Bimba y Lola wants to take a big step in its international expansion this year. The Galician fashion company plans to open its first stores in the United States and China, as announced on Monday. Business outside of Spain accounts for 44% of the group’s turnover, which grew by 4.3% overall to 225 million euros in the last financial year (which ended on February 28).
Revenue last year is close to the record set in 2019, when the company posted sales of $226.7 million. “The year 2022 was again a year characterized by external factors of great importance that have affected both our environment and our expansion plans,” said the CEO, José Manuel Martínez, in a statement. “We are excited about our projects to continue growing and creating jobs in 2023 with the opening of our first stores in the United States and, if possible, in China,” he added.
International sales increased 22% from 2021, driven by entry into seven countries in Asia, America and Europe. The company has 286 points of sale in 26 countries (48 countries including the scope of its online stores). By channel, the recovery of activity in stores is confirmed, where sales have increased by 10%, and the moderation of the digital channel, which accounts for 18% of the group’s total sales. The Vigo-based company does not provide net profit or further details on sales by country in the note. Investments reached “a record number” without specifying the volume. What he confirms is that it’s up 28% year-on-year. The global workforce at the end of the year was 1,809, up 6%.
renew rooms
Bimba y Lola announced in late 2021 that it would enter the Chinese market by opening 30 stores in five years, but in 2022 the Asian giant’s ongoing pandemic restrictions complicated those plans. This January, Beijing decreed the end of the zero-Covid policy, paving the way for the company run by sisters Uxía and María Domínguez.
In Spain, it has also launched an expansion plan for its network of stores in Spain with the opening of almost twenty points of sale, with the aim of expanding and renovating the establishments – it currently has around 160 in the Spanish market – with larger areas and a makeover. The plan also envisages actions in the branch network in Spain to introduce a new image. The medium-term goal of the group, which was founded in 2006, is to successively bring the new image to sales outlets in other markets.
After overcoming the worst of the Corona crisis, which caused 9.7 million losses in 2020. In 2021, the company’s net profit was 15.7 million euros, a reversal of the previous year’s losses, although it has not yet reached the pre-pandemic numbers has (more than 18 million profit in 2019).
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