about April was in line with March, was it a comment for the Moncler brand DTC overall or was it just a China comment?

Yes, Thomas. Thank you for your question. About your last question, the trend in April, I just commented, was about DTC. The first comment, the first question we received from Melania was about Stone Island. The second comment I made from another question was about Moncler, but still DTC-only, if this was your question.

Okay. Gross margin, gross margin evolution, gross margin, not operating margin, correct, Thomas?

Yes. So yes, gross margin, that's correct.

The gross margin, honestly, looking at -- I mean both the brands, of course, they have a fairly different gross margin. But I mean, I don't see any material difference between Q1 and Q2, honestly. As always, we don't have a significant differences in gross margin from Q1 to Q2. We may have -- I mean we have evidently significant differences in operating margins, but I'm sure you know very well that. So I'm not sure if this was your question or if I missed something?

So Luciano, again, my question was more about the tailwinds to gross margin in the first half. You have a lot of tailwinds with volume growth, with channel mix, with Asia outperforming. Is there anything on the balance as tailwinds that we should be aware of as the consensus gross margin for H1 and full year is more or less flat and it seems like you're off to a very strong start to support gross margin expansion this year.

The factors that may impact gross margin are channel mix. But again, you know that the majority of the space increase in our DTC channel is expected in the second half of the year. So honestly, between the Q1 and Q2 from this point of view, I don't see any material impact. There might be an impact on markets because in some markets due to the price gap, we have a slightly higher or lower gross margin, but not particularly relevant. So again, I don't see any tailwind on gross margin.

Of course, the only tailwind, I don't see, but I mean, based on the result of the first quarter, if this result should continue in the second quarter would be on the operating margin. But again, on the gross margin, again, I don't see any fact that may have a material impact on gross margin.

And maybe, Thomas, when it comes to the channel mix, as always, if there will be an impact on the channel mix this year, it is typically then compensated by a proportional increase in the selling expenses. And so anything that might come if the gross margin is going to be up slightly this year because of the channel mix that we expect it to be compensated. So if your question was meant to see if there was a little bit of margin upside, that wouldn't happen because of these factors.

And then I think you had a question about the store openings for the rest of the year. Sorry, we're repeating this because your line wasn't totally clear.

Store opening for the rest of the year, I mean, overall, we expect a number of stores overall, including stores that have already been opened, in line with last year in the region of 12, 13, 14 new stores. Many stores will be opened in America. Of course, we have also in Aspen already opened and the store in New York Fifth Avenue, needless to remind you; and some other stores in America, in California, in Valley Fair, in Dallas and others. I mean, what I call wrongly minor cities, but minor, let me say, for the brand because our presence in some cities is still, let me say, quite shy. So these are cities are hosting, for example, we are testing due to the project we have for that market.

We don't have many openings in China, even if, of course, that market is doing very well. Some openings in Asia Pacific in the Southeast Pacific. These are more or less the openings we plan for this year, Thomas.

And as a reminder, for Stone Island, on a net-net basis, we do not expect to have openings. Actually, we are probably going to see some net closures by the end of the year, low single-digit net closures.

Next question is from Carole Madjo, Barclays.

Two questions from me as well. The first one is on Spring/Summer. Can you come back here on your ambition for the Spring/Summer collection? I think you mentioned that you have been more intentional about Spring/Summer for the first time. So when you think of product, which one are you pushing in terms of family of product? And then when you think about the weight of Q1, Q2, et cetera, so the quarterly growth. Of course, Q1 and Q4 have been the biggest quarter at Moncler. Should we expect a change going forward as you're trying to push a bit more the Spring/Summer collection? That's the first question.

And the second question is just around the Grenoble stores you opened in Aspen earlier this year. So is the stores here performing in line with your expectations in terms of retail metrics? So are they similar to the one, of course, in the Switzerland, St. Moritz, for instance? And can you also remind us how we should think about store openings for Grenoble in the future?

Yes. Carole, about the first question, our expectations, as I said before, are mostly brand expectations. We want -- we aim to make Moncler, an all year-round brand. Of course, still protecting our DNA that is based on winter, mountain, cold, but we see opportunities still to protect the identity of the brand to become more and more relevant in Spring/Summer. This will be a long journey, so our expectations are mostly brand expectations.

Also business expectations, but not something we expect to see and to deliver overnight. So of course, it will be a long journey. I mean I hope we can see some business results this year. But again, this is not our most important goal.

The other question was about Grenoble. Yes, we opened the store in Aspen that is performing, let me say, totally in line with our plan. Of course, our plan was -- still is to have 2 stores in Aspen as we have 2 stores that are both doing quite well in St. Moritz. The store after the opening, the few days after the opening were the days of the event, so the store did particularly strongly, thanks to the traffic of people invited for the event, our best clients that bought the current collection, placed orders for the next collection of the event. But again, forget the first few days, the store is doing quite well. So we are very happy about that opening.

So the other question was about...

The weight of Q1, Q4 versus Q2, Q3, whether we should expect change going...

I mean the weight of Q1 and Q4, of course, is extremely more important than the Q2 and Q3. Of course, our goal is to decrease this gap between the Q1, Q4 and Q2, Q3. And for this reason, again, we are -- as I said before, we are this year more than ever, very intentional in developing this identity, still leveraging on what made the identity of the brand.

Of course, the current collection we are featuring in our stores and in the campaign right now is based on lightness and layering, but still maintaining and protecting the culture of the brand. So expectation without giving numbers, Carole, because they would be totally meaningless, but for sure, we expect, I mean, over the time, second quarter, third quarter to become more relevant and to decrease the gap between the other 2 quarters.

And Carole, just to contextualize, it's not an expectation of 2026. This is really like a medium to long term journey. As you know, we want to increase the weight of Spring/Summer step by step. We did already, in the past few years, even if it wasn't maybe 100% visible, but the weight of Spring/Summer versus Fall/Winter in terms of collection has increased 1 percentage point per annum over the past few years. This comment is really like a medium-term ambition that we have. So you shouldn't read anything into 2026.

And also, as you know, there is -- part of this can be controlled or pushed by us. Then there is also the external environment that needs to be taken into account, the tourist flows, the weight of tourism in Q2, Q3. So there are several factors that can come into play. Obviously, over the medium to long term, we will hope to see this evolution.

Next question is from Charles Scotti, Kepler.

I have 2. My first question relates to EMEA, where growth has been relatively weak since the second half of '24. What do you think explains this? Is it solely due to weaker tourism? And if so, could you provide more details on the trends among the local customers? And do you believe the brand in EMEA is now, to some extent, a bit more mature and what levers could be used to reaccelerate growth?

And my second question relates to the very impressive acceleration of Moncler in APAC. The environment in China seems to be improving, but your performance improvement goes well beyond what we have seen from your peers. How do you explain this? Have you implemented any specific corrective measures or initiatives that could explain this regained momentum?

Charles, about your first question, I don't believe at all that -- I mean, we can talk about some kind of maturity of the brand in Europe. I think that I would not talk about weakness, but for sure, EMEA is performing less than Asian countries for sure. And this is mostly, let me say, totally due to the decline in tourism, specifically talking about Q1.

And as I said before, in Q1, there was a strong decline in tourism coming from outside the region to Europe in March. January and February, I mean, was not strong. February was positive because of Chinese is coming after the new Chinese New Year. January was not strong. I mean overall, there was a stronger decline in March that is again reported also by Global Blue for all the industry.

Talking about locals in Europe, locals are holding up, and so this makes us confident. Of course, I can't tell you that in Europe, I mean, the business with locals is particularly amazing. We are holding that business, so I mean, this makes us confident. But for sure, Europe -- demand in Europe right now also from locals is not particularly strong. But again, overall, I am confident to exclude that, I mean there might be any maturity issue with the brand.

Talking about China, let me say that, I mean, the brand is very strong, something I keep saying, and I'm sure you know, is very strong for several different reasons. And even when in China, problems were bigger than what they are now, our business was quite good. I'm not sure that the problems in China are over, honestly, because I mean, the problems -- demand problems associated with the demand that depend on the available income, that depend on the real estate challenges that is lasting more than expected. I don't think that all of these problems are over. But for sure, we see more vibe in China than in the past. But again, still too early to predict what China overall can be over the next quarters. What I can tell you for sure is that our brand in China and with the Chinese cluster is still doing very well.

Next question is from Chris Gao, CLSA.

Congrats on the great results and your Asia operational investment bearing fruit. So I have 2. So the first one is on the Stone Island. Just now you commented on the volume mix, pricing contribution for Moncler brands growth and how the Stone Island DTC volume mix ASP contribution to the 1Q growth was like?

And also, just want to understand more about it, what does the brand do right to drive the notable gain of desirability during this quarter? Definitely, we've seen a notable market share gain. So where is the share gain coming from? And we also want to understand more clarity, if possible, on the midterm target on Stone Island scale and the margin profile. So this is the first question.

The second question is a more top-down question about the pricing architecture. So with such a strong desirability seen on both Moncler and Stone Island, do you have any update -- further update on Moncler and Stone Island's pricing architecture outlook in the midterm because just want to understand more about like the midterm upsides on the mix side and the margins from the 2 brands?

Chris, about your first question. The first question about volume mix, I mean, I can tell you that the organic growth implied a significant growth of volumes. Looking at the retail metrics, I can tell you that last year, where Stone Island started doing very well in Q3, did very well, notwithstanding a negative traffic.

So the business was totally driven by 2 retail metrics, average selling price and the conversion. Average selling price was because, I mean, we changed the product architecture, the collection architecture of Stone Island, as you know, investing more and more in outerwear, knitwear that have a higher price point. But what was very positive was conversion rate because even if less people were coming to visit the store, the majority -- not the majority, but I mean, an increasing percent of people that come to visit this store converted into sales, into business.

Long story short, at the end of the year, traffic was still negative but close to flat. In the first quarter of the year, also traffic February, March -- January, less, but February, March, traffic was positive. So all of the retail metrics were positive, traffic, conversion rate is still very strong and average selling price.

Your question, which brand or where are we taking the market share from? The very simple answer is, I don't know. But what I can tell you is that, for sure, we see a positive brand momentum. That is something that I can't tell you we did expect. But I can tell you, for sure, that this is the result of a strategy we implemented of a product, of a collection strategy we implemented the day after the acquisition that was about investing in the categories, in the product categories that made the origin and the identity of the brand when -- since its inception that are outerwear and knitwear.

The brand was doing very well at the time of the acquisition. But the business trend over the previous 3, 4 years was driven by entry price categories, mostly T-shirts and sweatshirts. We decided to, I mean, slow down that kind of categories and investing in the categories, I told you before. This took time. And in fact, for a couple of years, the business was not positive. We lost most -- many of aspirational customers that were attracted by the logo and by the entry price categories.

But at the end, for the first time for the Fall/Winter '25 collection, we saw a collection that was not totally but mostly in line with our expectations. So the results are -- were, I mean, not expected, but strongly hoped by the management team. So this is the long story, sorry, not particularly short, but I hope that I made myself clear.

About the price architecture. For Stone Island, it is exactly what I just said. So keep investing in these categories, but without forgetting the entry price categories because I think there is something more and something better we can do in the entry price categories, but still investing in the brand codes of Stone Island and brand codes are material research. Material research is mostly about outerwear but also knitwear.

Talking about Moncler, you know that, I mean, the long story of our price architecture over the past 10 years. I mean we started with the classic down jacket that is still our best seller categories, but we invested more and more in the high-end products within the outerwear category and also in knitwear. And so this was -- has been the history of the brand over the past 10, 15 years and this is something that we want to continue.

I mean, right now, our core business is in the price point between EUR 1,500 and EUR 2,500 for Moncler. I mean but we still -- but we see opportunities also with our customer base -- without recruiting new customers, we see opportunities to increase this price range over the EUR 2,500. Of course, it's something that we are implementing step-by-step. It is a long journey. It's not something that we can expect to achieve overnight. But this is our strategy.

Of course, still protecting the entry price categories. Of course, entry price categories for Moncler and talking about outerwear is still higher than EUR 1,000, but we see opportunities also in that price point. I hope I answered your question.

Next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.

I'm really following up on Charles' question around the Chinese cluster. It looks like the Chinese cluster was probably high-teens, perhaps 20% up for you in Q1. A couple of questions then.

First of all, what was the Chinese cluster growth last year, for the whole of the year for you? And perhaps you can share with us what you've done differently in China in this Q1 and especially in the transition into Spring/Summer in the earlier stages of that? And it might be that my calculation is completely wrong, so please do correct me, if that's the case.

James, I mean, let me see if I understand your question. About the Chinese cluster, I mean as I said, the growth rate was double digit. So I mean, this is what I said, and this is what I can confirm. I don't know if your question was about how much the Chinese cluster represents on the top end...

No, I think you asked about last year's performance, right?

Yes, just to get a context given that it seems as if it's the only cluster that was double digit in Q1. It must be a big double-digit, hence, my high-teens 20.

No, we don't go into such detail. I mean we mentioned that also the other nationalities were pretty strong, particularly Koreans and Japanese. And when it comes to last year, it was up low double digits in Q1 then it was more like flattish in Q2, single digit up in Q3 and then it was double digit in Q4, always sort of low double digits. So this was the evolution of 2025 in terms of cluster.

But I wouldn't overestimate the growth in Q1 given that it was a pretty broad-based growth, the one that we have seen. Don't forget there are also many other nationalities that we don't comment that are other EMEA clusters, other Asian clusters. So I don't know if this helps, but we wouldn't go into that much detail.

Okay. Did we answer your question or...

Yes. I guess in terms of the specifics of the outperformance of the Chinese cluster relative to other large ones. But I wondered whether you've done anything different in terms of assortment products and anything specifically that you feel resonated especially with that specific cluster domestically?

James, nothing special for China, but I mean a lot special for the brand. And this is something -- this is not a joke. What I keep saying is that the brand is very strong in China and as a result of this strength, anytime we do something special, the reaction in China is -- and with the Chinese customers is stronger and also faster, quicker than in other regions. So considering everything we did in Q1, I think that this may have had an impact in China even more than in other regions, I mean in Grenoble, Aspen, Olympics so this is a possible explanation.

And this for 2 reasons. One is what I said before that the brand is very strong in China. But also, let me say that in China, I mean we have a very strong retail organization that translate ideas, projects into engagement and business. So they are very strong in conveying the brand message independent of what we do. I mean anytime we do something special, they are very strong in delivering the message directly to customers. So this is the explanation we give ourselves.

Next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita.

I have 2 questions. The first one is specifically on the month of March. You have commented about the impact of regionally and in terms of lower tourists to Europe. Can you help us understand if you noticed any slowdown either in March or early April on the other nationalities overall? And if the other way around, are you seeing some repatriation of these lower tourist flows to Europe in other regions or do you expect this to happen possibly at this time?

And second question you said very quickly on Grenoble, if you confirm, if I'm not wrong, there would be another dedicated opening by the end of the year in Q4 and your plan in terms of Grenoble stores for the future, if you can update us?

Paola, about your first question, I mean March softer, I said before. I mean this impacted, I mean, due to the -- not the lack, but the strong decline in tourism coming to Europe mostly. So Europe was most impacted by what we said. Other nationalities, honestly, Asian nationalities still good, much better, of course, softer than the previous few months, but still positive. So the nationality and the market that was more impacted by the decline in tourism was Europe.

And Paola, one quick point. I mean if you think about, again, my comment before about I mean we don't want to spend too much time about the intra-quarter evolution. But clearly, Chinese New Year was in February. And so as you might expect, post the Chinese New Year, there is a natural normalization of growth with the Chinese cluster. It doesn't mean that we're losing momentum or anything, it's literally the natural curve that we see. So I wouldn't say much more than this besides the tourism consumption.

And then honestly, too early to tell about any repatriation somewhere else. Frankly, we don't have visibility on this. It's too early to comment. At the moment, we only see that there is a further step-down in tourism into EMEA happening right now, but not what else to comment.

And then sorry, your second question, can you say it again? Was it about Grenoble -- our plans to open other Grenoble-only stores?

Exactly. I remember of further new opening by the end of the year. So I don't know if I'm right or not. And in any case, there are other plans in the future?

Paola, actually something that is already in our pipeline for the end of the year? No. We may have talked about a plan, an idea for the future. I mean, it's not something we plan to open many Grenoble-only stores. We targeted the most important ski resorts. We are looking at an opportunity, honestly, but I don't know if it will happen by the end of the year in Courchevel.

So there are some important ski resorts we are targeting for a potential second store of Grenoble. But I mean that is not something precise. I mean to be more precise, but it's still something we are simply working on, is the potential in Courchevel.

But Paola, don't expect that we have like a store opening rollout related to Grenoble. We are very opportunistic about it, and we don't have any additional plans beyond what Luciano has just mentioned.

I think if I'm correct, we are done with the Q&A. Operator, do we have someone else on the line?

We have no more questions registered.

Fantastic. So thank you very much to everyone for participating in this call. For any follow-up questions, as usual, do not hesitate to contact me tonight or also in the coming days. And as a reminder, our H1 2026 interim management statement will be released on July 22 after market close, and our quiet period will start on June 23. Thank you again, and have a great rest of the evening. Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.

Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler Group Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today on Moncler's Full Year 2025 Financial Results. Let me introduce you to the speakers of today's call, Mr. Remo Ruffini, Moncler Group's Chairman and CEO; Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer; Roberto Eggs, Chief Business Strategy and Global Market Officer; Gino Fisanotti, Moncler Chief Brand Officer; and Robert Triefus, Stone Island's CEO.

Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate.

I also remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen only mode. Finally, I kindly ask you during the Q&A session to speak to a maximum of 2 questions per person to give all participants the opportunity to ask questions.

Let me now hand it over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Remo Ruffini. Mr. Ruffini, over to you.

Good evening, everyone. In 2025, even in a difficult environment, our group delivered a solid performance, EUR 3.13 billion of revenues, a strong acceleration in Q4 at both brands with Moncler DTC up 7%, Stone Island DTC up 16%, an EBIT margin of 29.2%. Net cash, EUR 1.5 billion, and our sustainability effort valued by key ranking globally. Strong results that demonstrate the quality of our operating execution and the resilience of our business model. But as usual, as always, what I'm mostly proud of is how we reached this result, investing in creativity, preserving our identity and moving forward with clarity in our long-term strategic direction.

At Moncler, we are working to make the brand stronger across all seasons and all geographies, focusing on where we have room to improve our brand awareness. We also continue to build unique brand experiences and moments. After the strong success of Warmer Together, which become way more than a simple campaign, we opened 2026 with an emotional Grenoble event in Aspen.

And we are back to Winter Olympics by sponsored the team Brazil and its athlete, as Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, in a relevant, unique and meaningful way. This moment are only the beginning of a year of full initiative.

As Stone Island, we keep moving with focus and discipline. We are working hard to reinforce the brand in the areas that matter most, improving our collections, elevating the customer experience and making operation more solid and relevant, growing with intention rather than just scale. As we grow, we decide to make our organization even stronger. The arrival of Leo Rongone as the Group CEO in April is a natural next step in our evolution, which will bring new energy to our already solid structure.

Something my leadership team and I have been considering for a while. But let me be clear, I'm not stepping down. And I'm stepping back. I will be Executive Chairman, continue to lead our creative direction and set the strategic direction of the group. I will be fully involved every day with the same passion and the same commitment.

Let me close with something that feels very important to me. We grow only when we stay true to who we are, to our curiosity, to our uniqueness and to our courage to evolve because I believe that only companies that understand when and how to embrace change are able to succeed.

Thank you. I leave the floor to Gino.

Okay. Hello to everyone. Good afternoon. I hope everyone is having a good day. I just want to take the opportunity on the back of the message of Mr. Ruffini to share how happy we are with the strength of the Moncler brand right now. I think we are not just happy because of the good and the great results we've seen and the opportunities we have, but equally excited and happy about the opportunities and the potential of this brand towards the future.

I think 2025 was not only a special year, was a year where we've seen our biggest year yet in terms of -- not only in terms of brand awareness and reach, but especially in terms of the brand engagement we have seen all around the globe, proving again that we are just way more than just big events and sometimes the seasonality or just a specific product.

If we go to the next page, when we talk about Warmer Together, I think this was -- I want to start here. This was a quarter of records. A lot of records have been broken and we are happy to share some of them. I think the first one is Warmer Together, Mr. Ruffini just mentioned that it was more than just a campaign. In that sense, became the biggest campaign in the history of Moncler. This campaign wasn't just about product or wasn't just about celebrities, was about sharing the values about who we are and where we stand for. And I think nobody better than representing that than Al?Pacino and De?Niro, who are, for the very first time doing something together as a marketing campaign.

I just want to say that this is the first time we even have issues to count the amount of coverage we're having and the amount of reactions we're having around the globe for this campaign, including markets like in Asia, like in China, where not necessarily the 2 celebrities were as known as the rest of the globe.

Again, last but not least, on this campaign and the incredible results we were able to get, I think, as Mr. Ruffini said when we started this campaign, Moncler never been just about buffers and winter. We've always been about want and love since the very beginning.

If we go to the next page, we will talk about Grenoble. And again, in December, we were able to launch the campaign on the back of the collection we presented at the beginning of 2025 in Courchevel with a pretty spectacular event. And again, another record breaking. This has been our biggest campaign in terms of Grenoble ever and especially since that we said that we started 3 years ago. This was a special campaign that was featuring our incredible Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, Vincent Cassel, model Amber Valletta, and of course, the most awarded snowboarder Chloe Kim.

So again, incredible results there. And then on the back of that, I think we just mentioned, I think, was an opportunity for us to go back and celebrate our roots. We were not back into the Winter Olympics season since 1968. And in December, we announced the partnership with the Brazilian Federation, something that I'm sure we will cover in the next call, but I'm sure you've seen already regarding the opening ceremony and the incredible trajectory of Lucas during this Winter Olympics just a few days ago.

So again, another great season not only for the brand, but specifically for this very important dimension of the brand, Moncler Grenoble. Last but not least, as we always talk about our 3 brand dimensions, Moncler Collection covered by Warmer Together, Moncler Grenoble with this campaign and the work done around the announcement for the Olympics. We have Moncler Genius, 3 very important drops during Q4 for us.

The first one was an anticipated drop of Moncler Genius and Jil Sander. The second one was the reissue of a product that came a few years ago with JW Anderson, a very small capsule collection that we reissued with drop and was immediately sold out. And then last but not least, our partnership with ASAP Rocky, something that went way beyond the product collection we launched it. We were part of the partnership of his anticipated new music track after multiple years. And at the same time, we launched a very special Maya 70 jacket in December just for few destinations around the globe in DTC, and we were happy to see that product perform extremely well despite the limited units and the high price on that.

So with that, I want to pass to Robert to share some of the great news from the Stone Island side as well.

Thank you, Gino. Good day to everyone. I'm pleased to give you some highlights for this quarter. It's been a quarter, as Mr. Ruffini said, that we can be pleased about. It is a quarter that demonstrates the commitment we're making to focus on the values of Stone Island, the principles of Stone Island. And the campaign on the left featuring [indiscernible] is a continuation of a campaign that we've been investing in now globally for 2 years. It's a campaign that brings members of the Stone Island community to life to underline our commitment to product, the lab, the commitment to research, innovation and materiality, but also the life of our community.

And this campaign, I think now, as I say, in its second year, is showing the consistency and the coherence of our brand positioning strategy.

In the second column, you see Dave, a musician from the United Kingdom, who has also appeared in our lab and life campaign. We celebrated an album that he released. Dave reaches a very active part of our community. We call them the explorers, those customers who are accessing the brand for the first time, and he is a great representation.

In the third column, you see a collaboration with Porter, the Japanese brand well known for accessories. We have a long-standing relationship with Porter. Accessories is not a large category for Stone Island, but it is a category of future potential. And both Porter and Stone Island stand for a commitment to research in our respective categories.

And last but not least, Stone Island has a long association with soccer. Of course, this year with the World Cup, soccer will come under a particular spotlight. And in the fourth quarter, we continued our important strategic collaboration with New Balance, celebrating the sport of soccer. Thank you.

Thank you, Robert. Roberto speaking. Happy to share the positive results of both Moncler and Stone Island for Q4. As anticipated by Mr. Ruffini, we closed the quarter very positively for our business in Moncler with a plus 6%. The growth was on both channels regarding the Americas, both for wholesale and our D2C business.

In Europe, the result of the third quarter was slightly negative, but locals were positive. So we were impacted by negative trend on tourism, especially with American, Korean and Japanese. Regarding Asia, all the regions grew positively during the last quarter of the year with a total result at plus 11%. I will be able to illustrate more in details in case you will be interested later on.

If you move to the next chart with the results per channel, we were -- we have positive results or reverting trend on the wholesale. This was mainly due with this plus 2% on reorders for the fall/winter, strong reorders. So we're happy about the end of the year results. And regarding the D2C business, it was a strong growth at plus 7%, especially thinking that, as you know, Q4 has always been a strong role for Moncler. So we had a base of comparison over the past 3 years that was very strong. So the plus 7% is even more meaningful in that sense.

If we move to Stone Island, there are also positive double-digit results in all the regions, Q4 at plus 16%. We had the Americas growing at plus 26%, also growing on both channels. The results on Europe were strong with a plus 12%. Both channels were positive. And similarly, also, we grew plus 22% with Asia. So strong performance also in all the regions in Asia.

Regarding the results by channel, we had a plus 17% on wholesale. This was also due to the fact that there were some shipments that were due to be sent in Q3 that were postponed into Q4. So this was why we had a negative result in Q3, but we recovered in Q4 with this plus 17%. And you see the positive results with a strong retail KPIs that we had with this plus 16% for Q4 in our D2C channels.

Regarding the opening, as you know, we tried with Moncler to open most of our stores with the start of the fall/winter season. So usually during Q3, we still had one opening in Korea in Galleria, Gwanggyo. We had for Stone Island, 3 openings. One was a conversion in Paris with [indiscernible] and we have 2 openings in the U.S. with Costa Mesa and Yorkdale.

If we want to go quickly and swap through the picture, you see the opening of Gwanggyo that we illustrated here in Seoul. We put also a picture of our most important store on the Hainan Island that was where we doubled the surface at the end of the year. The opening took place in December and with very positive results for the year-end and for the Chinese New Year. And you see also one of the latest openings that we have had with Stone Island with South Coast Plaza with our OMA concept that we are now deploying in all the network. Pass the word to Luciano.

Thank you, Roberto. Hello, everybody, and thank you again for attending our call today. We are now at Page 23, where we report our profit and loss for the fiscal year 2025 with an operating profitability of 29.2%, slightly, slightly, behind last year, but substantially in line with last year when we reported 29.5% with selling expenses slightly higher than last year due to the negative minus 1% comp as Roberto mentioned before, with a good control of G&A and with the usual 7% in marketing expenses as last year.

So quite a good EBIT margin. Let me make one comment below EBIT on financial expenses that show an increase from EUR 6.5 million to EUR 26.2 million due to higher interest expenses on lease liabilities by the IFRS and the lower level of interest income this year as compared with last year.

Let's move now to Page 24, where we report CapEx. CapEx totally in line with our plan with what we anticipated to the market in July of last year, 6.9% higher than the 6% we reported the year before due to a couple of important projects. One is about the new corporate headquarter and the other one on the distribution network, the big, very important new project in New York Fifth Avenue store.

For the 2026, just to let you know, we expect to go back to a 6% incidence of CapEx on revenue. Page 25, net working capital, 9.7% against the 8.2% we reported last year, higher due to a higher level of inventory. But let me say, a healthy inventory, a result of a strategic decision we made about 7, 8 months ago to invest in one of our most important strategic raw material, which is down due to the volatility we faced last year in that sector. And so in order to be safe, we decided to buy more down than what we normally do. So everything still totally under control as well as credit and of course, payable.

Page 26 now net financial position, close to EUR 1.5 billion against the EUR 1.3 billion we reported last year after a distribution of dividends last year for about EUR 350 million. Important to remind you as we report in the notes on this page, we expect actually the Board will propose to the shareholder meeting a distribution of EUR 1.4 per share in May of this year on the earnings of fiscal year 2025 with a payout ratio of over 60%.

Page 27 balance sheet, nothing important to comment. Page 28, cash flow statement that reports a free cash flow of EUR 529 million behind the EUR 587 million last year. But of course, there is an FX translation impact of about EUR 20 million. And on the top of that, important to reiterate the higher change in net working capital due to the inventory level I mentioned before and higher -- significantly higher CapEx than last year with a total financial position again of EUR 1.5 billion and the cash generation of about EUR 150 million.

Page 29, we report, as usual, our strong commitment on sustainability. And let me say, the strong results we have achieved this year. Okay. We are done with the presentation and ready now for your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Luciano. We will hold for a few seconds to gather questions from the audience. [Operator Instructions].

Operator over to you.

[Operator Instructions]

So the first question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. I've got two questions. The first one is on the current trends. If you could comment on what are you seeing year-to-date in retail compared to what you delivered in Q4?

And my second question is on product diversification. I would like to understand if you're happy on how this is proceeding. And if you could please give any granularity on some of the categories, for example, shoes, knitwear and also on spring/summer.

Melania, thank you for your question. Happy to answer it. I will give some highlights on Q4 first before answering to the question regarding the current trading. We had, as it was presented, a strong Q4 with an acceleration towards the very end of December. We had a good month of October, November, a month of December that started a little bit more flattish, but then an acceleration from mid of December that we have continued to see in January and also in February. To be more specific on the different regions, they are all going positively with a strong performance on our Asian countries, but also on the U.S. for both channels, both retail and wholesale.

I must say that Korea, especially had a very good rebound after Q3 that was a little bit less good, and we continue to see this growing trend, also thanks to the return of the Chinese on the Korean market. Chinese that have been missing a little bit on the Japanese market, but we have seen them back both in APAC and in China, and they are consuming both in China Mainland and outside in other region in Asia.

So very happy about the start of the year with an acceleration that we have seen in these last few weeks.

Melania, Gino here. Thank you for the second question. So a few things here. I think we already discussed this probably for the last 12 months. I think -- regarding product classification, I think there's a few things just to highlight. The first one is, of course, beyond outerwear, something I will come back later, we have been doing specific efforts regarding everything that is knitwear and cut and sound, something that we are really happy to see the progression of this business, especially on the knitwear side, we're seeing a really strong consumer reaction for the past 12 to 18 months.

And then, of course, we're seeing good positive as well results regarding the efforts that we're starting to put around footwear, specifically in the last quarter with the new launch of the new Altive Mid boot as well as some of the work that we are doing on soft accessories. I think as we always mentioned, of course, we -- I think the other aspect that is important to keep in mind is when we talk about outerwear, we're talking about the evolution of a business that now has a strong impact, especially in everything that is more about lightweight and something that we call seasonless. It's more like lightweight solutions and lighter versions of our product as well, which is performing very well as well.

So I will say we will continue on the diversification of the weight of outerwear as have been growing over the past 2, 3 years, and we will see that continue as we go into the next seasons. Regarding spring/summer, I think if you ask us, we are happy with the results of Spring/Summer '25 despite all the, I would say, the macro environment of the industry as a whole. That said, I think what you will see as we discuss is spring/summer specifically more on the back of spring and summer per se.

We always said over the past probably 2 years that we were working relently in terms of improving the product offering before we were moving to do any type of a specific even bolder communication. The only thing I will just probably slightly anticipate before we discuss not to share much is that you will see an evolution in terms of the efforts that we'll be putting specifically from 2026 onwards. We are very proud of the effort that the team have been doing over the past 2 years, especially from design and product development, and we believe that we are ready to go to the next level when we talk about spring/summer.

So more to come in the next probably few months, but this is an important aspect as well that we wanted to highlight to your question.

Melania, just maybe one last point on my side regarding the current trend and the current trading. I've commented on Moncler, but just to confirm that we are seeing a continuous momentum as the one we have seen on Stone Island in Q4, also at the start of Q1.

The next question is from Ed Aubin, Morgan Stanley.

Okay. So I will stick to two questions from [indiscernible]. But before I do so, ask my question, if you can allow me to wish good luck to Roberto in his new adventures. So Roberto, it was very enjoyable to hear and you share your views on Moncler. So you're living on a high. Congratulations, and I'm sure we are going to hear from you soon.

So moving on to the questions. I guess the first one is for Gino, and apology because it's a bit of a big picture question, so it might be difficult to answer in a short time frame. But Gino, what makes you confident that the brand desirability will continue to increase? I guess it's multidimensional in terms of advertising campaign events, shows, collaboration and retail excellence and all of that.

So I know you don't have much time, but if you could comment on that, I'd be curious to have your views. So that would be question number one.

And then question number two on to Luciano, I guess, is on the margin sensitivity. So I guess Moncler retail was up 4% for the full year at constant FX, and you had a 30 basis point kind of EBIT margin dilution. Is that a good rule of thumb to keep in mind for the future? And then what would make you translate to kind of a neutral margin trajectory going forward? And just related to that the Luciano, if you could update us on the FX impact you have in mind, assuming, obviously, FX would not change up until the end of the year for 2026.

Ed, thank you so much for the question. I think, again, as you mentioned, probably, it's a longer answer that we can potentially, hopefully, we see each other and take it. But I think there's a lot of aspects for us to think why we believe that we have almost -- we always say this about this idea that this is a brand that has unlimited potential with always as every company specific resources. So we are always trying to be very focused on the few things we really want to be really good at as next steps.

If we think about this, I think the things that make us super confident is not only seeing the results we're getting -- we are sharing with you today and more importantly, the reaction from customers around the brand is, first of all, is we have opportunities when we think about Grenoble. I think we strongly believe that there is a big opportunity for the brand to go further and deeper on that. We believe that there is -- as we always discuss and I just mentioned the answer before, an incredible opportunity for us awaiting us to become a more all year-round brand with spring/summer.

We believe, as you know, and you start seeing the efforts in '25, and Luciano mentioned some of the investments we're doing in the U.S., specifically as we go into this mid-to long-term approach into this market. And that make us believe on all this. On the back of that, again, I think the opportunity regarding product is real, right? I think when we talk about there's 2 aspects on product that is working in a way for us, which is in one way, we keep elevating the proposition we have in terms of product offering, while we are protecting the core as well. And I think these two things make us relevant at the very mid-high-end part of the luxury industry while we are able to connect with the aspirational customer as well.

So again, and this allow us what I believe is the other big part for us is we still have a lot of opportunity for acquisition, for customer acquisition that they are at the very end, the ones who allow us to keep investing and keep growing as a brand. So of course, we can elaborate a way more, but hopefully give you 5 to 6 answers to that question. And some of those, especially the ones I mentioned around renewables, Spring/Summer, the U.S. and the opportunity to keep better on Park and the way we connect emotionally with customers are the things that we are obsessing every single day as we keep moving forward and allowing us to showcase today the results that we're showcasing with you.

Ed, thank you for your question. About the margins, in 2025, we reported, let me say, better than what our rule of thumb, as you said, would expect of 29.2%. This was because Q4 after Q2 and Q3 that was -- were both quite disappointing. Q4 was very good for both brands, as Roberto said. And also because in the mid of last year, when the business trend was not particularly strong, as you may remember, we decided, of course, we needed to react to that business trend, implementing some cost saving initiatives that allowed us to control and to report quite good G&A and also selling expenses without touching, of course, marketing that is, let me say, the blood for our brand and for our business.

Talking about FX for this year, for 2026 based on what we know today that may be different from what may happen tomorrow based on the current FX, we expect a 4% impact on the top line, a decline of the top line due to FX. Talking about the margins, of course, we try to do whatever we can to protect our margins, reacting to the FX trend, negative trend right now with a pricing policy that is expected to offset the FX trend. So for margin-wise, the impact of FX on margin is expected to be, let me say, negligible. And this is what I can tell you right now. Of course, there are many other impacts, but your question was about FX.

And Ed, let me allow you to add one small thing. When he talks about the impact of FX on top line, he said 4 percentage points for the full year. Keep in mind that for the first quarter, it will be bigger than that. It will be around 6 percentage points of impact on the top line. So it will be bigger in the first half of the year and a little bit less starting from Q2.

The next question is from Erwan Rambourg, HSBC.

I hope you can hear me. Congratulations on a very impressive 2025. And yes, specifically for Roberto, congrats on a great track record over the past 11 years and all the best for what's next. So the two questions. First of all, on China, I think you're one of the first companies to report during this Chinese New Year. So I was wondering if you had any initial faith on this Chinese New Year and possibly if you can share the split of sales to Chinese citizens onshore versus offshore and how you see this evolve this year and in the future?

And then secondly, just wondering if you could give us a few metrics. I'm thinking about the average selling space, sales per square meter, UPT, anything worth looking at in terms of '25 versus '24?

Erwan, thank you for your comments. It was a pleasure working with you over the past 11 years. Regarding your question on China and Chinese New Year, I think we are still in the middle of the Chinese New Year. So we'd rather prefer to comment on the general trend with Chinese inside and outside China. And what I can comment is that we have been growing double digit, both inside and outside China. Maybe, you usually don't report data on -- and I see our team getting a little bit nervous now. But on the like-for-like, we usually don't comment per quarter, but I wanted to restate that Q4 was positive for us.

So we start seeing again like-for-like growth towards the end of the year, and this is confirmed for the time being for the start of Q1. So Chinese positive inside and outside double digit. The rate of -- the share of consumption of Chinese inside and outside China is roughly the same that what we have seen in the second half of 2025. So a 70% internal consumption and 30% outside of China. I think that this trend, it could vary. It could become 1/3, 2/3, but we are not going to get back, as you can imagine to the 50-50 that we had pre-COVID because for a very simple reason, there is a repatriation of consumption in China.

And on top of that, a lot of brands, Moncler included and Stone Island included, have been doing dramatic efforts to increase the footprint on the China market, even if we see still potential to have better-looking location, larger stores, and we are working already for this year on some relocation and expansion on the market. But there is this willingness also of the Chinese government to repatriate part of the consumption.

So we have been working on both. We take advantage of the Chinese traveling. Japan is probably the country that has been suffering the most, but this is more linked to political tension than anything else. We have seen Hainan performing well. We have seen Korea performing extremely well. Hong Kong has been performing well also. And we have seen positive results in Europe, even if we are not at all at the same level of Chinese consumption in Europe compared to the pre-COVID. So this is something that has been confirmed.

Regarding the metrics and also what we have in the plan for 2026, we have a similar number of openings than back in 2025. So you can expect similar impact this what we usually say mid-single-digit impact in terms of additional square meters that are going to drive additional sales on the market.

And the other metrics on, let's say, retail excellence, they have been positive. So we have seen some traffic back in the stores, good conversion. UPT is not the name of the game usually towards the end of the year because we tend to push more on the high price value item, especially with Grenoble and UPT is more the battle that we are having in Q2 and Q3, especially for men, but the metrics have been good at the start of the year.

The next question is from Chung Huang, UBS.

Congratulations on the results. The first one, maybe just a clarification on the cluster. So I think, Roberto, you commented that European locals in the quarter were positive. I'm just wondering if you can give a little bit more color in terms of is it more low single digit, mid-single digit and also other nationalities. I think you said that American tourism is a bit softer in Europe. But if we take the whole American cluster, how is the performance in Q4?

And on Chinese, I think last quarter, you already had a very positive trend with the Chinese consumer. So just looking at the quarterly trends in Asia, it does seem like Chinese is growing around mid-teens, if you can confirm my calculation.

Secondly, on the moving parts of 2026, I mean, if you can give us an update on the pricing plan for both brands. I think space already commented, but also if you can provide a refreshed wholesale guidance. I know there's some timing impact for Stone Island, for example, but just wanted to hear your latest thoughts on those metrics.

Okay. Let me clarify on Europe, and thank you for your question, Chris. Regarding the European nationalities, they have been flattish. We have had a positive impact of Chinese tourism, but on the low single-digit part for Europe. And we have been negatively impacted in Europe by Americans that were down, by Korean that were down and Japanese that were down.

So this is for the global context, then we have seen also positive growth with -- even if it's not as important as from some other brands, but we have the Middle East that has been growing. So our client in Middle East and our business is developing well there and also when they are traveling to Europe.

Regarding the other nationalities, you were asking regarding the Americans, they have been in the high single-digit positive cluster overall, but their performance has been mainly a local performance. So the result that we have seen in, let's say, in Q4, they are confirmed also at the start of the year, so positive performance locally, less when they are traveling outside.

And regarding the other nationalities, we have seen at the end of the year, Korean going back to positive single-digit result after a negative Q3. So this was something that was very positive for us. And Japanese locally have been positive also. So the performance that we see on Japan is mostly driven by the good performance of the locals to a lesser extent on the Chinese because we have seen a decrease in the Chinese.

What we have seen is, if I may say, the Chinese that are coming to Japan are there. They're spending more than before, but they are much less than before. So you have seen probably the trends that have been published also by duty-free data that are showing a minus 40% on flights, but we see an impact on the business that is much lower than that because the ones that are coming are really wanting to spend. So it has been, in a way, counterbalanced.

Maybe something on the wholesale, you were asking on some of the trends that we are seeing for the wholesale. I think most of the cleaning for both brands have been done in the past couple of years. So we see a business for Moncler that is going to stay flattish for 2026. And we see an improvement on the results for the wholesale with Stone Island. I'm not saying positive, but clearly an improvement compared to what we have had in 2025.

Sorry, I just wanted to come back to the Chinese comment in Q4, if that's possible.

No, the performance on the Chinese, as I mentioned, was positive double digits, both in China and outside of China. So this is, generally speaking, the way we have seen the results. The cluster has been growing double digit, both in and outside China.

Chris, about your last question on pricing for 2026, we expect a price increase for both brands in the region of low single digit, let me say, 3% more or less for both brands, Moncler and Stone Island.

The next question is from Daria Nasledysheva from Bank of America.

Congratulations on very strong results. This is Daria from Bank of America. I have two. Can I please ask about your thinking on the cost base into next year? You exhibited very careful cost control in the second half, as you already elaborated on. But how are you thinking about your marketing spend next year as a percentage of sales? And if you can share with us the pipeline of activations for the coming year, that would be very helpful.

And the second one is on Stone Island. Really a nice progressive improvement has continued that started realistically in Q3. How are you thinking about growth opportunities from here, given it feels like efforts on product and communication are really having an impact? What is the focus for you at the brand now?

Okay. Daria, let me start and then I will let Gino to elaborate better. The answer about overall our cost base. Of course, we try and we tend as much as we can to be more and more efficient year after year. And this has allowed us, and I hope we will allow us to be flexible, reactive and to develop a lean organization, of course, with the head of the technology, automation, artificial intelligence and whatever. Talking about marketing, of course, our effort on marketing budget is totally unchanged. You saw that in 2025, we spent exactly what we have spent in the past and what is, let me say, our golden rule, that is 7%. And so for this year, for sure, we don't expect to spend less, no more, but not less than the 7%.

And which -- I'll let Gino to elaborate better how we will spend this money.

A little bit -- no less from Luciano. Daria, thank you for the question. Again, I think if we follow history of the past, 3,4 years, I think we have been evolving very much the way we're approaching. I would say our marketing team and our brand organization in terms of not only depending on big moments once or twice a year, but being the continued orchestration of a calendar that allow us to have real impact on both the brand and the business, right?

And I think within that, of course, we are the ones who became extremely famous, not only for the creativity we bring to the market, but even for these big experiences or events, as you call them. I think 2025 for us was a very important year to prove ourselves that we are not only dependent on that, but sometimes like think about this. I just mentioned the incredible results we got this year in terms of reach engagement, et cetera. And we were coming from comping a year where we were doing 2 big events that we did in San Moisè and in China with Genius. Therefore, I think the campaign we did with Warmer Together was as big or more impactful than some of those moments.

So in a nutshell without giving much of the details because I can't right now, I think, trust us that we will keep evolving the way we work, that we are focusing on incredible orchestration that allow us to, not only have big moments, but have the in-between moments powerful as well to make sure that we keep building this brand. And I think now I can say that we are a lead testament that we are able to do that and to push things forward as we did in the past few years and especially in 2025 as well.

Daria, this is Robert Triefus. Thank you for the question. As you correctly highlighted, the momentum that we're beginning to see for Stone Island first emerged in Q3 has obviously picked up more steam in Q4. But this is really the result of a long-term strategy. A couple of years ago this month, I presented the key pillars of the Stone Island strategy, which are focused on product, the architecture of our collection to make sure not only that Stone Island is recognized for what it has always been recognized for product innovation, material research, particularly in the categories of outerwear and knitwear, and I'm very happy to say that, that is being recognized by our customers as we see in our retail KPIs.

In addition, we want to make sure that, that product architecture is reaching a broad community. Stone Island has always been known for a broad community, both in terms of generations, but also geographies. So again, I'm very happy to see that we're seeing dynamism across customer segments and across geographies which showed that Stone Island continues to have this broad appeal.

In terms of the second pillar, which is distribution, we said that we would focus on DTC, not in terms of a dramatic expansion of our footprint, but instead a focus on the organic growth of the existing footprint. I'm happy to say that the results are beginning to be seen. That focus has been manifested in relocations of key stores in what we consider to be our lighthouse cities, for example, in New York, in Paris, but also in improving the way that we've seen in wholesale.

We've done this through the selective distribution approach that Roberto referred to that obviously Moncler has followed. And in terms of that selective distribution approach, I'm happy to say that we have developed very strong partnerships with key wholesale partners. Of course, it goes without saying that wholesale has played a very important part in the history of Stone Island, particularly in European markets, but it is through those partnerships that we're now able to show up also with the OMA store concept that we're rolling out in our own stores, but also strategically in partner stores.

You made a reference to marketing having an impact. I'm a great believer in building brands over time. Rome wasn't built in a day and great brands weren't built in a day either. What we're beginning to see are the fruits of all the efforts that have been made in terms of building greater awareness of Stone Island, but awareness that is also built on deepening the engagement with our customers. That comes from an implementation of retail excellence where our client advisers are doing a better job, a storytelling around the brand. And again, that is being seen to have impact across regions.

And of course, the metrics you might ask, how do we measure the impact of our marketing activities. We are seeing greater traction in terms of search. We're seeing greater traction in terms of engagement on social media. We have just been recognized in the last 2 quarters within the Lyst Index, which I think underlines how that traction is building momentum. Of course, we are very pragmatic. These are the early signs of brand momentum, business momentum, gaining traction, and we are very committed to carry that forward into 2026 and beyond.

The next question is from Luca Solca, Bernstein.

One question about your strategic vision on retail. If we look back, we see that the retail development of Moncler and now Moncler and Stone Island, has changed quite significantly in the early days. You had relatively small stores. The size of the average store has continued to go up, you will probably reach a peak with your new store in New York. I wonder -- and at the same time, the retail network has been continuing to expand.

I wonder how productivity has been playing out on a per square meter sense? And how do you see the future of this retail growth driver? If you feel that from a number of stores you point, you're more or less where you should be and if the average size can continue to go up productively.

A similar question, which is on dynamics of how you see volume, price and mix going forward, we've seen quite a significant improvement in mix and like-for-like pricing, we've seen the wonders of Grenoble. But I wonder, going forward, if you feel that there's going to be a continuing push on mix and price? Or if you believe instead, that there's a need and focus to recapture some of the volume and grow through volume as well as the other 2 elements and how you see the interplay of these 3?

Luca, thank you for the first question on the strategic vision on the retail side. I think Robert just clearly mentioned the current focus on Stone Island that is very much on improving the productivity and fixing the model. And we have seen that this has been starting to really play positively on our results. Regarding Moncler, we are clearly compared to Stone Island in a phase that is a different one. When we see our project, the one we are managing, we have something that is very much balanced today between relocation, expansion and new openings. We have, this year, a focus on the U.S. We start this focus on U.S. already a couple of years ago. We have seen events in Aspen. There will be the big event of the opening of Fifth Avenue.

You mentioned this would be the peak in terms of size, most probably, yes, our intention has never been to start building big stores everywhere. I think there are a few capital cities in the world where having a larger space allows you to show and showcase the brand and the experience we want to convey in our store in a much richer way. So I'm thinking about cities like Paris, like London, Milano, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, I think those cities, they deserve -- Tokyo, they deserve to have this type of flagship. But the, let's say, the format that is fitting the best the performance and the retail KPIs of Moncler, they are more around 300 square meter, which is not huge compared to what you see with the other player on the market.

And I believe that with this type of format, and we don't have yet all our stores on that format, because our average size worldwide is roughly around a little bit more than 200 square meters. So we still have some stores that are smaller, but we would like to, let's say, elevate in terms of in-store experience for our clients, in terms of retention and so on. And we have seen that this format around 300 square meter is working well.

So the ambition that we mentioned a few years ago on where we want to drive the sales density is still there. We said at the time that we would like to see due to the importance of Europe, China is back at the same level of 2019 so pre-COVID, which is not yet the case. So we are balancing out, but the metrics that we are currently seeing, they are there and they are improving. This year, we are going to have a similar number of projects that in the past. Clearly, in the future, we'll have much more relocation and expansion rather than new openings. But this is going to be seen year after year.

Luca, this is Luciano. About your question, volume price -- volume price mix in 2025 and needless to say, volume somewhere down. But let me say that in Q4, they been getting closer and closer to flattish, so quite encouraging quarter also from the volume point of view, talking about the future price mix. I mean our strategy will still be what we said in the past, and I am sure you know very well, I mean, to keep elevating the brand, increasing our collection, increasing the high end of the collection, exploring higher prices.

Right now let me say that our top prices are in the region of EUR 2,500. We see opportunities with our current customer base to increase the offer over that level. But we also believe that we can generate more volume by expanding the base of our collection, introducing a larger offer in the enterprise. Of course, enterprise for our outerwear category is expected to be in the region of EUR 1,200 more or less. So of course, it's a rich price, consistent with our pricing position. But this is the strategy. Of course, for 2026, it's still too early to anticipate what the volumes may be even at the beginning of the year, as Roberto said before, was quite -- and it is still quite encouraging.

Roberto, I look forward to seeing you here in Switzerland and learn about your next step in the meantime. Congratulations on a great chapter at Moncler.

The next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

Thank you for taking my 2 questions. The first one is on the evolution of the gross margin. Do you expect it to stabilize at the level of last year? Or do you see room for expansion? And my second question is on the price gap level between Europe, America and China, if you can give us an update?

Thank you, Oriana. About your first question, talking about gross margin expansion. I hope there will be an expansion. But seriously, I mean our gross margin and our gross margin expansion has been driven since the beginning, mostly by the channel mix. Of course, right now, I mean, our DTC business is way higher than they were saying. So any expansion of the DTC business is not expected to be so important as it was in the past.

But since we expect for 2026, let me say, solid wholesale business, but not in expansion and an expansion of our DTC business, for sure, from the space point of view, but hopefully also from an organic point of view, we do expect, based on this mathematics, the gross margin to expand a little bit. Please consider that we are now over 78%. And let me say that the maximum gross margin, I can expect right now, not for this year, but should we go 100% DTC, is about 80%. So at this level of development of our gross margin is becoming, let me say, more difficult to keep expanding the gross margin as much as we did in the past.

Regarding the price gap between the region, as you know, we are working on a bi-monthly basis to channel on our pricing committee, and we have been working together for the past 11 years to reduce the price gap between Europe and the other region. I must say that currently, it's probably the lowest price gap we have ever had between the region, not completely where we would like to be, but getting very close to that. So we have our American the price gap with the Americas that is below 30%. We have China around 30%, depending on the fluctuation of the currency between 28% and 30%.

And we have today, China, Korea, that are more around 26%, 27%. So there is a small price gap between China and Korea to favor also the travelers inside of Asia also regarding Hong Kong, it's the same. We try to favor this 5%, 6% price gap between China and the neighboring countries, so just to favor and push sales for travelers, Chinese travelers.

The next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.

I have 2 questions. The first one on categories. Could you comment on the performance of Moncler brand down jacket business relative to other category last year? What was its share of total business now. And maybe could you take this opportunity to give your thoughts on the broader down jacket market dynamics. We've seen a fair amount of competition at the entry level, at the high end, great progress on technology, sustainability-led products. Any color on that would be useful.

And secondly, on inventories, and the 15% increase or EUR 70 million, if I understand correctly, that's largely due to advanced purchase of raw material of down. Are you seeing any kind of unusual inflation in the sourcing of top quality down and what is down typically as a percentage of cost of goods? And just finally congrats to Roberto for a great career for a decade at Moncler and all the best in your future projects in Switzerland or abroad.

I will take it. I think Normally, we don't share again, the performance of the different segments. I think I will go back and repeat a few things we shared before. I think, of course, outerwear is part, of course, of the core of our offering in our business. I think what you will see specifically there, just to give a bit more context is the diversification we have been doing, especially in the past 3 years in terms of the offering, right? It's like not just the traditional outerwear, but all the different segments between seasonless, lightweight versions for travel retail, et cetera, and the demand we're seeing, especially on over shirts and that kind of style.

So -- the outerwear business is way larger than it was before. And I think we are seeing specific traction in certain markets. We always talk about the Sunbelt of the U.S. where average temperature is around 18 to 22 degrees. We're seeing some markets in Asia where these performed extremely well. So I would say when we think about outerwear and the size of it, despite that we're growing other segments and other classifications within the business, this -- there was an expansion over the past few years.

I think the other aspect that you are discussing is on one hand, outerwear as the same of the different product proposition is going through this process of elevation on one side in terms of how much value we can put in design and in the fabrics we use for certain products. On the other side, there is an innovation place that, of course, we know will take central place for this. I think I don't know, but we can look at what just happened in Aspen literally 15 days ago. In the latest collection we presented for winter 2026 or we can go into for winter '25 or the now 2-year spring/summer evolution of Grenoble, and you will see a lot of different innovation apply to ski work, to no work, to upper ski and even to some of our summer propositions regarding shirts or 3 layering systems.

So I think there is a real evolution, I would say, especially on materials, applications on Grenoble, but we will keep fostering this idea of high style and high performance as we keep doing this segment of the business. But again, just to round this answer, outerwear is bigger as a classification than just a traditional view on a winter jacket only, and this is something that have been helping us to not only grow that part of the business at the same time as we keep growing other classifications within.

Okay, Thomas. About your question about inventory, first of all, let me say it again because it's very important and nothing unusual on our inventory level. Nothing unusual means that our inventory is all good inventory, current season inventory and everything that is to be considered also it has already been written off. So what you see in our net working capital is only good inventory. It is higher this year because we decided to invest more than usual in down last year due to the volatility of the price in that moment.

And of course, I mean, when we perceive price increase trend in the market, we decided to anticipate and to buy more down than what was needed normally. Of course, let me say something obvious, and I'm sure that is very clear for you. But we only buy top quality down, we never may decide to buy lower quality down in order to save money, so just to make it clear for everyone. And so the top quality down last year saw a peak in price opportunity. We bought down when the prices were still lower. But of course, this was not at all for speculative reasons, but simply because down is the essence of our DNA.

So we needed and we wanted to be safe and to have even more down than needed then to run the risk to have a shortage of down. About the contribution of down, I don't have a number. Honestly, it's not meaningful in quantity, not meaningful in percent of our cost of goods sold. But again, is the essence of our DNA.

Thomas, I forgot -- I think one thing, Thomas, I forgot to -- I think you mentioned about competition. I just want to give one second of an answer because I realize I didn't answer about that.

Again, regarding competition, I think we always -- every year or every 2, 3 years, we talk about different aspects of competitors and things like that. We are, of course, in a segment where there's different players. I think the only thing I will tell you is, of course, we always remain very humble enough to look at what competition is there, what competition is doing, what the customers are doing and what's working, what's not working. I think at the same time, we do that. And we see, of course, when you talk about outerwear and you talk about different innovation solutions, there's a lot of different players, even a lot of luxury brands trying to play there. We always observe and try to learn, but more importantly, become better.

I think on the other side, we always -- and I think Mr. Ruffini mentioned this at the opening speech, remaining true to who we are and our DNA and more importantly, to deliver strong product solutions for customers that look for a very authentic and meaningful brand. I think Grenoble, again, is a perfect example on top of what we can say about Moncler collection, about a segment of the brand that is delivering incredible product. And we strongly believe that despite competition as well, there's no other luxury brand as authentic as we are in terms of coming from the outdoors and delivering incredible innovative solutions for customers.

The next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have 2. The first one on the U.S., where you are still relatively underpenetrated. Have the Warmer Together campaign and the Aspen event increased your confidence in the brand's growth potential in the U.S.? And today, Moncler generate EUR 1.5 billion in APAC, nearly EUR 1 billion in EMEA. Do you see a similar EUR 1 billion revenue opportunity in the U.S. over time?

Second question, could you please comment on the recent trends in the e-commerce channel and remind us your exposure to online across both brands? And some of your peers have pointed to an improvement recently, suggesting for them a gradual return of the aspirational customers. Do you see similar trends in your business?

Thank you for the question. I think regarding the first one in terms of the U.S., I mentioned this before. This is one of the areas where we strongly believe we have an opportunity to do better. I think -- I will -- of course, I will mention in a second about Warmer Together or Aspen, but this is just singular aspects of a bigger plan, right? I think we strongly believe in this idea of an end-to-end approach towards the market. I think Moncler proven case from Europe to China in the past few years about -- it's not about just retail, it's not about just marketing, it's not about just CRM. It's about everything we are trying to do together and the orchestration of those efforts.

I think what you started to see in 2025 between some specific launches we did with Genius, with Mercedes-Benz and legal campaigns regarding Moncler Collection with Penn Badgley, U.S. ambassadors in Grenoble campaign, going to the Met Gala for the first time, Aspen, Warmer Together, all these things are the beginning of something that we believe is a journey, right?

I think this will not -- I think Robert just talked about building brands, right? And this is not about something that will have a silver bullet that will work overnight. We believe that, that journey already started in 2025. '26 is a major year for us to keep building towards that potential we have in the U.S. We not only have just did Aspen. I think we are going to open Fifth Avenue later in the year and many other things that will come that will help us to start bringing that potential we see.

I think you mentioned something regarding revenues. I will not comment on the size of our revenue. The only thing I will always comment is on the philosophy we have where we always say that revenue is a consequence of what we do. So we strongly believe that we're able to do the efforts that we believe we're putting in place for the U.S. and we drive this end-to-end offense. We strongly believe that the revenue as a consequence will come and we will build long-lasting growth in that market as we are able to do in other geographies as well.

Just to complement the answer of Gino on the U.S., we never set targets that are -- we are never driven by purely on turnover and additional business. We always believe that if we do the right things for the brand, results will be a consequence of it. So clearly, now in terms of attention, we are fully focused on the U.S. I think the elements that we just mentioned that were mentioned by Gino, the Fifth Avenue is going to be one of the key elements, the campaign Warner Together has. The fact that we had an event on Aspen.

Also, we opened also a very successful -- already very successful store in -- second store in Aspen dedicated to Moncler Grenoble. We had a fantastic receive with clients before -- just before and after the show. So we believe that we are currently doing the right things. We need to elevate also the level of operational excellence and the Fifth Avenue will be a catalyst of this new energy we want to bring also in our team locally. So I think you need to give us a little bit of time. It's going to be a journey that already started, but we are confident.

Charles, I think your second question was regarding the online business. Again, I think here, again, regarding online, I strongly -- we believe in this idea that the online experience have been evolving, at least for us in the past 2 years. And this is why one of the reasons that we set our .com in terms of the experience and the look and feel on the second half of 2025.

I think we are leveraging more and more .com to attract customers and to more importantly, educate as a more product-centric experience. This is something that took us a bit of time to evolve, but we are happy to see that evolution and see how we can engage product to that front. I think clearly, the online channel have been underperforming through the physical part of the DTC in Q4.

I will say within that, EMEA was the one that we were struggling a bit the most compared to the rest of the markets. But again, we believe that there is a kind of an evolution, not to use the word revolution in terms of how customers today are searching, how the searching engines that they're using and how they interact and they leverage platforms not only to just to purchase but to interact with brands, and this is something that we will keep evolving as we just did in September this year.

Just a couple of words in answer to the e-commerce question for Stone Island. You may recall that around 18 months ago, we internalized the site from YNAP. We took advantage of that moment to launch a new front end and equally to be able to launch omnichannel services through localized warehouses. All in all, these actions have been very productive for the brand in terms of visibility, storytelling, product, narration. And we've seen and we are seeing a very strong trend in organic traffic to the website. So the e-commerce channel is a channel that we see with great potential.

The next question is from Andrea Randone, Intermonte.

The first one is about the recent interview held by Mr. Ruffini. He talked about the increasing attention of Chinese people towards outdoor activities as a possible tailwind for Moncler. Can you elaborate on the level of maturity of this trend? And the second question is about the internal production. I mean, what is the contribution of internal production on your current business? Is this a possible driver to make your products even more unique in the future or it is not?

Andrea, Gino here. Thank you for the first question. I will take that one. Again, regarding the attention specifically from the Chinese people, as you said, on market regarding other activities, I think we have been saying over the past probably 2 years that we are seeing kind of a momentum towards outdoor activities, especially in Asia after COVID, especially '22, '23 and especially the buildup of first resorts for the outdoors, both summer and winter. This is something that is always happening in the U.S. but got reinforced, especially in the past 3 years as well.

Reality is that what we are seeing is definitely the opportunity. We believe that opportunity is being started to being captured by Moncler Grenoble. Moncler Grenoble is performing pretty well across markets, but I would say has a really strong reception in the Asian markets or in China, but not only just in Fall/Winter, especially with the Spring/Summer collection. So this is something that is a testament a bit of what you were saying, and I think what you were alluding when Mr. Ruffini was mentioning about the more avid potential participation or activities of Asian markets, specifically in China regarding the outdoor.

So this is something, as you can imagine, that we are monitoring as we go. We are looking forward not only in terms of the winter results, but the activities that are happening to our customer during summer. And we are trying to, of course, make sure that Grenoble is at the center of this conversation.

Yes, Andrea, about your second question on our internal production. Internal production for this year is expected to be in the region of 30%, 3-0 percent of our total production. Of course, most of this production is made in Romania, in our big industrial hub in Bacau, where we have 2 big buildings to produce outerwear. But we also produce outerwear ourselves in Italy in 2 different buildings in the region of Trebaseleghe where we have our headquarter.

Furthermore, as you probably know, I'm sure you do, last year, actually end of the year before, we opened a brand new building for the production of knit only, quite a big building that allows us to make the weaving of all our knit production or more than 50% of our knit. And why we did that? Why? In 2015, we made a decision to open our own production in Romania because we realized and of course, it was extremely important that we needed to own our technology. And by owning our technology is the most important and essential way to develop and improve the quality of our product and not only improving the quality of the existing product because in Romania as much as in Italy, in Trebaseleghe. But I didn't mention Milan, but also here in Milan, we have a small industrial laboratory, not for production, but to develop prototypes, thanks to the proximity with our design team.

This is the only way to improve, not only the quality, but to keep developing and researching new technologies for our product. So again, this is strategically very important. It was strategic in the past, and it is becoming more and more important also as a way to emerge in the market.

The next question is from Chris Gao, CLSA.

Congrats on the great results. This is Chris Gao from CLSA. I have 2. So the first question is regarding Chinese consumers, especially the aspirational consumer spending trends. So basically, in the past few quarters, we're very happy to see queues coming back for Moncler and also for some other luxury peers, though we reckon that the general middle class may still take some time to recover, right? We are also very happy to see that you are both exploring higher price segmentation and also introducing more entry-level products at the same time together.

So my question is, in the past few quarters, from a number perspective, do you see aspirational customers of Chinese have been sequentially contributing more to your growth than before? And how would you see the outlook of Chinese aspirational customer spending to Moncler brand? Do you expect it to gradually come back a little bit more as a growth driver?

The second question from me is a follow-up on e-commerce. So basically, right now, we see some luxury peers introduce the AI-empowered e-commerce platform. And just wondering how would AI impact your omnichannel consumer experience in the future? Do you have any plans on that front?

Thank you for the question. We'll answer on the first one regarding our Chinese consumer. We haven't seen big differences between -- in terms of recruitment and percentage of younger, more aspirational customer or the top end of the pyramid for Moncler. Basically, in China, we have been growing with both and I believe that this is very much linked to the strong momentum that the brand is experiencing on the market since a lot of quarters or a lot of years because it's 3 years in a row that we have been performing well.

You remember, we had also a Genius event a couple of years ago in Shanghai, and this was back in 2024, and we were afraid that the year after not having these events, we will see a slowdown in the momentum in China, which has not at all been the case. And I know it's a little bit abnormal because some of the peers are suffering on the market, but we haven't seen a slowdown, both on the aspiration and the top of the pyramid.

Clearly, Grenoble is helping us also to grow on that part and what we call the Edit collection. So the more -- the one with less logo. So we are both growing on the very technical part of Grenoble, but at the same time, also with products that are less logo-driven and that are more, let's say, sophisticated. At the same time, our bestsellers, the one that we usually don't have on display, the Maya and so on continue to perform extremely well. And the difference transitional -- seasonal product like the knitwear, it's also a category that has been driving a lot of new customers into the brand. And as you know, those clients that are entering through this category, they usually upgrade themselves into outerwear later on.

Chris, thank you. Again, just last comment on what Roberto was saying. I think you mentioned this. I think it's important, and we said it before. I think for us, it's important that as we keep elevating our product proposition, we keep protecting the core. So while we acquire new customers on the more high end, we keep protecting and providing access to our customers. So this is a very important part of our product strategy.

Regarding -- you mentioned about online and AI, I will give you a short answer there because this is something we communicated when we launched the new .com in early September. When we launched the new .com we announced our partnership with Google that we have been used as a partner that using the Veo AI platform with them. And what we are trying to leverage there is on the .com experience on part of the recommendation we do with customers based on their journey, we have been leveraging, of course, part of content.

And then the last part is we're leveraging that as part of the service in terms of leveraging product as a system address. So there are certain areas today that if you go, for example, into Moncler Grenoble part of .com you can see and understand how the different parts of the product connect to each other for a better performance from mid-layers to under layers to top layers. So again, all the things are trying to be more effective and more efficient in the usage of our partnership with Google and their AI platform.

[Operator Instructions]

Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much for participating in this call. Let me just give you a quick reminder of the next release. Our Q1 2025 interim management statement will be released on April 21, post market close, and our quiet period will start on March 23. Thank you again. For any follow-ups, feel free to contact me or the IR team any time. And of course, I will see many of you on Monday. Thank you again. Have a great evening.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.

Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler Group 9 Months 2025 Interim Management Statement Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining. The interim management statement call is hosted by Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer; and by myself. I will start providing a brief overview of our results, and then we will be happy to take your questions. Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate.

Let me also highlight that given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore, cannot be taken as a proxy for full year trends or results. Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen-only mode. Before diving into the presentation, I'd like to take a second to highlight 2 moments we are particularly proud of. A couple of weeks ago, we launched the Moncler campaign Warmer Together, which celebrates the values that have defined Moncler for over 70 years, love, connection and a shared sense of warm, beautifully embodied by the friendship of the 2 legendary Hollywood icons that you can see on the screen, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

We're extremely proud of the resonance and the attention that this campaign has received, reaching the highest level of social engagement ever for the brand, and we will have the chance to talk about it in more detail during our full year results presentation in February. The second highlight and still linked to the same values that I've just talked about is the opening of Casa Moncler, our new headquarters, where we moved in early September, gathering more than 700 people under the same roof. We all feel it is more than just a new space. For us, it is a new home, a symbol of creativity, collaboration and belonging, a real milestone in our journey. And I hope to welcome as many of you as possible here in Milan in the new building in the coming months.

Now let's move to Page 3, where we will briefly comment the group 9-month revenue development, focusing on growth at constant FX. In the first 9 months of the year, the group registered EUR 1.84 billion of revenues, in line with last year, with Q3 at EUR 616 million, down 1%. The Moncler brand revenues were in line with last year in the first 9 months and down 1% in Q3, with both the DTC and wholesale channels slightly improving sequentially. As a reminder, Q3 remains the largest wholesale quarter in the year. So the one with the channel mix mostly skewed towards wholesale, which was down 4% in the quarter. Stone Island revenues were down 1% in the first 9 months and in line with last year in Q3 with a double-digit positive DTC channel, offsetting the decline recorded in the wholesale channel.

Now moving on to Page 4. I would like to highlight some key Moncler brand initiatives launched during the course of the third quarter. First, when it comes to our main collection, the launch of the Pre-Fall 2025 collection accompanied by a very strong campaign shot in London, starring Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham. The campaign embodied metropolitan sophistication and minimalism with a strong focus on fabric research and easy layering options in a very versatile color palette. Talking about Moncler Genius, we had 2 drops during the quarter. We launched the debut collection by iconic editor and stylist Edward Enninful, who envisioned adaptable, functional and layerable looks designed for seamless transitions between climates.

We also presented the collection by A$AP Rocky inspired by vintage ski garments and characterized by a bold color palette and great practicality. And the picture that you can see on the screen is a limited edition of a reimagined iconic Moncler Maya co-designed with A$AP Rocky and very few pieces will be available in December at selected directly operated stores. Finally, as a testament to the importance of the online channel within our omnichannel strategy, during the quarter, we unveiled our new moncler.com website, featuring an enhanced user experience and stronger product focus, leveraging Google's generative AI to transform the website from a point of distribution into a true brand destination, where product truly takes center stage.

And I would encourage you to take a look online in case you haven't seen it yet. Moving on to Stone Island on Page 5. Let me highlight a couple of important brand initiatives launched in Q3. First, we unveiled the next chapter of the community as a form of research project, the ongoing collaboration between Stone Island and members of the brand community that were captured in archival icons and signature items from the new autumn/winter collection. We're very happy about this campaign that has been further enhancing the brand's visibility globally. Secondly, in September, we presented the next chapter of our long-term partnership with New Balance by revisiting the New Balance 574 in 3 monochrome colorways inspired by the ethos of the Stone Island Ghost sub-collection.

Talking about numbers, we're going to start with the Moncler brand on Page 6, looking first at the performance by geography. Starting with Asia that, as you know, includes APAC, Korea and Japan. Revenues were flat year-on-year in Q3 at constant exchange rates, in line with the previous quarter. China continued to outperform the rest of the region, while Japan and Korea registered a weaker performance, essentially offsetting the growth recorded in China and the rest of Asia Pacific. In EMEA, revenues were down 4% year-on-year in Q3, improving sequentially compared to the minus 8% registered in Q2, with tourism flows remaining subdued in the region and below last year levels, albeit slightly improving compared to the previous quarter.

Finally, the Americas region was up 5% in Q3. Bear in mind that this region has been particularly penalized by the wholesale performance, which was negative in the quarter. And this has partly offset the double-digit growth registered by the DTC channel, which was driven by strong local U.S. consumption. Moving to Page 7, focusing on revenues by channel. Both DTC and wholesale showed slight sequential improvement compared to Q2. The DTC channel in the third quarter was flat year-on-year at constant exchange rates, slightly improving compared to the minus 1% registered in the second quarter despite persistent macro headwinds and still relatively weak consumer sentiment overall.

Looking at the geographies that performed better in DTC. I can mention America and China, which outperformed in this channel and continued on a solid growth trajectory, while EMEA and Japan underperformed, still affected by weak tourism flows. Looking at the wholesale channel in the third quarter, it was down 4% year-on-year, improving compared to Q2, although still impacted by the ongoing upgrades of the quality of our distribution through door closures and a general network optimization. As mentioned earlier, Q3 is still the most significant wholesale quarter in the year. So the quarter where the share of wholesale as a percentage of total revenues is the largest in the year. And while we talk about wholesale, you might have noticed that in the first 9 months of the year, our wholesale channel was down 5% at constant FX compared to our guidance of high single-digit decline for the full year.

The better-than-expected performance so far has been driven by reorders from our partners, thanks to a good sell-out. Hence, we are pleased to say that also for our full year, we now expect wholesale revenues to be down around mid-single digit at constant FX versus the high single-digit decline indicated before. Now moving on to Stone Island regional trends on Page 8. You can see that Asia continued to outperform with revenues up 9% year-on-year with all the main countries in the region registering a positive performance. Among them, China, APAC and Japan were particularly strong. EMEA revenues were down 3% year-on-year, but this masked a very different performance of the 2 channels. DTC was on a strong double-digit growth trajectory with solid local consumption, while the wholesale channel was negative, affecting the overall performance of the brand in the region.

Americas was down 3% in Q3 year-on-year, but both the wholesale and the DTC channels improved sequentially compared to the second quarter. Looking at the trends by channel on Page 9, you can see more clearly the different development of wholesale versus DTC and the ongoing shift from one channel to the other. In Q3, DTC revenues were up 11% year-on-year, driven by a solid performance in Asia and EMEA. This is a very solid figure, also considering the fact that, as a reminder, this is mostly organic growth as this year, we have negligible contribution coming from space. The wholesale channel was down 8% in the quarter, although this was entirely due to a different timing of deliveries in Q3 versus Q4 compared with the same period last year. In fact, we expect this to reverse in the fourth quarter.

We can, therefore, confirm that the performance of this channel in the second half of the year is expected to be less negative compared to the performance of the first half, leading to a single-digit decline for the full year at constant FX. Finally, let's briefly go through our store network on Page 10. At the end of Q3, the Moncler DOS network reached 294 units, a net increase of 7 units compared to the end of June, with most of the openings done in September at the start of the fall/winter season. The most notable retail projects that I would highlight are the opening of the store in Austin, U.S. and the expansion of the [indiscernible] store in Beijing.

Looking at Stone Island, the network counts 92 stores, a net increase of 1 unit compared to the end of June. And among the various opening relocation or expansion projects this quarter, I would highlight, in particular, the relocation of the flagship store in New York. On Pages 11, 12 and 13, you can see some pictures of these important projects. I'm going to stop here now, and I will hand over to the operator for your questions. As usual, I kindly ask you to speak to a maximum of 2 questions per person to give everybody the chance to participate. Operator, feel free to open the line. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. I have 2 questions. The first question is on China. Could you please give us an idea of how you performed, I mean, locals as well as the cluster in Q3? And how do you see the environment currently in the country? And the other thing is on current trading. What have you seen in the past 3, 4 weeks in your retail also compared to what you delivered in Q3 in light of the tougher comp and the weaker consumer environment?

Melania, about your question, China. China in Q3 performed positively, was positive both China Mainland as a market and the Chinese cluster. So everything, let me say, fairly good, in line with our expectations and consistent with what we believe is the strength of our brand -- of Moncler brand in China. Q4, nothing special to add. The quarter, October started well and the results are positive, still positive with a good Golden Week, substantially in line with last year when -- you may remember, Golden Week was particularly strong. So overall, we are confident about how China business and business with Chinese customers are evolving. And again, notwithstanding, of course, the overall situation in China, but we don't see any significant important sign of weakness. Again, your question was about China only, correct?

I guess, Melania, you wanted to know about current trading in general as part of Q4, I would imagine.

[indiscernible] in general, I mean, nothing different from what I said. Overall, October started well, results are positive, honestly, in all the different regions. So let me say that we are prudently satisfied, prudently because we are talking about only 20 days of the quarter, the most important quarter of the year, and we still had 2.5 months. And with December that is the most important month of this quarter that last year was particularly strong. So quite challenging based on comparison. Having said that, so far, so good. But nothing, we -- honestly, we as management team, would extrapolate to predict the result for the year-end. But again, good results, we are fairly happy with.

The next question is from Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.

The first question I have is on the U.S. Firstly, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the strong performance you saw in DTC in the quarter, if that's driven by traffic conversion? And also to what extent you're recruiting consumers beyond the major cities? And instead in wholesale and the pressure you saw, to what extent that was self-inflicted versus a difficult channel as we know. And on the U.S. as well on pricing and how you think about the strategy for pricing in the U.S. given the still large differential versus Europe? And the second question is on wholesale for Moncler brand for next year, if you're already ready to give us an early indication on how to think about that channel into next year, please?

Yes. Okay, Chiara, thank you. Thank you for your question. About the U.S. performance, first of all, let me clarify something. Of course, you understand very well that the performance in the U.S. was better than what we reported simply because the wholesale channel was weak, but the DTC channel did well, I would say very well. I mean, with all the retail metrics positive, except traffic, honestly, but conversion, UPT, average selling price, I mean, all these components and most importantly, the controllable components that are driven by the capability of our store team that are conversion and UPT were positive.

So I mean, overall, we are satisfied about the U.S. Talking about pricing, price gap, this was the question, I guess. Price gap with the U.S. is in the region of 125 -- 125, 128 a little more or less, which is you may comment a little bit higher than other peers. We are targeting a slightly lower price gap for next year. But I mean, this is the price gap right now. And talking about wholesale, overall, of course, not U.S. only, this year, as I said at the beginning -- in the beginning speech, we are doing a little bit better than what we expected and what we communicated at the beginning of the year based on the result of the selling campaign. The reason why wholesale channel is doing mid-single digit down as compared to the high single digit is, again, as Elena said, is due to the reorder sellout. So that channel is performing fairly well.

For next year, difficult to predict also because we are at the very beginning of the selling campaign for the most important season of the year that is the fall/winter '26. Honestly, we believe that -- I mean, the result next year maybe even a little better than this year. I can't anticipate flat, but in any event, we are targeting a flat result. We may or may not be able to do it. But in any event, I think that all the activity, all the work that has been done over the past 2 years to further clean the distribution has been not completed, but at a very developed stage.

Moreover, of course, we reported already this year the impact of some important accounts that have been closed, sad to say, but I mean, you know that some important e-tailers have closed their business with a material impact on our business. So next year, it should be better. But again, too early to anticipate any specific number.

The next question is from Chris Huang, UBS.

My first one is on the cluster trends that you saw in Q3 and especially locals. So if you can come back to that local trends for Moncler brand DTC in the third quarter. I'm asking because I'm mindful of the fact that your third quarter has a big exposure to tourism. So I would imagine that somehow makes the underlying trend more difficult to really read. So if you can provide us a little bit more color on the European locals, Americans locals, if you can provide any numbers to that. The other one is a follow-up on the commentary you made on current trading in Q4.

So Luciano, if I heard correctly, you said that October globally, Moncler brand DTC was positive. Does that mean you're comfortable with the latest consensus I see on Visible Alpha around 2% Moncler brand retail? And connected to this, can you remind us of the cadence within the quarter last year? Because I think some of your peers started to see really tougher comps in the last 6 weeks of the year because after the election in the U.S. But given that you have a smaller exposure to the U.S., so how did the comps look like within the quarter? Is it more a homogeneous comp development within the quarter? Or is it also a lot more tougher from mid-November onwards?

Yes. Chris, thank you for your question. Starting from the last one, honestly, quite a complex question, Chris, difficult -- very difficult to answer. Again, our current view is what I said. The first 20, 25 days of October are good. We are still in October. And so again, we are satisfied. I mean we are happy when the trend is good than when it is not. But having said that, it's very difficult to predict what may happen in November and most importantly, in December, when we will face a very challenging base of comparison because last year, December was very strong. Everything numeric is something I can't answer. I can't because I'm not able to.

And also very difficult to understand how much may depend or may have depended last year on external factors that, of course, are factors we look at, but I mean, much less than what we are looking at our own performances and our own way to improve performances. So long story short, difficult to answer this question. About the local customers, I mean, overall -- overall, contribution of locals and tourists is not much different than last year in Q3. Of course, different pattern in the different regions because, I mean, locals good in Europe, still good in Europe, but with a decline and evident decline in tourists, mostly driven by the American tourist -- by the decline of American tourists for evident reason you know very well, mostly associated with the depreciation of the currency, decline in tourist in Japan as well and increase in tourism in Korea.

I mean, factors that are totally dependent on the price gap between yen and renminbi that made Japan more convenient in the past, less in Q3 and between Korean won and renminbi that made Korea more convenient in Q3 and mostly in the duty-free business that did very well -- did well in Korea in Q3. So overall, overall contribution of tourism locals more or less the same than last year. But again, Europe weak for the lack of Americas. Japan, the same for the lack of Chinese, for the Chinese, Korea better.

The next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

I have 2 questions. So the first one is in terms of pricing. Was the pricing contribution around mid-single digit in Q3, more or less in line with the price increase you implemented this year? And looking forward in 2026, have you -- can you already start to communicate the price increase you are going to implement? And my second question is about the EBIT margin. So like-for-like are still in negative territory in Q3. It will all depend about Q4. But where do you stand regarding consensus? Are you still comfortable with an EBIT margin around 28%, let's say, 28.3% in order to be precise with what you have on your website?

Okay. About the first question, pricing contribution in Q3 was in line with more or less what we said for this year that is about mid-single digit. Much more difficult the question about 2026 because it is something that is much more difficult and something we are still working together, Roberto, Roberto and I. Of course, we face an important FX impact for next year, an important depreciation of all the most important currencies. If and to which extent we will be able to offset this deterioration of FX is something difficult to predict. But in any event, I mean, our pricing for next year overall will still be in the region of low single digit -- low, high single digit, not more than that.

Low single digit, not low high.

Okay. EBIT margin for this year, I mean, I know that the consensus reports 28.3%. Okay, 28.3% that is implied in the consensus is fully consistent with a good top line. Of course, I don't know what will be the top line. As you said, because I know that you know that very well, our operating margins totally -- I mean, mostly depend on the top line, on the sales density, and this is something we don't know yet. But again, the 28.3% is coherent with a good top line.

The next question is from Luca Solca, Bernstein.

My first question is about activations and events that you are anticipating for the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year? And how would you say that they compare against what you did the previous year? I think it's very clear that in the case of the Genius event, we're not going to have that. But I understand you have other things up your sleeve. And I was wondering how you assess the magnitude of those initiatives relative to what you had the previous year and if this could be a tailwind or a headwind when it comes to your organic growth progression.

The second question is about the demand that you see by price point. It was clear last year that the higher portion of your collection is doing very well indeed, Grenoble in particular. I wonder if you see this trend persisting? And how would you then assess the combined impact of mix and like-for-like price increases and where would that leave volume in the 9 months?

Yes. So Luca, thank you for your question. I mean, activation of events. I mean we are -- I mean, all of us, you, but also we as a management team, normally very focused on big events that have been historically very, very impactful, very, very successful. But events are not the only way we communicate the brand. I'm saying that because something that is not to be considered an event, but it is something remarkable. I would like to remind you is the recent campaign we launched that is Warmer Together, a campaign that delivered honestly, very, very strong results in terms of reach for sure, but also with a very, very high, let me say, the highest ever engagement rate.

And overall, a lot appreciated by everyone around the world across all the different regions. So I don't know if the event in Shanghai last year was more impactful than this campaign or the other way around. But again, I invite you to consider also that even without that event, our pressure, our communication of the brand is still quite important. Something still to happen in the next 2 weeks, there will be the launch of [indiscernible] under the Genius pillar. And something important, very important as well will be the campaign of Grenoble. You know how much Grenoble is important strategically for our brand. So this is something you will see in a few weeks.

Talking about the demand by price point and -- yes, of course, I mean, something I'm sure you know, but I was talking about this current quarter only. But as you know, Grenoble we are planning for the first quarter, the first month of next year, an important event in Aspen for Grenoble. And I reminded me -- I mean, I forgot to tell you, but I'm sure you knew that. Talking about demand by price point and talking about Grenoble because Grenoble implies a quite high price point. And notwithstanding that -- notwithstanding that I mean, this is the demonstration because Grenoble has been doing quite well over the past years and is still doing well.

It demonstrates that where the product is good, where the communication is good and I mean, where there is a strong identity of the product and the coherence with the identity of the brand, notwithstanding the price, there is a demand. Having said that, of course, we believe and I mean, since ever, and we have been working on our pricing architecture to protect the enterprise of our collection because we believe that enterprise is important for recruiting younger people. Of course, enterprise for Moncler is the outerwear is over higher than EUR 1,000. But again, it is lower than our average, of course.

And so working on enterprise product is very important, but we also believe there are huge opportunities in building step by step a higher and higher value collection to capture that kind of customer, high-end customer that is very close to our brand and buys and buy even more high-end product. So again, this is the strategy and results, I mean, more or less are consistent with the strategy. Of course, the real problem right now, I'm talking about October, but I'm talking about this year and to some extent, last year is, of course, a clear slowdown in the demand for several different reasons. But I think that this has nothing or a little to do with the demand and the attraction for our brand and for our product.

The next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.

This is Daria from Bank of America. Could you please share with us what space impact was this quarter given also several store openings? Has your thinking for the annual impact of space, which you normally comment on changed in any way? And then my second question would be about your Fifth Avenue store that's due to open next year. When exactly is it due to open? What percentage of space there will be selling versus nonselling? Will this store come as a replacement of some other stores that you already have in New York City? Just curious on how to best think about the impact from this addition given the size and momentum of your brand in the U.S.

Okay. First question, which is easier. I mean, about the space, space contribution. Overall, for this year, we expect mid -- more or less mid-single digit. In Q3 was not much different than what I said. So this is a simple answer to your question. But of course, tell if you wanted to have more color. About New York Fifth Avenue, the precise date, honestly, let me smile a little bit because we still don't know exactly. Honestly, it's not a small store and sometimes we make mistakes also when we open small stores. You can imagine opening a store of over 2,000 square meters. And so it's something that precisely we don't know yet. But I mean, our view right now is to open the store at the end of the first half of the year, probably around June in order to capture fully the full winter season.

How much is selling, how much is not, something honestly, I don't know, but I can tell you that, of course, selling will be predominant. But of course, we will have consistent space also for our stock. Talking about other stores, we have other 3 stores in New York, one in [indiscernible] Street, one is in the stores, [indiscernible] Fifth Avenue and the other one is in Madison, Madison 59, which is quite close to the store we are opening. So I mean, there might be an overlapping, and we might decide, but we have not yet to see whether or not we may close that store, something that we will be evaluating. No decision has been made yet. But for sure, that store may have an overlap in terms of customer base with the store in Fifth Avenue, even though, of course, store in Fifth Avenue is expected to be more tourism, Madison Avenue for sure, is more local. But again, something not decided yet, but you are -- I mean, your comment is correct.

The next question is from Ed Aubin, Morgan Stanley.

So 2 for me as well. Luciano, on the margin comments you made, sorry, for the year EBIT margin, you said that 28.3%, which is the consensus would be consistent with the good top line. So I'm not going to ask you to -- you don't have a crystal ball, but just a sensitivity analysis, assuming that you would make the consensus, which is Moncler retail about 2% to 3% up in Q4. Does that qualify as good top line or not? So that would be question number one.

And then question number one, just to follow up on the selling space questions you got. Could you give us a little bit of an early indication of what you have in mind for the -- in percentage terms for '26? Are you going to continue to grow about mid-single digit? Or given that your like-for-like has been negative in recent quarters, would you slow down a bit the pace of expansion? So yes, what do you have in mind for next year?

Yes. I will go to the first question, you said something totally correct that we don't have the crystal ball. And so we based our view on what we know and difficult to make predictions. Of course, again, operating margins are mostly dependent on the top line in Q4 more than in any other quarter. What I can say is that, again, the EBIT reported in the consensus is consistent with a good top line. Of course, a good top line means top line, we would be happy -- difficult to know and difficult to tell you simply because I don't know is whether or not we will be able to make it. Again, talking about numbers, I mean, very difficult and honestly, quite premature.

I can tell you that, again, October was good. Next weeks’ still to be done. What also I said that is important to remember that December last year was very strong. And the year before was also very strong. It was very strong the year before. So again, December will be more and more challenging. Overall, all the quarter is challenging. So again, I'm sorry if I can't help you to predict or to plan our operating margins, but I can tell you what I know. About space contribution next year, I mean, right now, I mean, I can tell you that we are in the region of low mid -- more than mid-single digit based again on what we know that the new openings, also the space of some important stores like New York, we just talked about. Again, take this number as an overall indication. Of course, the number as always depends again on the new openings and also on the expansions, the projects of expansion, relocation of existing -- of existing stores. So overall, this is what I can tell you now.

The next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

The first one is on online business. Was the third quarter similar to the first half of the year? Or were there any differences? And the second question is on the wholesale channel for Stone Island. Do you expect performance to stabilize for next year for Stone Island? Are there any comments that you can anticipate for 2026?

About online, honestly, providing the contribution of online business on the total is something -- I mean, we don't look that much, not any longer since when we realize -- fully realized that online is a very important component of our omnichannel business. But of course, online still -- I mean was suffering. I can tell you that now after we launched the new site -- the new website, I mean, we are very happy about the new website because, I mean, first of all, it is way better than before because we saw an increase in traffic, because we see people coming to visit the store to spend more time -- much more time than before in visiting the store, the online store.

So again, all qualitative comments just to say that online business itself is important, but much less than in the past. What is important is the online business, the online site to get new customers, to get people, to recruit new customers and also to convert the new potential customers in the online site or in the retail store, which happens all the days. Talking about our sales force Oriana, first of all, let me say that, I mean, the results in Q3 have been penalized by some timing issues that will be fixed and offset by better results in Q4, just to comment the Q3 results.

Talking about 2026. I mean, you may remember that 2 years ago, we reported high -- last year, we reported a high double-digit decline in the wholesale business for several reasons you know, but I mean the reasons are, of course, the overall decline of the wholesale industry that impacted Moncler as well, the decline of the retailers, but also the fact that in this specific situation, we decided for Stone Island to the same we did in the first for Moncler, and we are still doing for Moncler that is to be even more selective with our wholesale network. This year, as you see from the numbers, the results, I mean, we expect will still be negative, but way, way better than last year. Next year, I don't know, but I expect this positive trend to continue. Will or will not be flat, difficult to predict. But for sure, we will be close to that.

The next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have 2. Coming back on your marketing campaign featuring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Is this the beginning of your offensive in the U.S. market, which appears to be a focus for '26? And beyond the openings of your Fifth Avenue store and the Moncler Grenoble show in Aspen, could you share more details about your ambitions in the U.S. in coming years? And any Genius event scheduled there, maybe in H2 '26 as the last 2 were in Europe and Asia Pacific?

And second question, do you have any data on market trends for luxury -- the luxury down jacket segment? And any idea of your performance compared to the market? I'm just curious, are you seeing increasing competition in this category? And as seen in other luxury categories such as jewelry, are you noticing the emergence of local competitors? For instance, one of your Asian competitor, well not really competitor, but just launched a higher-end down jacket line with a well-known creative designer. So I'm just curious about the level of competition in this segment.

Thank you for your question. About the current campaign I talked about before, the Warmer Together featuring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. I mean, you are right. But what I said before is very important to reiterate the campaign was only enormously appreciated everywhere in all the different regions from East to West. And this was the target of this campaign. Of course, we are talking about 2 icons, 2 American icons. And to your point, of course, the campaign has been particularly well appreciated in the U.S. also with the recent event of a couple of days ago, we held Fifth Avenue in Rockefeller Center.

Talking about the U.S. ambitions, of course, yes, this campaign for sure, is very important for the U.S. market, but again, not only. Talking about our ambitions, we have important ambitions, but not urgent, not urgent because developing our ambitions and developing the opportunities, the potential we see that are very strong in the U.S. takes time because, of course, we have to work -- to keep working very well on the brand, on the brand communication, on the brand awareness because in the U.S., for sure, we have differently from other regions, still problem of brand awareness that is very good in the main cities, but not that much in the other regions of the U.S. and constantly in parallel to develop a broader distribution network that right now, as you know, is still behind in terms of potential behind all the other regions. So U.S. ambitions are still there. U.S. potential is still something we see doable, developable and something we will be working not only this year but also next years.

About your second question, of course, there is only one player that recently communicated a collaboration with a very high-end designer -- luxury designer that is a Chinese brand, a very respectable brand, developing huge volumes, much, much bigger than Moncler. Whether or not that brand may be a competitor, difficult to say. I can tell you that right now, I will say no because I mean, based on the knowledge, the deep knowledge we have of our customers in China, I can tell you that normally, they shop Moncler, they shop other luxury brands in different categories, but I don't think they buy the product of that brand. I don't know in the future, considering this recent collaboration. But right now, honestly, we don't see any visible competition in our field.

The next question is from Piral Dadhania, RBC.

My first question just relates to the impact of U.S. tariffs on your margin profile for the second half of the year. Could you just clarify for us whether the mid-single-digit price increases that are embedded in the autumn/winter '25 collections is enough to neutralize the impact of U.S. tariffs or whether you have or anticipate taking any additional price increases for that market, please?

And I'm sorry, my line went a bit bad in -- for your previous question, but could I just ask around Arc'teryx in China? I don't know if that was what you were referring to before, but have you seen any potential improvement or increase in traffic or as a result of the misstep -- the marketing misstep that Arc'teryx undertook in Quebec roughly 1 month ago. So have you seen any improvement in the China performance of the business in the last month or so on the back of that?

Okay. Your first question about pricing and tariffs in the U.S. Tariffs, I mean, as we probably said, I mean it was an up and down in terms of communication, as you know. At the end, considering the current level of duties, the impact is not particularly material, even though we increased the prices a little bit to offset the tariff impact. But again, this is not for sure, the most important issue we face in the U.S. The most important issue we face, as you know very well, is the FX is the deterioration of the U.S. dollar.

Impact that is not relevant at all for this year in 2025, but simply because thanks to our hedging policy, we have no impact at all on our margins. Of course, much more complex will be next year. And as I said before, something we are deeply and closely evaluating together, Roberto and I mostly and our teams. And of course, confident to develop a balanced pricing structure to protect the demand on one side and to protect the margins on the other side. I hope I answered your question, but let me know.

Second question, I mean, honestly, I don't know. I know, of course, what happened with that brand. Difficult to quantify whether or not that event may have helped traffic in Moncler stores, very difficult to say. I think that -- I mean, that event may have impacted that brand, but I don't think that the customers are escaping leaving Arc'teryx to come to Moncler. I hope they may do to some extent because, I mean, there is some kind of overlapping our collection with us even if with a different -- totally different price point.

I think that our Grenoble collection is developing, building more and more a strong technical credibility. So Grenoble is not luxury only, not luxury only as much as it was in the past that now the credibility of Grenoble as a performance, a technical brand is growing day after day. And so it may happen that some people looking for performance are coming more and more to our stores to buy Grenoble. But giving you an indication, any view about what may happen after the backlash, difficult to say.

The next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.

Luciano, I'll keep it to one given the time. I think historically, you talked to the need to deliver mid-single-digit like-for-like to maintain margins. So I wonder whether you started to look at initiatives to improve the equation. I presume we could see that reduction in the rate of space expansion next year may be a starting point along that journey. Would love to hear your thoughts on that, please.

I mean you are correct, mid-single digit is what normally is required by our business model to protect our operating margins. Even though, of course, I mean, considering the current trend that is something that started, let me say, last year and second quarter of this year, we started to look very closely, very deeply to our expenses in order to react to a trend that is not what it was in 2023 or in 2024. About the I mean the reduction in space, honestly, I'm not sure to understand because what I said before is that next year is in any rent expected to grow. I misspoke before, it was low single digit, low mid. I said maybe not high, but it is low mid-single digit, but still growing. And so I don't see any reduction in space.

For sure, I mean, all the expenses, what we call the for all expenses, expenses within the store and the structural expenses, the G&A are under a deep observation, let me say, as usual, but of course, now more than ever because we are implementing projects to become more and more efficient, it's a long story. I'm not going to tell you. But of course, it's not something we cut horizontally. It's something we tend to cut by becoming more and more efficient and also with the help of artificial intelligence, but I mean something I'm not sure you are interested right now. But in any event, for sure, we are working now more than ever and more than in the past on cost savings. But let me understand if I answer your question or if you have any follow-up questions.

I don't know. But by all means, Luciano. My question was, it sounds like you had a greater focus on cost overall since Q2 by the sounds of it. And I was looking into that whether the change in the pace of expansion. So I didn't talk about store reductions, but a reduction in store openings was part of that. But it sounds as if a lot of the cost focus is on individual store expenses by the sounds of it.

Again, Okay. But in any event, I don't see any significant impact in our retail expansion, honestly, also because next year, something we discussed a few minutes ago. I mean we are opening for sure, we are planning to open some stores, but one very important that from the space point of view will be particularly material is the New York Fifth Avenue. So again, on that side, nothing significantly different from the past. Something very important and a little bit different from the past is our focus on expenses on our organization in order to make it more and more efficient.

The next question is from Thomas Chauvet of Citi.

I have 2 questions, please. One on category performance for the Moncler brand DTC. If we look at the 9 months growth, so plus 1%, you said there was a 5% pricing, mid-single-digit space contribution. That would imply roughly high single-digit percent volume decline. Could you give us a sense of how the categories have compared in the 9 months of down jacket versus knitwear versus footwear or any other smaller category emerging?

And then secondly, a follow-up question on pricing. You confirmed Luciano low single-digit percent for next year, so a bit lower than the pricing trend in the last 3, 4 years. Is that enough to cover input cost inflation, but also the potential unfavorable FX headwinds you mentioned? Or are you willing to absorb some of these headwinds into your gross margin next year for the benefit of supporting volume and demand?

Yes. Tom, thank you for your question. I mean your calculation is correct. Of course, reporting flat or whatever number is for our DTC business. And with the space -- a positive space contribution, this implies a negative comp. And within the negative comp, assuming a mid-single-digit price mix increase, there is a decline in volumes, which categories? Let me tell you the good more than the bad. The good is that there are some categories, specifically knitwear that keeps growing very nicely and better than outerwear. Outerwear is still, of course, the most important category, is still doing very well. But of course, with a pace lower than knitwear. But again, overall, our volumes are declining, knitwear better than the other categories. And this is what I can tell you.

About pricing, your elaboration is correct. Of course, when we implement our pricing strategy, our first goal is to protect the gross margin, but the ultimate goal is to protect the operating margins. And so something we did in the past and something we are evaluating for 2026 when I said that we will try to mitigate the price increase to low single digit is exactly to generate in some geographies, considering the U.S. where the impact of FX is particularly important to consider the demand first and the impact on the demand more than the impact on margin. If -- I mean, difficult to say now whether or not we will be able to make it happen.

But if we will be able to generate more revenues in the U.S., more traffic and more revenues even with a slight because we are talking about not material impact on gross margin, this will impact positively our operating margin. So I mean, pricing is not a rocket science. Of course, otherwise, it will be much easier to do it with a spreadsheet with excel. But I mean, our belief right now is that pricing will be in the region of what I said. And in some regions, specifically in the U.S., maybe less, of course, than the impact of currency. But this is something we believe is good for the brand, good to generate more traffic and hopefully more revenues.

The next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita.

I have 2 questions as well. The first one is about Korea and actually rather the Koreans as a cluster. If you can remind us how much does it account for Moncler and what we are seeing there in terms of trends? What was the performance in Q3? And if you are seeing any acceleration in line with what your general comments were for the group -- for the brand, sorry.

And second question is instead on Stone Island. The performance in Q3 was pretty good. I was wondering if you can provide some more color in terms of the drivers for this retail performance in terms of main KPIs, in terms of contribution full price of primary versus secondary or whatever you can add to understand the quality and the sustainability, let's say, of this trend?

Yes, Paola, thank you for the question. About Korea, Korea represents high single digit, close to 10% just to give you a number. Business in Korea is down and business with the Korean cluster is down. Why is that? I think that one reason is that in Korea, as you know, we have been growing a lot over the past 5 years, 6 years, at least from 2019, including 2020 and 2021, the years of COVID. Korea was the only region that grew in 2020. So probably for this reason, there is some kind of expectable slowdown. And overall, I mean, we are not worried about Korea, but simply because the brand is very strong in Korea, business is still doing very well. Of course, we have quite a challenging base of comparison for sure. And this is one reason why we are suffering a little bit.

Second question about Stone Island. Stone Island, we reported an 11% growth rate in the DTC business in Q3, vast majority organic growth, notwithstanding weakness in traffic, a decline in traffic that impacted Moncler, but Stone Island too. Notwithstanding the decline in traffic, the other retail metrics are significantly up. I'm talking about average selling price that is the result of a clear product strategy that you know very well because I said several times, the shift of our collection from the more enterprise categories that made the success of Stone Island in the past to the strategically most important categories that are out that made the identity and the origin of Stone Island at the beginning in the early '80s. And I mean, the great work that our people are doing in the store that is conversion and UPT.

Of course, thanks to a collection that obviously customers evidently like because they come to visit the store, they see the collection and they leave the store after they buy something, and more than something because also UPT is a metric that is doing well. So overall, good results, still very early, very early, still a long journey to develop that kind of sales density that is important to make Stone Island profitable as much as Moncler, but very, very encouraging, very, very encouraging and also very motivating. Also, again, October, I mean talking about the current trend is still in line with the results of Q3. So again, nothing to celebrate, not yet too early, but something to be very, very satisfied because there is behind a very important work that Stone Island team developed over the past years.

The next question is a follow-up from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

I just wanted to understand the timing of the next Genius event, just to follow up on what you mentioned about the opening of the flagship store in New York. Does that mean that the next Genius will happen around the same time or as it was my understanding initially? Or could it come earlier than the opening?

Anne-Laure, we don't know yet. What we know for sure is what they said. Next year, we will hold in the beginning of the year a Grenoble event in Aspen. And what I said is that we will open New York store hopefully in June, and we will most likely hold a grand opening event in September. All the rest of the marketing calendar is still something under evaluation, something we don't know yet.

[Operator Instructions]

So we have a couple of questions on the webcast. I think the first one has been answered about the competitive environment for down jackets and outerwear in general. We have a couple more related to cash usage, dividend policy, M&A plan, so something related to that. I think this would be the last one.

Okay. M&A strategy, something that did not change, not at all. Of course, we have a significant amount of cash. And what we are proud of is that we keep generating cash. Of course, we don't know yet this year. But in any event, this has been the result of the recent years. Our strategy is to return significantly this cash to our shareholders, which implies an increase that we did in the payout ratio.

Next year, I don't know yet. But in any event, we will continue this strategy to return as much as possible cash to our investors. M&A, again, is not in our radar screen. It's not the strategy we have. But it does not mean that we are against any potential acquisition, but if and only if should we find another beautiful project, another beautiful company like Stone Island in 2020. So right now, nothing in our -- not in our desk. And honestly, nothing we are thinking of also because, again, something I keep saying, we want to remain very focused on Moncler and Stone Island because both brands have a huge potential, but in order to develop and to take advantage of this potential, we all need to remain -- all including [indiscernible] to remain very focused on these 2 brands.

Okay. I think that there are no more questions. So I thank you very much for being with us tonight. For any follow-up questions, as usual, you can contact myself or [indiscernible] tonight or also in the coming days. Just one thing. We have published today our 2026 financial calendar, which you can see in this last slide. And the next earnings release will be on February 19, when we will report our fiscal year 2025 results. Thank you again, and have a great evening, everyone.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephone.