Interface News Reporter | Qin Siyue
The return of founder Kevin Plank did not bring an immediate boost to Under Armour's performance.
The first quarter financial report for the 2025 fiscal year released by Andema this month showed that Andema's revenue decreased by 10% year-on-year to 1.2 billion US dollars (approximately 8.609 billion yuan). Looking at different channels, the revenue of Andema's wholesale channel decreased by 8% year-on-year to 681 million US dollars, while the revenue of its direct to consumer (DTC) channel decreased by 12% year-on-year to 480 million US dollars. Among them, the revenue of self operated store channels decreased by 3%, and the revenue of e-commerce decreased by 25%.
By region, the revenue of the Asia Pacific market where the Chinese market is located decreased by 10% year-on-year, with an operating loss of $300 million and a net loss of $305 million. This is very pessimistic for Andema.
In the fiscal year 2024, Andema's North American market, which accounted for the largest proportion of total revenue, "stalled" significantly, with annual revenue declining by 8.3% to $3.82 billion. The revenue of the Asia Pacific market, where the Chinese market is located, increased by 5.8% to 873 million US dollars. Although it could not offset the overall decline in performance of the main market North America, it became a rare highlight in the financial report of Andema for this fiscal year, supporting the brand's facade. However, in the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, Andema only recorded revenue growth in the small base Latin American market, and fell behind in the Asia Pacific market.
The outstanding aspects of this financial report mainly lie in net profit margin and inventory level, and management comments mainly revolve around these two points: in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, due to discount promotions and reduced product costs, Andema's gross profit margin increased by 110 basis points to 47.5%, while inventory value decreased by 15% year-on-year to $1.1 billion. Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Andema, said, "The initial results of brand reshaping have been achieved. We will continue to be committed to providing high-quality products and stories, while improving efficiency, reducing promotional activities and business complexity
After founder Kevin Plank returned as CEO of Andema in April, the management team underwent a rotation. The departure of former CEO Stephanie Linnartz is inevitable. In June, the company's Chief Human Resources and Administrative Officer Tchernavia Rocker left the company due to "personal reasons". In addition to the personnel changes in the position of Chief Product Officer at the beginning of the year, in just six months, there have been many people coming and going in the management positions of Vice President and above at Andema.
Not only did Kevin Plank loudly rebuild his team, but he also proposed a series of restructuring plans and prepared a budget of $70 million to $90 million for it.
The restructuring plan will last for 18 months and will be carried out simultaneously in multiple functional departments. On the sales side, Andema wants to change the current situation of excessive dependence on discounts. The brand plans to halve the promotional days for the 2025 fiscal year and actively provide exclusive high-quality products to its members. Compared to promoting sales volume, Andema hopes to increase its earning power through high unit prices. To this end, Andema has also prepared supporting measures on the product side: Andema plans to reduce the SKU (minimum inventory unit) or style quantity by about 25% and increase the scale of high-quality products stored.
At present, it seems that the inventory level of Andema in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 has indeed fallen as Kevin Plank had hoped. Of course, this is only the first step, reducing discounts and creating new "bestsellers" will be the focus of the next stage.
The basketball superstar Curry, who has signed a lifetime contract with the brand, remains the biggest golden signboard of Andema at present. However, it should be noted that although holding Curry, the "bench depth" of Andema's spokesperson is still insufficient compared to the giant Nike, which has a group of star players such as James and Durant. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the data of a 15% year-on-year decline in Andema's footwear products to $310 million indicates Andema's excessive dependence on Curry.
With years of strong product organization and brand leadership, we are confident in enhancing our design and innovation in the coming quarters, and strengthening our unique connection with athletes to become their preferred brand, "said Kevin Plank.
For the fiscal year 2025, which still has three quarters left, Andema is cautious and expects a low double-digit percentage decline in revenue for the entire fiscal year. The Asia Pacific market is expected to experience a decline in revenue due to macroeconomic pressures.