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Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptApril 21, 2026

Operator

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. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and after the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing * and 0 on their telephone. 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.

Elena Mariani

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.

Starting with an overview of our Q1 results on page three, I'm delighted to announce that as a group, we achieved revenues of €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 €767 million, up 12% year-on-year at constant FX; and Stone Island brand revenues of €114 million, up 11% year-on-year at constant FX.

Now, if you move to page four, 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 had 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, two-day brand experience with the Moncler Grenoble global community.

During this experience, we opened our second Moncler Grenoble-only store in Aspen after St. Moritz two years ago, obviously the first Grenoble flagship in America.

This 100-day journey extended well beyond Aspen. As shown on page five, 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 the 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 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 these very emotional images from Lucas. 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. This quarter was not just about Moncler Grenoble.

Moving to page six, 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 seven.

Also for Stone, this was an incredibly eventful quarter marked by a series of initiatives that further reinforced the brand's positioning around community, research, and innovation, and increased 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 longstanding 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 dialogue with its global community with this new chapter bringing together a varied 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. For the occasion, Stone Island released 'O Sfratto, 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 eight. We're very happy to say that in the first quarter of the year, the brand grew by 12% at constant currencies.

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.

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.

Here, I would highlight two 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 nine, 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. 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.

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, 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. Looking specifically at the trends by region, Asia was the strongest region, up 25%.

All the main countries registered strong double-digit growth, I'm talking about Korea, Japan, China, and the rest of APAC as well. 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, very encouraging signs.

EMEA revenues were up 3%. Also here, both channels were positive.

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.

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, 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 monobrand 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 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 monobrand stores counted 94 directly operated stores, a net decrease of one unit compared with last December. 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.

We reached the end of the presentation. I will now hand it over to the operator for your questions.

I kindly ask you, as usual, to stick to a maximum of two questions per person to give all participants the opportunity to ask a question. Operator, you can now open the Q&A line.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. This is the Chorus Call conference operator.

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press * and 1 on their touch-tone telephone.

To remove yourself from the question queue, please press * and 2. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions.

Anyone who has a question may press * and 1 at this time. We will pause for a moment as participants are joining the queue.

First question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

Melania Grippo

Good evening, everyone. This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas.

I have two questions. I was curious to hear 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 three drops during the first part of the year.

My second question is on Stone Island. Of course, the brand is doing particularly well with retail growing double digit for three 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 three collections, Marina, Stellina, and Ghost, are doing and what they represent on sales? Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Yes, hi, Melania. About your first question, Spring/Summer feedback, honestly it's 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 the campaign, as you may have seen, is very, very strong and very impactful.

Again, our expectations are relevant, sorry to say that, but not just in terms of business, that is important, but this is a very important brand campaign. For the first time ever, we wanted to be very intentional about this current season when normally we're not as strong as much as in full winter.

We're very happy because the feedback and also the mediatic impact is very strong. About Grenoble, Melania, first quarter was very good.

It was very good also because of everything we implemented, what Elena said before. The 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.

Business-wise, I can tell you that the first quarter Grenoble was particularly, particularly good.

Elena Mariani

Maybe one small thing, Melania, if you were making reference to delivery two on the back of Genius presentation in February, it's actually starting now, and marketing will come mid-May, too early to tell.

Melania Grippo

Okay. Thank you.

Luciano Santel

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. Important to highlight, of course, something I'm sure you saw, growth comes mostly from the DTC channel.

Let me say that the entirety of that growth rate is organic only because there is no space that impacts that growth rate. Very happy about the current trend of Stone Island that is continuing, substantially continuing.

Of course, we have just a couple of weeks behind us, very premature to get to any conclusion, but this positive trend is continuing in the first days of April.

Elena Mariani

Maybe one small thing to add about the sub-collections which you have asked, the one that I would highlight as being the strongest among them is definitely Ghost. If 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.

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. Thank you.

Melania Grippo

Thank you both.

Operator

Next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.

Anne-Laure Bismuth

Yes, hi. Good evening, Elena and Luciano.

Congratulations on a very strong Q1 performance. My first question is about the performance of the like-for-like.

I was wondering if you can help us to know what was the space contribution in Q1 and the split between 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 would mean that the like-for-like rebounded strongly in Q1 to high-single-digit rates.

Is it fair? Was it mostly volume-driven and with a bit of pricing?

That's my first question. 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 that trends continuing into Q2?

Thank you very much.

Luciano Santel

Hi, 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. It's not particularly meaningful, sorry, in one quarter only, but as a matter of fact, is quite in line with our indication for the year-end, which is close to mid single digit.

Talking about the contribution within the organic growth, volumes were positive. Even more importantly, the average selling price was up, and not just totally driven by mix, but not only mix between fall/winter and spring, but back to the previous question from Melania, because Grenoble performed quite well, and as Grenoble has a higher price than Moncler Collection.

Also, not only because of conversion, but also the UPT for Grenoble was quite good. 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 Americans and Europeans still positive, single digit. Again, Chinese cluster still very strong as much as in Q4.

Everything was good. All the different nationalities were positive.

Of course, the strongest was Chinese, but all the other two Asian nationalities were very good as well.

Anne-Laure Bismuth

Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Chris Huang, UBS.

Chris Huang

Hello. Hi.

Thanks for taking my questions. I'll stick to two.

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.

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? Secondly, on on the Middle East, last week when we heard from some of your other peers in the sector report, they were calling out the the Middle East impact somewhere between 1% to 2% percentage point.

I know that you have a smaller direct exposure to the region for the Moncler brand, but are you able to perhaps help us help us a little bit better understanding the impact direct, but also indirect in terms of tourism? If you can give us some some sense in terms of the numbers, headwinds, that will be extremely helpful.

Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Okay. Thank you, Chris.

You are right. Actually, I gave some indication about the first two weeks of second quarter about 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 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

Elena Mariani

February.

Luciano Santel

Sorry, February. February.

Elena correct me. January very good, February very, very strong for the same reason, Chinese New Year this year was in the second 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.

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 the current conflict in in Iran that, of course, prevented some Asian people from coming from coming from flying to come to to Europe. The beginning of second quarter was in line with the March, quite uncertain, not I mean softer than, again, January and February, but affected by the the slowdown in in tourism that is affecting mostly mostly Europe.

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

Elena Mariani

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.

This was the other factor to keep into account on top of what Luciano has mentioned. Then about the Middle Eastern, the only thing that I can add is that the cluster was down around 50% in March.

Again, not a meaningful direct impact on the business and not as much as others. Then the second-derivative effects 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 two months.

Chris Huang

Thank you. Can I just follow up on that comment you made on March?

I think most of the peers seem to be seeing a little bit of softening after Chinese New Year. Given that you did 14% in Q1, is it fair to assume that March was still trending in the range of high single digit

Elena Mariani

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

Chris Huang

No worries. I was saying that it makes sense that March was softening a little bit after Chinese New Year given the timing of the event.

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 digit, any directional color you can give?

Luciano Santel

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 two months.

Chris Huang

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.

Natasha Bonnet

Hi. Thank you very much for taking my questions, and congratulations on the the great set of results.

I have two 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?

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 this year?

I just note that last year, your A&P was quite high in H1, it was 9.6%. Anything you could tell us, that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Elena Mariani

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

Natasha Bonnet

Yes.

Elena Mariani

First. The second one, again, sorry, it was related to margin?

Sorry, couldn't hear you very well.

Natasha Bonnet

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?

Luciano Santel

Natasha. Thanks for your question.

Starting from the second the second question about potential phasing in margin, what I can tell you is, of course, not about margin, but I can tell you that talking about A&P, advertising and promotional marketing, the timing between H1 and H2 this year is expected to be substantially in line with last year. Nothing materially different this year from last year.

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

Elena Mariani

Yes, and just to specify a little bit, 50/50 means 50% local, 50% tourist coming from outside of the region. Oh

Luciano Santel

yes, when we talk about the tourism, this is something important to clarify. Thank you, Elena, for everyone.

When we talk about the tourism, we consider only tourism from outside the region. Of course, we detect, we monitor also the tourism inside the region, but what is much more relevant for our business is the one from outside.

Elena Mariani

The only thing I would add, we don't really go into the specific details related to each quarter, but as always, 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 flows.

Something you've heard multiple times from us, but it's the typical seasonality you see in a year.

Operator

Next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

Oriana Cardani

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my two questions.

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?

My second question is on Forex, if you can give us an update on the expected Forex impact for this year. Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Okay. Thank you, Oriana, for your question.

About CapEx plan impacted by the situation Middle East, no, nothing relevant, honestly. 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.

Nothing material at all. The

Oriana Cardani

second was the impact from currencies on FY '26.

Luciano Santel

Impact from currencies. Of course, the first quarter was quite high, 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.

Oriana Cardani

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.

Daria Nasledysheva

Hi. Congratulations on the super strong result.

This is Daria from Bank of America, and I have two questions. 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. 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? Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Hi, Daria. About your first question, first of all, we are happy about our performance in the US.

I don't know if your question was more related to something that consider the event we held in Aspen, we should have expected better than what we reported. Honestly, I think that the number we reported was good, was very good.

Of course, you know that this company in the US, as everyone knows, and I'm sure you do, is still underpenetrated in the US. This underpenetration depends also on a brand awareness that in the US, in North America, is still lower, not as strong as in other regions.

Let me say that not in the US everywhere, because in the main cities where we have a strong footprint, like New York, and 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. Overall, US is a long journey, is a project that started last year.

This year, we are even more intentional with the two 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 it will be a long journey, and it will take some time, but we are very confident. About Stone Island, 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 relevant as much as Moncler, but still 50% is quite important.

Any organic growth in the DTC business delivers stronger margins. Having said that, honestly, it is quite premature to get to any conclusion or to extrapolate the results of the first quarter over the next three quarters because it is very early, it would be very imprudent to do that.

In any event, if Stone Island should continue, as we hope, to grow double digit and mostly organic, as it did over the past quarters, for sure that operating margin will improve, and for sure that it will be maybe less dilutive than it was in the past a couple of years.

Elena Mariani

Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.

Thomas Chauvet

Good evening, Luciano and Elena. Two questions, please.

The first one on the store network. There were no openings, 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 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 strong brand momentum in the region? Secondly, on gross margin, I know you update us, Luciano, on interim profit in July, but can you perhaps comment on the tailwind you're expecting in the first half in particular?

You've had a return to mid-high-single-digit volume growth in Q1 already, channel mix massive tailwind, geomix possibly, any other headwinds or maybe tailwinds we should be aware of for H1 and full year? 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?

Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Yes, Thomas. Thank you for your question.

About your last question, the trend in April, I just commented, was about DTC. The first comment at the first question we received from Elena 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.

Correct? Okay.

Gross margin evolution, not operating margin, correct, Thomas? Thomas?

Thomas Chauvet

Yes, gross margin. That's correct.

Luciano Santel

Gross margin, honestly, looking at both brands, of course, they have quite fairly different gross margin, but 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 have evidently significant differences in operating margins, but I'm sure you know very well that. I'm not sure if this was your question or if I missed something.

Thomas Chauvet

Luciano, yeah, 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? I see 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.

Luciano Santel

The factors that may impact gross margin are, yes, 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. Honestly, between 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. Again, I don't see any tailwind on gross margin.

Of course, based on the results of the first quarter, if this result should continue in the second quarter, would be on the operating margin. Again, on the gross margin, again, I don't see any factor that may have a material impact on gross margin.

Elena Mariani

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. Anything that might come, if the gross margin is going to be up slightly this year because of the channel mix, we expect it to be compensated.

If your question was meant to see if there was a little bit of margin upside, that wouldn't happen because of these factors. 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.

Luciano Santel

Store opening for the next of the Store opening for the next of the year, 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, the Grenoble store in Aspen already opened, and the store in New York, Fifth Avenue, needless to remind you, and some other other stores in America, in California, in Valley Fair, in Dallas, and other, what I call wrongly, minor cities, but minor, let me say, for the brand because our presence in in some cities is still, let me say, quite shy. These are cities or Austin, for example, we are testing due to the project we have for for for that market.

We don't have many openings in China, even if, of course, that market is doing very well. Some some openings, some openings in Asia Pacific, in the Southeast Pacific.

These are more or less the the openings we we we plan for this year, Thomas.

Elena Mariani

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

Perfect.

Thomas Chauvet

Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Carole Madjo, Barclays.

Carole Madjo

Hi. Yes, good evening.

Two questions for 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.

When we think of products, which one are you pushing in terms of family of products? Then when you think about the weight of Q1, Q2, etc., 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 collections? That's the first question.

The second question is just around the Grenoble store that you opened in Aspen earlier this year. Is the store here performing in line with your expectations in terms of retail metrics?

Are they similar to the one of course in Switzerland, St. Moritz, for instance?

Can you also remind us how we should think about store openings for Grenoble in the future? Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Yes, Carole. About your first question, our expectations, as I said before, are mostly brand expectations.

We want, we aim to make Moncler an all-year- an all-year-round brand, of course, still protecting our DNA that is based on winter, mountain, and cold. We see opportunities still to protect the the identity of the brand to become more and more relevant in spring/summer.

This will be a long journey, our expectations are mostly brand expectations, also business expectations, but not something we expect to see and to deliver overnight. Of course, it will be it will be a long journey.

I hope we can see some business results this year, but again, this is not our most important our most important goal. The other question was about Grenoble?

Yes, Grenoble. Yes, we opened the store the store in Aspen that is performing, let me say, totally in line with our with our plan.

Of course, our plan was and still is to have two stores in Aspen as we have two 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, and 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 of of the event. Again, forget the first a few days, the store is doing is doing quite well.

We are very happy about that that opening. Sorry, the other question was about

Elena Mariani

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

Luciano Santel

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 Q1, Q4 and Q2, Q3.

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 codes of the brand.

Expectation without giving numbers, Carole, because that would be totally meaningless, but for sure, we expect, over the time, second quarter and third quarter to become more relevant and to decrease the gap between the other two quarters.

Elena Mariani

Carole, just to contextualize, it's not an expectation on 2026. This is really 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 a 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 a medium-term ambition that we have, you shouldn't read anything into 2026. Also, as there is part of this that 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.

There are several factors that can come into play. Obviously, over the medium to long term, we all hope to see this evolution.

Carole Madjo

Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Charles Scotti, Kepler.

Charles Scotti

Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have two. My first question relates to EMEA, where growth has been relatively weak since the second half of '24.

What do you think explain this? Is it solely due to weaker tourism?

If so, could you provide more details on trends among the local customers? 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?

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 regain momentum?

Thank you. Hey,

Luciano Santel

hi, Charles. About your first question, I don't believe at all that we can talk about some kind of maturity of the brand in Europe.

I think that I will not talk about the weakness, but for sure EMEA is performing less than Asian countries, for sure, and this is totally due to the decline in tourism, specifically talking about Q1. As I said before, in Q1, there was a stronger decline in tourism coming from outside the region to Europe in March.

January and February was not strong. February was positive because of Chinese coming after the Chinese New Year.

January was not strong. Overall, there was a strong decline in March that is, again, reported also by Global Blue for all the industry.

Talking about the locals in Europe, locals are holding up, and so this makes us confident. Of course, I can't tell you that in Europe business with the locals is particularly amazing.

We are holding that business, this makes us confident. For sure, demand in Europe right now also from locals is not particularly strong.

Again, overall, I'm confident to exclude that there might be any maturity issue with the brand. Talking about APAC, talking about China, let me say that the brand is very strong, something I keep saying, and I'm sure you know.

It's very strong for several different reasons. 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 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 these problems are over, but for sure, we see more vibe in China than in the past.

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.

Charles Scotti

Thank you very much.

Operator

Next question is from Chris Gao, CLSA.

Chris Gao

Hi, management. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a great result and your Asia operational investment bearing fruit.

Basically, I have two. The first one is on the Stone Island.

Just now, you commented on the volume, mix, pricing contribution for Moncler brand's growth, and how about Stone Island's DTC volume, mix, ASP contribution to the 1Q growth look like? Also, just want to understand more about that, 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. Where's the share gain coming from?

We also want to understand more clarity, if possible, on the mid-term targets on Stone Island's scale and the margin profile. This is the first question.

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

Thank you.

Luciano Santel

Yes, hi, Chris. About your first question, the first question about volume, mix, I can tell you that the the the organic growth implied a significant growth of of volumes.

Looking at 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. The business was totally driven by two retail metrics: average selling price and conversion.

Average selling price was because, we changed the the product architecture, the collection architecture of Stone Island, as as investing more and more in outerwear, knitwear that have a higher price point. What was very positive was conversion rate, because even if less people were coming to visit the store, the the the majority not the majority, but an increasing percent of people coming to visit the store converted into into sales and 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 and March, January less, but February and March, traffic was positive.

All the retail metrics were positive: traffic, conversion rate still very strong, and average sell- selling price. Your question, who which brand or where are we taking 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 the 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, 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, business was not positive. We lost most many of aspirational customers that were attracted by the logo and by the entry price categories.

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. The results are were, not expected, but strongly hoped by the management team.

This is the long 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, and so keep investing in this categories, but without forgetting the entry price 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. Brand codes are material research.

Material research is mostly about outerwear, but also knitwear. Talking about talking about Moncler, you know that, the the long story of our price architecture over the past 10 years, we started with the classic down jacket that is still our best-seller categories, but we invested more and more in high-end in high-end products within the outerwear category and also in knitwear.

This was has been the the the history of the brand over the past 10, 15 years, and this is something that we want to continue. Right now, our core business is in the price point between €1,500 and €2,500 for Moncler.

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 €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 to achieve overnight, but this is this is our strategy. Of course, still protecting the entry price categories.

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

Chris Gao

Yes, this is super clear. Thank you very much.

Congrats again.

Operator

Next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.

James Grzinic

Good evening, Luciano and Elena. I'm really following up on Charles' question around the Chinese cluster.

Looks like the Chinese cluster was probably high teens, perhaps 20% up for you in Q1. A couple of questions then.

What was the Chinese cluster growth last year for the whole of the year for you? 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 early stages of that?

It might be that my calculation is completely wrong, please do correct me if that's the case.

Luciano Santel

Hi, James. Let me see if I understand your question.

About the Chinese cluster, as I said, the growth rate was double digit, 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 total?

Elena Mariani

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

James Grzinic

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.

Elena Mariani

No,

James Grzinic

then

Elena Mariani

we don't go into such detail. We mentioned that also the other nationalities were pretty strong, particularly Koreans and Japanese.

When it comes to last year, it was up low double digit 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 digit. This was the evolution of 2025 in terms of cluster.

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.

I don't know if this helps, but we wouldn't go into that much detail.

James Grzinic

Of course, that's helpful. Thank you.

Yeah. Sorry, Luciano.

Luciano Santel

Okay. Did we answer your question, or

James Grzinic

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

Luciano Santel

James, nothing special for China, but a lot of special for the brand? 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 and with the Chinese customers is stronger and also faster, quicker than in other regions. Considering everything we did in Q1, I think that this may have had an impact in China even more than in other regions.

Grenoble, Aspen, Olympics. This is a possible explanation.

This for two reasons: one is what I said before, that the brand is very strong in China; but also let me say that in China, we have a very strong retail organization that translate ideas, projects into engagement and business. They are very strong in conveying the brand message and independent on what we do.

Anytime we do something special, they are very strong in delivering the message directly to customers. This is the explanation we give ourselves.

James Grzinic

That's clear. Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita. Yes,

Paola Carboni

hello. Hi.

Good afternoon, everybody. I have two questions.

The first one is specifically on the month of March. You have commented about the impact regionally and in terms of lower tourism 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, on 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 in due time? A second question is instead 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.

Thank you very much.

Luciano Santel

Hi, Paola. About your first question, March softer, as I said before, due to the strong decline in tourism coming to Europe mostly, and so Europe was mostly impacted by what we said.

Other nationalities, honestly, Asian nationalities still good, much better, of course, softer than the previous two months, but still positive. The nationality and the market that was more impacted by the decline in tourism was Europe.

About

Elena Mariani

Paola, one quick point. We don't want to spend too much time about the intra-quarter evolution, but clearly Chinese New Year was in February.

As you might expect, post the Chinese New Year, there is a natural normalization of growth with the Chinese cluster, which doesn't mean that we're losing momentum or anything, it's literally the natural curve that we see. I wouldn't say much more than this, besides the tourism consumption.

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 much else to comment.

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

Paola Carboni

Exactly. I remembered of a further new opening by the end of the year, I didn't know if I'm right or not, and in any case, other plans for the future.

No,

Luciano Santel

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. 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.

There are some important ski resorts we are targeting for a potential second store of Grenoble, but to be more precise, it's still something we are simply working on is potentially Courchevel.

Elena Mariani

Paola, don't expect that we have a store opening rollout related to Grenoble. We're 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?

Operator

We have no more questions registered.

Elena Mariani

Fantastic. 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. As a reminder, our H1 2026 interim management statement will be released on July 22nd after market close, and our quiet period will start on June 23rd.

Thank you again, and have a great rest of the evening. Bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over.

You may disconnect your telephones.