Ermenegildo Zegna - Q3 2024 TU

Transcript

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Good afternoon or good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I need to point out that management on the call will make certain forward-looking statements included at the beginning of today's presentation. Please note that today's material and presentation are available under zegnagroup.com's website. I will now hand over to Gildo Zegna, Chairman and CEO of the group.

Gildo Zegna (Chairman and CEO)

Good morning and good afternoon to everybody. Thank you for joining today's conference call on Ermenegildo Zegna Group Q3 24 revenues. Since we just spoke a month ago to discuss our H1 results in details and provide an in-depth update on our strategy and the important action we are taking to navigate the challenges currently facing our sector, I will not take much of your time today. I want to give just a few comments on Q3 and talk a bit about some recent trends. As anticipated, Q3 DTC performance was impacted by an increasingly challenging environment, especially in the Greater China region. The quarter also saw a softer wholesale performance, which was negatively impacted by the ongoing door rationalization at Thom Browne, by the conversion of SIS, which are wholesale, to concession, which are retail, and by some different timing in deliveries for Zegna and Thom Ford Fashion.

August was the most challenging month in the quarter, with September saw a slight improvement. Zegna brand recorded double-digit performance in Americas and EMEA, also thanks to the success of the second drop of deliveries of Fall/Winter '24. During the past weeks, we had some important events that I wish to talk about. Most recently, I'm very pleased to say that we finally inaugurated the Zegna Monte Carlo store, and we also opened SKP Beijing in October. This is in addition to other important stores we opened in Q3, including Honolulu, Ala Moana, and New York Meatpacking District. Thom Ford Fashion hosted a major event in the newly opened Beijing China World store, which resonated very well, with customers also having important celebrities attending and a large young crowd. It was the first event to present a fashion collection run in China.

Over the past weeks, Thom Browne also hosted some significant events. In Korea, the brand opened an experiential pop-up store in Seongsu, one of the most vibrant and young districts of Seoul, which has been very successful. In Hong Kong, the brand launched with also Thom Browne attending the World of Thom Browne, a multi-category installation across Joyce Pacific Place, Landmark, and Lane Crawford, that is our partner. But not only events. I'm proud to anticipate that Thom was honored by the CFDA of America with nomination for 2024 menswear and 2024 women'swear design of the year. And as you know, the award will take place on October 28 in New York. Let me finally comment on the Golden Week in China. Golden Week performance for the group was a bit ahead of our expectations and showed an improvement compared to the Q3 downtrend.

However, as you can imagine, revenues in the week were still below last year's result. Zegna saw a higher quality traffic, which means that even if traffic was down, conversion and average spend was up. This is coherent with the strategy we are pursuing for the brand. Thom Browne saw some small initial positive signs, but they continue to remain cautious on the overall outlook, knowing that uncertainties are still there. For Thom Ford Fashion, Golden Week has a minor impact since the lower exposure of the brand to China. To conclude, I wish to leave you with a comment and a promise. 2024 has turned out to be a different year from what I believe the whole sector initially planned. We faced this different outlook with the conviction that we must work for the long term.

In this environment, as you know, we took some important decisions and actions to reinforce our brand for the long term, but that will have some short-term impacts on our results. Importantly, we streamlined the Thom Browne wholesale business and focused the brand on DTC, while also making some important investment in marketing, merchandising, and retail talents. At Thom Ford Fashion, we appointed Haider Ackermann as Creative Director in order to bring the brand to its full potential. Haider's new collection will be in store next year by June, July. Looking at 2025, I believe that we will start this year, then next year in a much better shape, even though the outlook remains uncertain. Planning carefully, investing in our brands, both in terms of marketing and in some selected openings, and attracting the right talent is what we will continue to do moving forward.

This is the only way we can continue to strengthen our group and deliver on our ambitions. Year 2025 could be unpredictable either way, so we are prepared for both ways. But I know that we are facing it stronger by staying the course through this cycle. Thank you. Let me now hand over to Gianluca, please.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

Thank you, Gildo. Good afternoon, everybody. Let's start from page seven of the presentation with our key highlights. Here we report the revenues for the first nine months, equal to EURO 1,357 million, up 2% year-on-year on a reported basis, plus 3% in constant currency, minus 4% in organic terms. Let me remind you of the changes in the perimeters that are neutralized by the organic growth metric. First, the Thom Ford Fashion business, which has consolidated since April the 29th of last year. Second, the acquisition of the Korean business for Thom Browne occurred July the 1st of last year. Therefore, this business is included in the organic perimeter starting from Q3 of this year when we compare it to Q3 of last year. And third, the effect on the organic growth metric is the acquisition of Zegna Korea business, which occurred on January the 1st of this year.

Therefore, when we refer to organic growth, we neutralize the year-on-year delta perimeter resulting from this reacquisition, and also we neutralize the forex impact. During this call, I will refer mainly to the organic performance, which better reflects the underlying performance of the business. In the nine months, the Zegna segment contributed EUR 944 million, with the Zegna brand up 5% organic, Thom Browne segment at EUR 220, Thom Ford Fashion segment at EUR 214. In the Q3, the group reached EUR 397 million in revenues, down 8% year-on-year reported, minus 6% in constant, minus 7% in organic. Let's move to page eight of the presentation where we analyze our result of revenues by segment. Let's focus here on the Q3 figures. As I commented, revenues were EUR 397, down 7% on an organic basis.

The Zegna segment, which includes both Zegna brand as well as textile and the minor third-party B2B business, recorded -1% in organic terms due to the deterioration of textile and the minor other third-party brands, while Zegna brand continued to deliver a positive organic growth. Thom Browne and Thom Ford Fashion segment recorded respectively -27% and -11% in the quarter. I would comment specifically on their performances on the following pages that are specific by brand. Let's move to page nine, where you see the revenue by brand and product line. Zegna brand, which represents 60% of group's revenues in the nine months, showed a solid performance also in Q3, with a +3% organic growth driven by DTC channel at +4%. In particular, in EMEA, Europe and Middle East and Africa, Americas, and Japan, where the brand recorded solid double-digit growth.

Let me also add that in EMEA, we have seen both Europe as well as the Middle East both performing very well. Moving to Thom Browne. In Q3, Thom Browne reported EUR 53 million revenues, -27% organic, mainly due to the decision to streamline the wholesale business as discussed thoroughly during the past calls. On top of this, Q3 revenues have been also more difficult in the Greater China region, while on the positive side, Japan continued to show very strong double-digit positive growth, and Korea follows with a good positive performance. On Thom Ford Fashion, Q3 revenues reached EUR 65 million, -11% organic, due to a negative contribution of the wholesale channel, also related to a change in the timeline of deliveries, while the DTC channel of Thom Ford Fashion recorded positive results at +3% organic, as I will describe later in the page detailing this brand performance.

The textile performance was negative, -15%, sequentially deteriorating from the prior quarters. I remember that in the H1, the organic growth for textile was basically flat at -0.6%, and this Q3 has been affected by a decrease in B2B demand from luxury goods brands outside of the group, which purchase from our textile platform. The other revenues line can now be considered marginal, being at EURO 4 million in the quarter after the acquisition of the Thom Ford International and the change in the accounting of Thom Ford products. Moving to page 10, that is the revenue breakdown by geography. Starting with EMEA.

In Q3, EMEA recorded minus 2% organic growth, composed by a double-digit growth at Zegna brand, so a positive double-digit for Zegna retail, driven by Zegna retail, more than offset by the decline in wholesale Thom Browne and to a lower extent also wholesale Thom Ford Fashion. Americas recorded minus 3% organic growth in Q3, showing a deceleration compared to the first six months, entirely related to the wholesale channel performance. Indeed, compared to the first semester of 2024, the DTC channel continued to perform very well boosted by Zegna ongoing double-digit growth. The wholesale channel showed negative performance in the region for all the three brands due to different timing deliveries and to some conversions from wholesale doors into directly operated stores, both for Zegna and Thom Browne. As an example, we call out the conversion of Harry Rosen stores in Canada for Zegna and Nordstrom for Thom Browne.

Greater China region revenues declined by 22% in Q3, and as we commented broadly, this is due to a very subdued consumer confidence in the region, which got worse in the summer months, especially in August, as Gildo said. Among the three brands, Zegna outperformed the group average in the region. In the rest of Asia Pacific, Japan continued to show a solid double-digit performance, positive, both for Zegna and Thom Browne. Looking at the result by nationality clusters, which I know you're always interested in, referring specifically to Zegna DTC, we saw U.S. cluster that kept growing on a solid double-digit also in Q3, and GCR residents were weaker in Q3, down in the mid-teen range. Moving to page 11, the revenue breakdown by distribution channel. Just two very quick comments, since then we will comment more on a broad brand basis.

In Q3, overall DTC channel grew 1% organic with positive growth of Zegna and Thom Ford Fashion brand, counterbalanced by the decline of Thom Browne retail. Wholesale performance in Q3 was negative at -24%. We already highlighted the reasons. Just a quick comment on the impact from conversions that in Q3 was significant, in particular for Zegna brand. Converting stores from wholesale to retail, as you know, creates a time difference in revenues since the conversion of wholesale determines an upfront slowdown of seasonal selling to the client, while the associated retail revenues are generated afterwards. Let's move to page 12 of breakdown by distribution channel for specifically the Zegna brand. In Q3, Zegna DTC revenues grew by 4% organic, accounting at this point 83% of the brand revenues.

As I already mentioned, EMEA, Americas, and Japan continued to report solid double-digit growth rates for Zegna brand, while Greater China region sequentially deteriorated and saw a double-digit decrease in traffic, not offset by a healthy increase in the average ticket. In the quarter, the brand opened six net new stores, including New York Meatpacking District, Honolulu, and some conversions from wholesale into retail, among which we call out, as I said, the Harry Rosen store in Canada and also one store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that has been converted from wholesale to retail. Moving to wholesale, the Zegna brand recorded -5% organic in Q3 as a result of the conversion we discussed before and some different timing in deliveries. I would confirm here what I already said during Q2 call.

I expect Zegna wholesale to report flattish on a year-on-year basis for full year 2024 in organic terms, which means that it will be single-digit negative on reported basis. Let's move to page 13, that is the breakdown of Thom Browne by channel. In Q3, DTC for Thom Browne was minus 13% organic. As I said at the beginning, the organic metric for Thom Browne in Q3 at this point includes also the Korean market contribution since it had been acquired on July the 1st of last year, and the performance is composed of a double-digit growth of Thom Browne DTC in Japan, a positive Korea for Thom Browne retail, which was more than offset by the negative performance in Greater China region. In the quarter, the brand opened four stores in Asia Pacific.

In Q3, wholesale for Thom Browne declined 46%, similar to the Q1 numbers for the same reasons you know and we already commented. I just add that we expect to have this channel at the end of the year down around one-third versus last year, so in the -35% area. We expect that the streamline of the wholesale business to focus on the DTC for Thom Browne will continue until Spring '25 collection. Let's move to Thom Ford revenues split by distribution channel, page 14. Here, even more than before, I look at the organic performance that takes into consideration the performance starting from end of April, that was the deal closing date of last year. In Q3 of 2024, Thom Ford Fashion reported +3% organic in the DTC channel with a strong performance in EMEA, a solid performance in U.S., counterbalanced by Asia Pacific.

During the quarter, Thom Ford Fashion opened six net new stores, including Beijing China World, which is the first flagship in the country, and Saks Fifth Avenue women's. Wholesale reported 30% organic down in the quarter, but was impacted by a different timing in deliveries, both some anticipation into Q2 and some delays that impacted the quarter performance. As I think, as always, wholesale is better to look at on a year-to-date basis because it neutralizes the ups and downs by quarter, and you see that year-to-date, the number of wholesale for Thom Ford Fashion is minus 11%, and that is a much more insightful number to see the performance of Thom Ford Fashion on this channel.

I will stop now on the next slide where you can see the facade of the recently opened Meatpacking District New York Zegna store, and I'll hand it over to Paola for the Q&A session.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Thank you, Gianluca. Thank you, Gildo. And we can open up the Q&A session. So I'll ask the operator to open to give us the first question.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question today, you can do so now by pressing star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind or you feel like your question has already been answered, please press star, followed by two to remove yourself from the queue. Our first question comes from Oliver Chen with TD Cowen. Oliver, please go ahead.

Oliver Chen (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Hi, good morning. Thank you for the details. The China comments were very helpful. You mentioned subdued consumer confidence in China potentially getting worse. What are you seeing there in terms of what you think happens next? And will things get worse before they get better? And then Americas has been resilient. It continues to be that story of great DTC offset by negative wholesale trends. Negative wholesale trends should eventually get easy comps. Just would love your thoughts on what you're seeing with wholesale and that channel and the Americas will improve over time. Thank you.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Okay. Hi, Ciao, Oliver. And thank you for your questions that are both, I believe, for Mr. Zegna. The first one is on the China consumer confidence and how we see China in these days and in the future, and the second, the US market and the resiliency and the wholesale trend.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

Yeah. As a matter of fact, I will be leaving for China tomorrow. So I surely will have more color after my trip, but that shows how important China remains to us and how we believe in this important luxury market. Surely, China has gone through some challenging moment in 2024, which I believe that it will continue at least for the first part of 2025. I think we have to be a little bit cautious in terms of the expectation for both Thom Browne and Zegna, but I think it's quite premature to make further comment. I think that we should look at some positive signs also and that should make us more confident for the long term. And for instance, on Zegna, we continue to see the ASP and ATV growing nicely.

Our customers are younger in age compared to before, not only because they buy the iconic Triple Stitch, but because the brand overall is attracting new younger customers. And I think this is a very, very strong sign. It means that our new strategy of rebranding is working. We always said that it was a little bit slower as compared to other markets like the United States, but I think that it's gaining more and more traction. Our sales network in China has been fairly renewed, and we have practically top-tier location in most of the malls. And we have a very strong relationship and trust with the top landlords. In that regard, we might have to do some more renewal and relocation in the coming years, but I think that the good work has been already done.

And as an example, Villa Zegna, which is the personalized way to move the brand forward, as we did in New York, was held in Shanghai. And the good thing is that the customer we served with Zegna came back to buy in the store, which is another important sign. Our Uber Luxury and made-to-measure incidence is growing, which is positive. You know this is a unique characteristic. None of the luxury players have a made-to-measure project and culture and stuff like the one we have. And the Uber Luxury, it means bringing made-to-measure even higher. With the Vellus Aureum collection, it will be unveiled in the Q1 of next year. And we think that it will be helpful for China as well. So Uber Luxury made-to-measure will continue to be important also in China.

As I said, the one-brand strategy is not only a logo, but is a deep cultural change for our brand and for our people in the stores that are moving more and more from a transactional driven to interaction driven with the customer. So to conclude on China, we are not yet where we aim to be, but the path is clear, and we are now completing the last step moving forward. That's it for China. America, America, we are seeing solid, solid double-digit numbers. And I think that the American customer is in love with what we do. All the things I've said for China are ahead. And we just delivered our drop four collection and is really checking out well. The two iconic pieces, the Monte shoes and the Conte jacket are flying out really.

And so we are very pleased about development. There is no reason why these developments should stop for them in the next two months. We are retail guys, so retail is every day. So we have another two months just to do our best. And I think that everything is in place to do so, not only for Zegna, but for the other two brands.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

The question was also on the wholesale trend. And I think, Oliver, if I am correct, you said this can also bode well for next year with an easier base of comparison. But of course, there are some conversions, as has been commented by Gianluca, on this quarter wholesale performance, as well as also some different timing in deliveries.

For the year-end, I think we commented during Gianluca's speech, and very important for the wholesale is to look at the nine months or the year-to-date performance more than just quarterly performance, where we, as Gianluca said, we expect to be on organic, so excluding the concession basis of flattish, as we already commented on Zegna, while including the concession some point below, some negative few points. I don't know if we answered all your questions, Oliver, or if you had any follow-up. That's very helpful.

Oliver Chen (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. Best regards.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Operator, if you can go to the second one.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anthony Chavergue with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Antoine Chavergue (Analyst)

Yes, thank you. It's Anthony Chavergue from BNP Paribas. I have a few questions. So the first one would be on the current trading in October. If you can give us the current growth rate compared to the minus 7% you've done in Q3. My second question would be in terms of margin with China underperforming, but on the other side, you have the strong wholesale shrinkage. I would say that that should help. What can we expect for H2 in terms of margin? I see that Consensus is expecting a bit up 10% year-on-year in H2. So if you can give a comment on profitability for the year. And my last question would be just to confirm that you're guiding minus 35% for Thom Browne wholesale for the full year, which would imply positive in Q4 on a plus 42% comp base. Thank you.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

The first question is actually on the current trend in October and what we are seeing, particularly compared to the Q3 numbers that we just published. This is. I'll leave it to Gildo to answer. Then I might take the second question on the EBIT. The third is on Thom Browne. These are the three that I signed.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

Where are we in October? October is only a few weeks, and we're looking forward for the remaining part. We will see. I think that overall has been slightly better as a group than Q3. We don't want to get too excited. There are still more two months ahead to cover, as I said. The current environment is still volatile and uncertain, at least in one part of the world. That's what I can tell you. Okay.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

The second question, sorry, Anthony, we don't comment on EBIT full year. We never provide the guidance. Or what we can say is that today, the consensus for sure is more reasonable, a bit more reasonable, but there are still important months ahead of us. No further comments, as you know, on the expectation for full year. On Thom Browne.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

Hi, Anthony, Gianluca. I confirmed the guidance on -35% for Thom Browne on the year basis. After nine months, if you look at the reported numbers, it's -39% and organic -38%, which means implicitly that in Q4, there is still a decline, not a growth, a decline, but to a lower extent than the year-to-date nine-month metric. That is the answer.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

I don't know if we answered all the questions. Anthony, sorry.

Antoine Chavergue (Analyst)

Yes, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Thanks.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

The third one.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Chris Huang with UBS. Please go ahead, Chris.

Chris Huang (Analyst)

Hello. Hi, Chris from UBS. I have three. The first one, just to comment on the cluster comments you made for the Zegna brand DTC. If I understood correctly, the Chinese cluster slowed from a high single-digit negative in Q2 to mid-teens negative in Q3. So my question would be, what other nationalities accelerated? Because sequentially, the DTC channel was growing at 4%. And then within that, the weakness quarter-over-quarter of the Chinese is driven by mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau, or some other markets, if you can comment on that. Secondly, also on the Zegna brand DTC, it grew 4% in the Q3. Of course, we saw a few more store openings compared to last year.

So if you can kind of help us understand a little bit more in terms of the like-for-like and space breakdown. And last but not least, on a Chinese consumer as well. So I know in the past, you commented that around 90% of the Chinese spend globally was in Greater China. Are you seeing any change in that? Because I think in the press release, you commented that Japan continues to be strong. But just trying to understand if there's any impact we need to be aware of given the currency moves in Japan. Thank you.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Okay, Chris, I hope I guess we get all your questions because you speak very, very fast. Just one. So the first one is on the Chinese cluster, given that the comments we made. And so I leave it to Gianluca to answer. I think also on the second one, on the comp store growth. I think also the third one in Japan. So I think these are three questions for Gianluca. Thank you, Chris.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

So in terms of nationalities, we have seen a very positive Q3 for Europeans. So not in Europe, but European residents, which have seen an acceleration compared to the prior quarters. We continue seeing a positive, very positive double-digit of Americans, both in the U.S. and outside. Also in the U.S., we have experienced a double-digit growth of Americans in Q3. And the other engine of growth has been Middle Eastern, which are buying not only locally, but also outside of the Middle East. So these are the three engines of our DTC growth by nationality perspective. And I confirmed that GCR residents were mid-teens negative.

Of course, it's driven by mainland China because it's the vast majority. I skip immediately to the last question that you raised. If you remember correctly, we have always said that Chinese, and when we talk about Chinese, our elementary metric is always Greater China because we report that geography. Yeah, we see these residents buying 90% locally. Of course, we have seen more spending outside, namely in Japan, where we have seen a solid growth of Chinese spending across the year and also in Q3. But that part is minimal because it's only 10% of their spending for us. It's different than buying bags or, for our case, it's more a local purchase rather than.

Definitely, since we talk with our colleagues elsewhere, it's definitely also more purchase abroad is more related, more stronger on the women's side rather than menswear, where the clients tend to buy more local with trusted customer advice. I think that this goes back to your first and last question. On the comp, we don't report comp. That is a metric. Of course, we see internally, but the delta perimeter is not the only reason for our positive DTC. For Zegna, I mean, for the Zegna brand. Of course, we have grown the network. We have converted some stores. We have open stores. But that is on top of a positive comp base on a year-to-date basis. The same, yeah. Paolo was asking if this is valid for year-to-date as well as for Q3.

Yes, it's valid also for Q3 for Zegna DTC, the comp is positive. Okay. Thank you. And Chris, I don't know if you have any follow-up or if we answered all your questions. That's very clear. Thank you very much. Sorry. It's positive despite the GCR issues that we commented, which has been. Yes, it's very good. It's positive despite. Positive despite the GCR, which is definitely for us and for most of the environment is becoming a headwind.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Okay. So we can move to the next question. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Ben Martin with Goldman Sachs. Ben, please go ahead.

Ben Martin (Analyst)

Great. Thanks very much, Gildo, Gianluca, and Paola. I've just got two to say, please. My first is just on the China retail store footprint. I know you had some comments at the last call looking at a range of potential plans on the table, potentially consolidating some stores or pushing back rollouts. I wonder if there's been any progress on the thinking of that, especially with a shift in some of the trends and some positivity around stimulus, and my second would just be on pricing, price list in particular. I was wondering if you can talk to.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Can I stop? Ben, sorry. Can I stop you a second? Is it possible for you to speak a little bit closer to the mic because it's a little bit difficult for us to get your questions? I think the first one was on China retail expansion.

Ben Martin (Analyst)

It's also an evolution in China.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Yeah, an evolution for the three brands and so forth, if I understood well, but if possible, thank you. Sorry, Ben, if I interrupt.

Ben Martin (Analyst)

Yeah, no problem at all. Hopefully, that's a little bit better.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Much better. Thank you. Great.

Ben Martin (Analyst)

And then my second one was just on price list across the three brands. I wonder if you can now talk to the kind of contribution you expect across 2025 across the three main brands for price list. Thanks.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Thank you. I think on the price, for sure, I'll leave it to Gianluca. On the China evolution, I'll pass on immediately to Gildo. Gildo on China.

Gildo Zegna (Chairman and CEO)

Okay. So evolution. No, on China, on Zegna, I already said that we are, I would say, almost done in the transformation of our stores with the new brands. And I think that the challenge is to increase the productivity in the store and to keep doing a good job with new customers. You do remember that a good part of Zegna business pre-COVID was aspirational, thanks to Zegna. So we are past that. And so we are looking for a higher spending client, which we are getting, but it takes a while.

But I think we are on the right avenue. In terms of Thom Browne, I think Rodrigo has done a thorough job in the past few months in order to strengthen the organizational structure. And we have a good head of retail that has made many changes in staffing in order to support the new opening because we, as you recall, in the past couple of years, we opened several stores.

And even this last event that has taken place in Hong Kong, and he had an event three months ago in China, was to foster, also with the presence of Thom, the new phase of Thom Browne, which is more women and more accessories and more personalization. Mind you, personalization is something that we believe not only in Zegna, but in the three brands. And I think that it's not only events. It's creating private rooms where you get a one-to-one approach with customer privacy, exclusivity. And so this goes well both in men's and women. And so Thom Browne, I think that is ready for surely a positive year in 2025 in China to gain what did not happen in 2024. As far as Thom Ford is concerned, it's a different situation. Thom Ford brand is very strong in America and has a long way to go in Asia.

But I think that Leo has put his head of the top Asian market people that are retailers, and they are preparing for growth in 2025. The China World is a good example. We're going to have another big store opening in Singapore. And so this is the work that he has to do. For sure, we have to wait another season to fully express our best for the brand, in particular in ladies and in accessories with the new designer, Haider Ackermann. And so we expect surely more of Thom Ford in the H2 of 2025 than in the H1. But this is the strategy we are pursuing with the three brands. So I think that whatever happens in China, I think that we will be at the best situation that we've been in 2024.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

In terms of openings, we will be more for sure detailed when we release full year revenues results at the end of January. Clearly, that will be the time in which maybe for sure, actually, we will provide some more guidance details to you in terms of new openings per brand. But we are, sorry, I just want to focus that the key in China is having the right connection with landlords. And I think that thanks to the three brands, we talk to the right people. The landlord trusts our group. And so I think that is giving us the chance to do well and to foster our position in a moment in which the Chinese market is changing for everybody. Perfect. In terms of price and price policy. Yeah. I make a general statement, and then I give you a few flavors.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

So in general, for the three brands, we believe that at this point, the price architecture is right, is balanced. We have gone through a repositioning, especially on the Zegna side. I think now the one-brand strategy sees a proper reflection in terms of price architecture. Having said this, I think going forward, we see moderate price increases in order to offset cost inflation and currency fluctuations. But we are not at this point having in mind a structural repositioning of the prices. On the Zegna side, we see more positive tailwind coming from mix. We still see opportunities also next year with the release of new products on the Uber Luxury side. So it's more mixed than price for Zegna. On Thom Browne, we have decided to be moderate in the price increases in the last years and maybe more than other peers.

This, for instance, has been helping us, namely in Japan, where we have been experiencing an upside. I think this is, in a nutshell, our situation on the platform. One positive aspect is the learning curve of buying icons. What we have seen in Zegna, we created a platform of icons, and now we are building a franchise on that platform. I think that also Thom Ford and Thom Browne have icons. It's just a matter to push them, support them, exhibit them. I think that it's pretty straightforward for the former. I think that at the end, we know what we're doing. We have the means. It's just a matter of execution because this slow part of preparing what we need has been done. Now it's just a matter to speed up the execution and just going when the market is ready.

Gildo Zegna (Chairman and CEO)

So the majority of the market are ready. The biggest one is not yet, but we look forward when it will be.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Okay. Thank you. I don't know if we answered to all the questions. Actually, maybe even a little bit wider. But any follow-up? Otherwise, we see if there are other questions on the call.

Ben Martin (Analyst)

No, that was great. Thanks very much.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Thank you to you, Operator.

Operator (participant)

We have no further questions.

Paola Durante (Head of Investor Relations)

Okay. So thank you for everybody for participating to this call. Just a couple of notes to end. First of all, I would like to anticipate that starting from next year, we will slightly change the format of our investors' call, particularly with regard to the management attendance. For sure, Gianluca, myself, and Alice, we continue to be present on all the interim calls, while our CEO, Gildo, will attend only to selected ones during the year. This will be much more in line with best practice for our sector. Let me though anticipate that he will be present on the forthcoming full year 2025, sorry, no, the full year 2024 revenues call, which will be on January 27, 2025. You have seen, I'm sure you have seen on our press release and on our website that we release our calendar, financial calendar for next year.

The first call will be on January 27. With this, I now end today's call. I thank you again for all the questions. Always very interesting for us. Of course, Alice and myself, we are here for any follow-up. In the meantime, I wish you all the best. Grazie mille.

Gianluca Tagliabue (CFO)

Thank you. Goodbye.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect your lines.