The Parent Company of IRO, self-portrait and Laurèl Released the 2021 Mid-term Performance Report

ELLASSAY, a Chinese womenswear fashion group and the parent company of IRO, self-portrait and Laurèl, released the 2021 Mid-term Performance Report in the evening of August 27, according to which the company’s revenue reached RMB 1.099 billion in the first half of 2021, an increase of 41% compared with the same period of 2020.

Three international brands of the company – the German luxury brand Laurèl, the French designer brand IRO Paris and the English fashion brand Self-portrait – had grown by leaps and bounds.   

Specifically, Laurèl’s revenue reached RMB 108 million in the first half of 2021, a remarkable increase of 114% from the same period of 2020, and approached the annual revenue in 2020, which was RMB 146 million. Compared with the same period of 2020, the number of stores had increased by 7, and the sales of the same stores had improved markedly.

IRO Paris achieved RMB 286 million in revenue, up by 27% over the same period of 2020. The revenue of the China region had grown by 68% compared with the same period of 2020. During the reporting period, a new store had been opened and the same stores had achieved remarkable sales growth. In spite of repeated outbreaks in the first half of 2021 in the overseas markets, the brand’s offline channels had grown by 10%, the online channels by an astronomical 150%, and the overall sales by 18%.

Self-portrait had opened 5 new stores and increased the total number of its stores to 11 in the first half of 2021. All of the stores had achieved remarkable sales and generated revenue of RMB 74.5 million in total, which is more than twice of the annual revenue in 2020. As shown in these figures, the brand had achieved phenomenal growth in China.

Ed Hardy bottomed out in Hong Kong and Macau, both of which were still affected by the epidemic, with the direct-sale channel growing by 57.5% year-on-year and driving the brand to generate revenue of RMB 146 million, an increase of 50% compared with the same period of 2020.

During the reporting period, the company’s online channels had not only increased influence in TMALL, Vipshop and other E-commerce platforms, but had also enhanced marketing in Douyin, WeChat applets and other social platforms. The online channels generated a revenue of RMB 110 million in the first half of 2021.

It is notable that Self-portrait, which had opened its Tmall flagship store just one year ago, had achieved more revenue than that of the core brand ELLASSAY. Laurèl, IRO Paris and Ed Hardy had also achieved fast growth in their online revenue, which should be attributed to the company’s marketing efforts in social media and other new marketing channels. Self-portrait, in particular, had been a great success at Xiaohongshu.

Driven by further improvement in the goods sales structure of the various brands, ELLASSAY’s gross profit margin had reached 68.43% in the first half of 2021, an increase of 1.8% from 66.63% in the same period of 2020. Laurèl's gross profit margin had grown to 79% from 77.2%, and self-portrait to 84.1% from 83%. IRO Paris had basically maintained a stable gross profit margin in its direct-sale channels. But due to the continuous impact of the epidemic on its overseas distribution channels, the overall gross profit margin had dropped slightly from 63.1% to 61.8%. The decrease in Ed Hardy's gross profit margin was mainly caused by the increase in sales of the sub-line brand Ed Hardy X at Douyin, where its gross profit was relatively low.