Roche Bobois Slightly Misses 2024 Revenue Guidance, Says China Boosted Q4
MILAN — French furniture-maker Roche Bobois on Thursday revealed it missed its revised full-year revenue forecast. The Paris-based firm said revenue fell 3.6 percent to 414 million euros from 429.6 million euros in 2023. The 2024 sales figure was slightly lower to its last forecast pegged at 418 million euros in October.
In the fourth quarter; however, the group returned to growth, posting revenues of 113.4 million euros, up 3.5 percent from 109.6 million euros in the same period a year earlier.
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'The trend continued to improve during the fourth quarter of 2024,' the group said, noting retail sales of directly operated stores came were up 5.7 percent to 98.8 million euros in the fourth quarter. This figure was also helped by double-digit growth in December driven by the performance of the U.S. and Canadian markets, up 29.7 percent in the December period.
Fourth-quarter figures were also bolstered by the integration of Roche Bobois' operations in China. The group has three directly operated stores with locations in Beijing and Shanghai. 'This amounted to an overall contribution of 5.9 million euro to revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024,' the group said.
Since at least 2023, Roche Bobois has been strategically focused on fortifying its position in the Chinese market in order to better tap into the growth potential of the world's second-largest economy. As a single market, China has teetered between Roche Bobois' third and fifth top markets.
In 2024, Roche Bobois Group took a majority stake in Shanghai Rock Castle Furniture, its lucrative franchisee in China. The group will up its stake in Shanghai Rock Castle, thus increasing it to a 67 percent ownership share in 2025.
Overall, the group said it was also able to remedy the delivery delays that impacted sales negatively last year. In the first half the temporary postponement of deliveries was due to a logistics delay at a supplier in Italy, the firm said last September.
The group confirmed its full-year EBITDA guidance for 2024, of between 72 million euros and 76 million euros.
Roche Bobois is a French family business that was founded by François Roche in Paris in 1960. It has two brands: Roche Bobois, which caters to high-end customers, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment
As at Dec. 31, Roche Bobois had 339 stores, including 266 Roche Bobois stores (127 directly operated stores and 139 franchised stores) and 73 Cuir Center stores (22 directly operated stores and 51 franchised stores).
Looking ahead, Roche Bobois said it intends to continue this dynamic of store openings in 2025, with two directly operated Roche Bobois stores planned in Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas and one in Herblay, France, in the first quarter of 2025.
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