Four point three percent. Most luxury houses would gladly take that growth rate this season. For Hermès, Reuters says, it's the slowest quarter since early 2020, when the boutiques were shut for the pandemic. And the stock got hammered anyway. Turns out being the safe one has a price. You're listening to Fashion Business Daily. On the Thursday rundown: Hermès misses, and the business around the Birkin shrinks; Moncler comes in flat while Stone Island carries the group; and Castore, the Manchester sportswear brand, is talking to Anta and Li Ning about a sale. Hit follow and you won't have to come looking for the next episode.
Tassilo Hummel and Alessandro Parodi, reporting for Reuters:
Sales at Hermes' leather goods division, which makes its famous Birkin and Kelly handbags, rose 10.8%, broadly in line with previous quarters. However, sales at the company's ready-to-wear and accessories division, accounting for over a quarter of quarterly sales, declined by 2% from last year.
These are company-reported figures from this morning. Third-quarter sales rose 4.3 percent at constant exchange rates, to about 4.1 billion euros by Reuters' count. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha expected 5.2 percent. Vogue points out the second quarter was 6.7, so this is a clear deceleration. And look where it's slowing. The Birkin and the Kelly are fine, up almost 11 percent. It's everything you buy on the way to the Birkin that's going backwards. Per Vogue, watches fell 6 percent too. By region, the Americas grew 8.8 percent, Japan 9.6 and Europe 7.2, while Asia-Pacific excluding Japan was flat. Here's my read. Yesterday Reuters reported Bernstein's figure of about 1.7 times retail for a resale Birkin 25, down from 2.6 times at the 2022 peak. And resellers say you spend ten to twenty thousand dollars on other Hermès before you're offered a bag. If flipping the bag doesn't pay anymore, why buy all the scarves? It's a fair theory, but it's yours, not the company's. Finance chief Eric du Halgouet told journalists the accessories drop was chiefly weak Chinese demand for high-volume accessories, and that the division kept growing in every other region. He called China, Hermès' single biggest market, very difficult. He also said Birkin desirability is intact, and Hermès will keep raising overall production volumes by around 6 percent a year. More bags, while the resale premium shrinks. Brave. The market wasn't convinced. Reuters had the shares down 8 percent in early Paris trading, and a later dpa-AFX report put the fall at about 5.3 percent. Jefferies wrote that leather reaccelerated, but the lag in other categories has worsened to unprecedented levels. Axel Dumas is pointing to January, with Grace Wales Bonner's first men's ready-to-wear collection. Right answer. You fix a soft clothing business with clothes people want. It just doesn't show up until next year. Kering's sales come out after the Paris close tonight, and Prada and Zegna are also due today. LVMH's fashion and leather goods were down 5 percent, and now Hermès has missed. The bar for Kering is about as low as it gets.
Reuters, in a report carried by The Business of Fashion:
Stone Island’s strong performance helped offset slower growth at the Moncler brand, as the group continues its push to become less dependent on its iconic winter outerwear.
Moncler reported on Wednesday. Group revenue for July through September was 606 million euros, broadly flat at constant exchange rates. That's ahead of a 597 million consensus, though note that the consensus was compiled by Moncler itself. The core Moncler brand fell 1 percent and Stone Island rose 5. Stone Island holding up the puffer company. I love that. It's the smaller label in the group, and right now it's the one with momentum. At the Moncler brand, Europe fell 8 percent, which Reuters puts down to weaker tourist spending. The Americas rose 2 percent, slower than in earlier quarters. Asia grew in the mid single digits. Wait, Asia growing? Everybody else this month is blaming China. Careful. Reuters gives Asia as a whole, not China on its own, and for a winter business the third quarter is a small slice of the year. What does fit the season is America. On Monday we covered Citi card data showing US luxury spending down every month of the quarter, and Moncler's Americas grew just 2 percent. Which is why the push beyond winter matters. Moncler can't keep depending on a cold January and tourists shopping in Europe.
Camilla Rydzek, writing in TheIndustry.fashion:
The company is reportedly in discussions to sell either a majority or minority holding in the company, or enter into a strategic partnership. So far, no agreement has been reached, and the two co-founders, Tom Beahon and his brother Phil, who founded the business in 2016, are understood to want to stay in their positions following any transaction.
To be clear about where this stands: these are talks, with no signed deal. Co-founder Tom Beahon told the Financial Times that Castore has had interest from both Anta Sports and Li Ning, and TheIndustry reports several large US footwear brands are also in the frame. No price has been made public. The last marker is a 2023 funding round that valued the company at 950 million pounds. Anta again. Earlier this month it finished buying 29 percent of Puma and became the largest shareholder. Now it's kicking the tires on a British football-kit brand. That's a shopping list. For a buyer: parent company J.Carter Sporting Club reported revenue up 30 percent to 334.6 million pounds over the 18 months to August 3, 2025, with losses widening to 40.3 million. Backers who could cash out include Andy Murray, Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos and the Issa brothers. And what's in the box is mixed. Kit deals with Everton, Rangers and Red Bull Racing, plus Belstaff and 75 percent of Grenson, the Northamptonshire shoemaker. Belstaff and Grenson are real product with real history. The training gear? I've never seen anyone pick it over Nike on its merits. In August, Beahon said a partner could unlock a geography that's hard to reach organically. A stock market listing, he says, is not on the radar. Founders who want to stay on, investors who want out, and buyers with their own plans. Somebody's going to be disappointed. Until there's a signed deal and a number, it's a sale process, nothing more. We'll tell you when it becomes one.
One request. If what we said today doesn't match what you're seeing in the order book or on the shop floor, tell us at fashionbusinessdaily at lantern podcasts dot com.
Kering after the bell tonight. I want to see what Gucci looks like next to that Hermès number. So do we. We'll have Kering, Prada and Zegna laid out tomorrow. Fashion Business Daily comes to you from Lantern Podcasts. Talk to you Friday.