Italian fashion group Aeffe is back in the black after the first nine months of fiscal 2024, while it is also busy restructuring the Moschino and Alberta Ferretti labels. Aeffe has recorded a net income of €35.2 million as of September 30, against the €17.8 million loss recorded in the same period last year. Consolidated operating income (EBIT) was €66.6 million, compared to an €11.7 million loss a year earlier, and gross operating profit (EBITDA) was €99.9 million, well up from the €12.2 million Aeffe posted in the first nine months of 2023. However, revenue in the first nine months of 2024 fell by 17.8%, down to €207.8 million.

In a press release, Aeffe, based in San Giovanni in Marignano (central Italy), stated that its new-found profitability is chiefly due to an operation carried out at the end of September. “EBITDA for the first nine months of 2024 includes the capital gain realized following the sale by Aeffe of the rights to the Moschino brand in relation to all products belonging to product class 3 of the Nice Classification,” i.e. cosmetics and perfumes. Aeffe has sold Moschino’s beauty business for €98 million to Italian cosmetics group Euroitalia, which produces fragrances for labels like Versace, Michael Kors and Brunello Cucinelli, and has been Moschino’s exclusive fragrance licensee since 1987.

In January-September 2024, Aeffe’s revenue slumped in all regions and for all its labels. Moschino’s revenue fell 18.7% at constant exchange rates to €153.5 million, Alberta Ferretti’s fell 18.2% to €15.7 million, and revenue for the group’s contemporary line, Philosophy, fell 8.7% to €13.6 million, while revenue for Pollini footwear fell 9.6% to €23.6 million.

Aeffe has been affected by the luxury market’s widespread downturn, and it is also undergoing a complex restructuring phase. It is engaged in relaunching its leading label Moschino, which named Adrian Appiolaza as creative director in January, and is also working to reorganise Alberta Ferretti, which recruited its first managing director, Alexandra Lamprecht, in early November, and is preparing to incorporate Philosophy within its collections.

At the same time, Philosophy’s creative director Lorenzo Serafini has stepped up to take charge of style at Alberta Ferretti, taking over from the eponymous founder, who retired in September.

“The slowdown in global consumption in the fashion and luxury sectors had an impact on our group’s performance in the first nine months of 2024,” said Executive Chairman Massimo Ferretti in a press release, underlining how Aeffe is going through a complicated period. “I am sure that the reorganization of the Moschino brand and the rebranding of the Alberta Ferretti label will open up interesting new scenarios,” he added.

In terms of its geographical footprint, over the first nine months of 2024 Aeffe recorded a 17.1% revenue decline in Italy, its main market with a share of 43.1% of the total. Revenue in the rest of Europe fell by 18.3%, while it also decreased in Asia and the rest of the world, by 19.2%, and in America, by 15.3%.

In conjunction with the publication of its results, Aeffe announced that it has ended by mutual consent the collaboration with Fenice, the company of disgraced Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni, for whose eponymous brand Aeffe had held the underwear and beachwear collections’ production and distribution licence since 2021.