Thanks very much. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Safilo's Q1 2026 trading update.

The first quarter of 2026 marked a solid start of the year, once again underlining the resilience of our business model, which rests on two pillars: a strong and relevant brand portfolio, and a consistent commercial execution across markets and channels. Importantly, Q1 delivered another meaningful step forward on margins and cash generation.

This is the outcome of the structural work we've been carrying out over the past few years across operations, sourcing, and cost discipline. As we move through 2026, our priorities remain unchanged: disciplined execution in a challenging business environment, profitability, and cash generation, combined with selective investments that can support long-term value creation.

Let me briefly highlight a few key messages from the quarter. First, on sales.

Net revenue were broadly in line with the Q4 exit rate, growing 0 + 0.4% at constant exchange rates. What matters here is the continuity in the business trends across geographies, in particular in two of our key regions.

Second, from a brand perspective, Kate Spade, Smith, BOSS, David Beckham, and Carrera delivered strong performances across channels and key markets, once again confirming the breadth and balance of our portfolio. Third, profitability and cash.

We continued to make quite a significant progress, with gross margin reaching 62% of revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin at 13.6%, an operating improvement then translated into solid cash generation, with free cash flow of €17.5 million before the investment in Inspecs, and a positive net financial position pre-IFRS 16. Let me now hand over to Michele, who will talk you through the results in more detail.

Thank you, Angelo, and good evening, everyone. Let me start from total revenues.

In the first quarter, group net sales amounted to €272.9 million, up 0.4% at constant exchange rate. Like in the fourth quarter, reported sales were impacted by a 5% currency headwind, they were down 4.5% at current exchange rate, driven mainly by the weaker US dollar.

From a geographical perspective, the picture is clear: we saw positive momentum continuing in North America and across core European markets, while Asia and the Middle East represented the main headwind to overall growth. By product category, our performance was once again led by prescription frames, which remained the most resilient part of the portfolio, and also sport products.

Turning to Europe, sales in the region were up 1.4% at constant exchange rates. Performance was solid across key markets, with France, Italy, and Germany delivering positive trends, both with independent opticians and key accounts.

We also continued to strengthen our footprint in Eastern Europe, where the expansion of key brand distribution continued to support growth. A positive highlight is the launch of the new Victoria Beckham eyewear collection, which is seeing a very promising reception from customer and consumer.

In the quarter, this largely offset the impact of the Lenti deconsolidation, which will no longer be an headwind from the third quarter. In retail chains and enter pure player, BOSS, David Beckham, Carrera, and Isabel Marant were our key outperformer during the quarter.

Moving to North America, sales grew 2.3% at constant exchange rate. At current exchange rate, revenue declined by 7.7%, reflecting an approximately 11% depreciation of the average dollar versus the euro.

Beyond FX, the underlying picture was positive: sales momentum was driven by higher productivity at independent optician and by new brand launches in retail chains. Several brands delivered strong performance, in particular Kate Spade, Carrera, Tommy Hilfiger, BOSS, Marc Jacobs, and David Beckham.

In sport shops, Smith delivered another solid quarter, driven in particular by goggle and promising start for summer helmet, while Blenders improved, supported by the expansion in the wholesale channel and some initial recover recorded in the direct-to-consumer channel. Turning to Asia and rest of the world, which together represent around 12% of our total business, sales at constant exchange rate were down by 13.6% and 6.3%, respectively.

In Asia, the quarter was affected by a challenging comparison base, as revenues were up by around 19% in the same period last year. More broadly, we observed more prudent demand patterns across both distributors and DOs.

In China, trading in January and February was influenced by the timing of Chinese New Year, with some improved trading in March supported by the Shanghai optical fair. In the rest of the world, performance was mainly impacted by the weak trend in the Middle East, following the escalation of geopolitical tension, which weighted on commercial activities from March onwards.

This impact was partially offset by continued growth in Mexico, where key licensed brands such as Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, and BOSS sustained demand across our main distribution channels. Moving down the P&L, let me start, as usual, with gross margin, which grew to 62% of sales, up 150 basis points year-on-year.

The improvement reflected several factors working together. First, the continued mitigation of tariffs through the pricing actions introduced last year and sourcing rebalancing.

Second, we benefited from a sustained positive price mix effect, driven by a reduced share of gross margin-diluted activities, namely Lenti and the product supply business. Finally, we continued to see a positive FX effect at the gross margin level, linked to our dollar-denominated sourcing base.

This accounted for around 50% of the total gross margin improvement. At the operating level, adjusted EBITDA reached €37.1 million, up 7.9%, with the margin expanding to 13.6%, which is an improvement of 160 basis points versus the first quarter of last year.

This confirms our ability to consistently convert gross margin improvement into stronger operating profitability. During the quarter, we maintained effective cost discipline, with marketing investment and other operating costs kept broadly in line with last year.

Foreign exchange had a more limited impact at EBITDA level, meaning that the margin expansion was driven primarily by the underlying performance of the business. Finally, on our financial performance: free cash flow stood at €12.6 million, compared to €14.4 million last year.

This reflected our solid operating performance in the quarter, a normal seasonal absorption from working capital, and the purchase of additional shares in Inspecs for around €5 million. As this brought our stake in the group from 25% to 29.9%.

Thus, before this investment, our free cash flow amounted to €17.5 million. Finally, our net debt at the end of March stood at €30.1 million, down from €46.1 million at the year end, with a positive net financial position of €6.6 million pre-IFRS 16, which compared to a net debt of €6.6 million pre-IFRS 16 at the end of last year.

With that, I lend back to Angelo for his closing remarks.

Thanks, Michele. Before we open the call to the Q&A, let me briefly touch on one strategic development announced a couple of weeks ago.

We signed an exclusivity agreement with Bollé Brands aimed at the acquisition of SPY and Serengeti. This is fully consistent with our approach of selectively strengthening our portfolio, focusing on brands with a strong complementary with our existing portfolio, or filling an attractive gap.

Both brands meet these criteria and can offer us top- and bottom-line synergies, while remaining fully aligned with our disciplined approach to capital allocation. SPY reinforces our sport and outdoor ecosystem, sitting between Smith premium technical leadership and Blenders' mass-cool position.

Serengeti represents a distinctive opportunity in the premium and a high-end eyewear segment, supported by a strong reputation for the best-in-class, high-performance lenses. Thanks for your attention.

We are now happy to take your questions.

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

The first one is about the outlook for the US sport segment. What is your feeling for the bike season?

The second question is on current trade, if you can give us an update on April and start of May performance. The third question is on the acquisition of SPY+ and Serengeti, if you can provide some information on the impact of this acquisition on your gross margin and EBIT margin.

Thank you.

I am assuming I should answer to the all three questions. Great pleasure for that.

First question on sport and bike. Let's start from the snow.

The season of snow this year has been a little bit strange and patchy. As we had quite a huge amount of snow where normally there's not snow, where was missing really in the center of US.

If I look to the snow, it's been a little bit patchy, but also in this situation, Smith has been able to remain positive. On the bike, we see a clear rebound.

That we have gone through two years difficult in bike, definitely from the last bit of the last year. In Q1, we see an important rebound of the bike business, and we are waving this rebound.

Overall, I would say that the sport remains what we think a growing territory with different dynamic according to the different category, but definitely, we judge like a part of the market which we keep being in a positive territory, and our aim is to catch that growth. On current trading, I will reconnect with what we've been saying when we talked early March.

January and February, let me say, was broadly in line, if I look overall, with the Q4 exit pace, with both North America and Europe showing quite an important resilience. Obviously, as the end of March and April, both in US, maybe more noted in US, a little bit less in Europe, we see more a change at customer level more than at consumer level.

What I mean by that? The customer are showing a little bit more cautious approach.

Obviously, is not helping their behavior, all what they are hearing around. We personally think that, for the moment, is more, as I said, the customer perspective more than a consumer.

There are a lot of research on the consumer confidence, but still, I think, for example, the D2C on Smith keeps going well. I think it's more cautious from a customer perspective more than a consumer, otherwise we should have had a negative effect on the D2C.

D2C Smith, we see obviously that snow has been impacted negatively for the reason I've been expressing before, but the other categories have been performing well. April, honestly, I will not comment on the month per se.

Now the game is going to be played in May-June, where obviously what is going to be crucial is if the situation, the macroeconomic or the political situation, will stabilize. I think we need really to wait what's going to happen in the next days, because the good thing of—and this is more true for North America more than in Europe—is that, in that case, both the customer and the consumer are a little bit nervous in overreacting, but thanks to God, are very fast in positive reacting.

If the change of the situation will happen shortly, I think that we can see some positive effect in May and June. You were asking on the M&A.

I will not comment on the numbers. I think then I leave to Michele.

I will just stress the strategy, the strategic fit, no? We've been always declaring that our strategic direction were optical, were sport, were female.

This acquisition is perfectly fitting with the strategic direction. SPY obviously is going to play together with Smith and Blenders, and reinforcing the Safilo position in the sport outdoor arena, with different position, different brand equity, but for sure, we are going to play a portfolio strategy there, where Serengeti is going to play in the top end, and going to play around high-quality lenses and high-quality product.

I leave Michele for... In terms of numbers, we don't want to comment too in detail.

It's still a bit premature, but overall, given also how the two brands play in the different channel and category—so SPY a bit more outdoor and sport, and Serengeti on the optical side—we expect the acquisition to be slightly dilutive at gross margin level, while fully compatible with our underlying EBITDA at EBITDA level. Of course, in the medium run, thanks to the potential synergy of the two brand plug in our infrastructure, the acquisition will become, of course, accretive also at bottom-line level.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good. Now, I have a few questions.

First, let's start from the D2C. You were mentioning some signs of improvement.

You have been referring also to Smith. I wonder if you can comment also on what's going on on Blenders.

Then, question on Inspecs, I'm trying to understand what is your strategy on the stake that you have. On Polaroid, you did not mention the brand as a contributor to growth, some color on your view on the performance and the opportunity that you see.

Lastly, at this stage, probably also if you can elaborate on the synergies that you see from the acquisition of SPY and Serengeti, as you mentioned both top-line and cost synergies, if you can give some color on the opportunity.

I will try to start, and then eventually, I will ask Michele to to comment or add some more some more info. Let's start from from the D2C.

As I said, net of the snow, the D2C of business keeps keeps being positive, and we we, to be honest, we see on bike and on eyewear that the trend there keeps keeps being positive. The arena this is for Smith.

Blenders, we are not yet there. We are improving compared to to to last year, compared to the to the previous year.

The dynamic of Blenders and Smith are completely different, and I try to build on. Smith plays performance, plays sport, plays high pricing, and, the thanks to the to the strength of the of the brand, we have been not moving there in terms of pricing or discounts.

The strategy is let's keep building building on the brand slope, and I think the numbers are there telling that we are in the in the right direction. On Blenders, we took a tough decision.

We took the decision more than a year ago to don't follow the the price war there. We've been stick to what we think is the right position from Blenders.

Means that, in the short run, we've been suffering. We are still suffering, but there are clear signs that, we see that our strategy is the right, we will not we will not move out of the strategy of Blenders.

On Blenders, we have done quite an important change and decision last year, which is let's look to Blenders not anymore only like a D2C brand, but really a brand which fight in fight or plays plays in different channel. Online remain will remain the core, the core, the heart of the Blenders, but one year and a half ago, we've been, thanks to the combination of Smith, launching Blenders in wholesale, and honestly, the rotation of the Blenders product in wholesale are are really, really good, and the business in wholesale is is growing.

Then we have a small combination with few shops, which are more have a role of brand building. Blenders is not yet out, but more we will move through 2026 and for the year to come, Blenders has not to be seen anymore like a brand which plays all the D2C.

It's going to be it's going to be a combination. We will stick to the decision that we took last year, which means suffering, keeps suffering a little bit on the D2C, but we see we see a trend there between the combination of the three channel I was mentioning before.

I was not mentioning Polaroid, because Polaroid is a little bit too early. Polaroid remains still a brand which is mainly mainly sun, so, the the the the game on on the sun has to start.

We are now in May, I mean to talk about sun in Q1 is a little bit is a little bit too early. Polaroid, you know that we have done this agreement with ATL, which I think is working very well.

We had the Madrid tournament, which has been great, great success there in terms of activation, in terms of consumer reach, in terms of having a brand which is getting out from from the crowd. Next week, we will have the tournament in in Rome, which I think is going to be another great occasion.

I think Polaroid is moving there. I think the tennis we were right in choosing the tennis.

Especially now if Sinner is going to win also Rome, I think they are expecting a huge a huge reach there. We we we are working with Cobolli, which has a different position.

I think Polaroid is is getting there, but we need to wait the sun the sun season, because at the end, Polaroid remains still mainly mainly a sun a sun brand. On on the M&A, I think it's I will leave to Michele on on the costs.

I think for me, let's start from why, which is I think is more important than anything else. We are looking for brands that have a strategic role to be played in the Safilo portfolio.

Serengeti will allow Safilo to play in the high end of the market, will play with high-quality lenses, will allow us to play and and catch a part of the market that we were not able to cover with the current brand portfolio. Serengeti is really reinforcing is a sun brand, will not necessarily stay only as a sun brand, but is a is a brand which has a story of lenses and is really filling a strategic gap on into the Safilo portfolio.

SPY is a different story. SPY is perfectly sitting with Smith and Blenders, is going to reinforce how we will go to the big American chain, or how we can play in different geography, because now we have three brands with three different execution, three different position, we can really play a portfolio, even stronger portfolio portfolio game into into the sport channel.

On the costs, I will

leave... On synergies, overall, I believe two sources of synergies: top-line synergies, cost synergies, equally important.

I believe top-line synergies will come by two key factors: on one side, leveraging the Safilo distribution, both on the sport outdoor channel and on the optical market, leveraging our current commercial infrastructure, while I believe, secondly, on D2C, leveraging our capabilities on, especially in the States, and our also investment capacity when it come to the online market. When it come to costs, of course, cost synergies leveraging our scale and generating saving, again, trying to integrate, where possible, everything that is not specific to those two brands.

Everything that relates to back office and infrastructure.

Just to add, not only back office and infrastructure, is D2C, is marketing, is media, because, as I said, we will run a sport portfolio, and obviously, we will have common resources running the D2C, common knowledge, common contract with the provider, the same is in terms of resources of marketing, content creation. There's going to be really run like a full portfolio into sports.

I think there was a question on Inspecs. I think for me, our position in Inspecs is we think there is a strategic fit.

We think that there are some asset into this specs which can really add value to us. We are not in the rush.

We will sit, we will discuss with the consortium at the right time. We are not under rush.

I think the strategy sweet is there. It's very clear why we think that we can add value, but there is no rush, at the right time, we will sit with the consortium, and I'm sure that we will find the best way forward.

Just also to add, the offer period will end mid-May.

Okay. If I may, maybe just another question is it's not clear to me what's going on on the tariff side, because sometimes we heard that you can ask for a refund, you are mentioning that you are mitigating the tariffs, they're still ongoing.

It's a situation that I don't understand anymore.

Let's start from Q1. For Q1, I believe the picture is not very much different versus the exit of last year.

Again, last year, tariff were not yet there. The big increase came during the Liberation Day in April.

In Q1, we still have a pretty important a pretty important headwind on tariff, again, as we commented, fully counterbalanced by the mitigation that we put in place from from May-June from May-June last year. Then, moving forward, I believe the what we what we what we heard from the from the Supreme Court decision is a clear opportunity for us, there is a a reduction, a reduction that is material, is 10% duty reduction from both China and the other the other country, and this should translate in a clear tailwind for us from from Q2 from Q2 onwards.

On on the refund, is not yet fully clear. We are, of course, following tight all all options.

Of course, if refund come, it would be a a one-off benefit for us, clearly.

Thanks.

Hello, good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, hi. Good evening.

No, most of my questions have being answered. I was wondering if you can elaborate on the performance of Asia Pacific, and in particular of the approximately 14% decline at constant forex, how much was the impact on March on the key Gulf countries impacted by the war?

The second one, if you can give us some more details on the non-recurring items which affected EBITDA. Thank you.

I think you, when you talk about Asia, you mean also Middle East, right? I'm assuming, which is in our definition is in the rest of the world.

Obviously, how to say,

Middle East, to be honest, the situation is what you read. If you go to Dubai, assuming that you are able to fly there, there are not so many people around.

I think, obviously, Middle East, thanks to God, for us, the weight is only 2%, as we've been saying in previous call. In this moment, talking with all the big chain and the DOs there, the fundamental, there is no traffic.

Some of our key customers had a drop of 80% of the traffic in the shop. Middle East, the only thing is to say when this story is going to end, or when the situation can allow people to fly over there.

If we refer to Asia, different performance by country. Overall, let's be clear, we see a soft trading environment.

Truth is also that, if we compare to last year, more we move along the year, more we should have an easy comparison, but transparently, is very interesting, because if we look to Australia, Australia is going well. Carrera is going well.

We launch through Wholesaleman. Honestly, we don't see any problem in Australia.

The area which is depressing the overall Asian numbers are China per se, In that case, I think is a consumer a little bit really reluctant, and are the distributors. I would say Australia well done, really no problem.

Where we see struggling now is the distributor, but is more because they are very cautious. We share with them sell-out data, is not an issue of sell-out data, is more an issue that with all this uncertainty, that they try to be very very conservative on the buying side.

On the non-recurring, we posted in Q1 €2.9 million, roughly 50/50 between restructuring project in North America to drive efficiency and costs to support M&A projects.

Thank you very much.

Yes, good evening, everyone. I have three questions, please.

The first one is so again a follow-up on the acquisitions and regarding more specifically the supply chain. Could you just elaborate a little bit more on how SPY and Serengeti will fit within your supply chain footprint in term of production location and so on?

The second question is regarding of course no direct impact from the Middle East conflicts, but could you also confirm that you are not witnessing any negative pressure coming from freight costs or raw material costs on that side? The third question is that so since the marketing spend was relatively stable in Q1, you were guiding to a slight decrease over the year, can we assume that probably the reduction will occur in the second half of the year since you will probably not change the marketing budget ahead of the sun peak season?

Thank you.

I will start from the acquisition, the two brands. As I said, I think your question is specific on the supply chain.

Obviously, the two brands are quite different. If you start from SPY, at the end, SPY is eyewear and is snow.

Obviously, there, the synergies on the supply chain is 100%. No, obviously, they are not so many supply on snow.

We are talking about four, five main supply globally, which obviously happen to be the same than Smith. On SPY, I would say that there is a 100% overlap, means that we will plug in into the Safilo supply chain, which is almost the same.

On SPY, SPY is more eyewear. In that case, they are two component: one is the frame, the other are the lenses.

Also there, the frames, we buy quite some frames, obviously, it will get immediately into the Safilo supply chain, plugging in, any kind of saving and advantage. On lenses is where more we need to understand strategically, because lenses is complex, is a glass lens, is mineral lenses, is plastic lenses, but also there, to be honest, I see a plug-in in our sourcing.

The day after the closing, all the sourcing for the two brands will completely put into the Safilo organization. In terms...

On the second question, yeah, inflationary pressure, we are not yet seeing anything material, Q1 has been pretty pretty stable. Of course, the only relevant area for us are the logistic costs that you were mentioning.

This will highly depend on how long, of course, oil price will continue to stay at the level it is today. For us, logistic costs represent roughly 5% on sales of the total cost base, all in all, it can become, again, if the situation persists as it is, an headwind from Q2 onward, but it will not be a material impact for us.

On the marketing, I think the good thing of how we run the business, we are quite flexible. There is no intention, and by the way, we are not doing, to slow down on some of the core brands, especially Carrera, Polaroid, David Beckham, BOSS, and Tommy.

The only thing we've been doing, obviously, considering the situation in the Middle East, obviously, we have been be prudent in what to spend there, but we are ready to push the bottom as soon as the situation will improve. On the other side, what we've been doing always in a very careful way, we are reshuffling some investment on the market and on the brand where we see that there is a grip, like Carrera North America, or Carrera BOSS in France, or David Beckham and Carrera in Italy.

We are very very flexible. The only decision we have taken so far, obviously, is slow down in the investment in the Middle East, because there is no consumer, no customer there, was not making sense to spend money.

We are ready, already with a plan, as soon as the situation will improve, we will start re-plugging in.

Very clear. Thank you.

Hi there. Good evening.

Three questions, if I may. I'm just wondering, I understand it's a small share of your sales, but it's more the signal.

Are there any signs of acceleration in demand or sell-through for the Safilo Alexa smart glasses? Then secondly, on the Winter Olympics, did the Winter Olympics provide any noticeable benefit to trading in Q1, especially because it was on your home turf?

Then finally, a follow-up on the SPY supply chain: will Smith's Utah manufacturing facility also be used for production, as in are you going to bring things in-house following the acquisition? That's it.

Thanks.

Just I will start from the comment on the winter. We saw some positive effect for the European bit.

By the way, I think with Smith, also sponsoring few athletes, we won quite some set of medals. The effect we saw was on the Smith snow Europe, but honestly, is not dramatic there.

I haven't catched so well the question on the smart glasses. Can you just repeat that,

because... Yeah.

It's just I'm trying to understand if there's been any acceleration in demand for the Alexa smart glasses.

I think, first of all, let's say like this, which there's been an important step is with Alexa Plus. Alexa Plus has been rolled out in the full US.

They're starting rolling in Europe, which gives a even more solid base. I think, as I said before, we are working.

I think that we are getting slowly closer to the right time, but yeah, we are fully on it. Time is coming, more than in the past.

On SPY, when it come to goggle, of course, there is the opportunity to evaluate potential insourcing in our Clearfield plant. This will highly depend on the technological element of every single product, we'll check exactly what can be insourced or not.

Overall, the price point of SPY probably will indicate a mix between Asia and US sourcing overall moving forward.

That's clear. Thank you.

My last two questions: first is on the price versus volumes contribution in Q1 top line. Then, just a clarification when you say that you had stable costs compared to last year, are you referring, in absolute value or as a percentage of sales, is a matter of stability absolute or,

yeah?

In terms of volumes, volumes were down low single digit in the quarter, more or less same Europe and North America. When it come to cost, the comment was mostly related to incidence of sales.

As you can see, the gross margin and EBITDA progress versus year ago is more or less the same.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes.

Hi. Good afternoon.

Thanks for taking mine. It's a very quick one.

Can you maybe help us understanding again on the 160 bps EBITDA improvement, which was the FX impact? If I understand well, you said before that was much less than that at the gross margin level, but can you maybe quantify?

That's correct. On gross margin is roughly 70 basis points forex tailwind, while is roughly 30 30 basis points at EBITDA level.

Yeah.

The remaining is operating leverage, basically?

Indeed, yeah, at constant forex, yeah, slightly positive. Rest is fully coming across from the gross margin.

Thanks.

Clear.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

Enjoy the rest of the evening. Thanks very much.

Bye-bye. Thanks.

Bye.