Wittchen sees consumers caution when it comes to spending; hopes to reverse negative trend

"Consumers are still very cautious when it comes to spending, which is confirmed by the low retail sales readings reported by the Poland's stats office GUS for the textile, clothing and footwear category. We are also seeing a marked cooling in Germany, which is one of our key foreign markets. In such an environment, we achieved a slight increase in sales in the second quarter and hope to be able to permanently reverse the negative trend of the previous two quarters. We aim to increase sales in all channels and at the same time carefully control costs," said CEO Jedrzej Wittchen.

He assessed that the group is recording an increasing share of revenue from sales in the stationary network, where customers are less sensitive to price, which in the case of online shopping often determines the purchase.

"In the first half of the year, we continued to invest in the development of sales abroad, both online and in the stationary network. We launched showrooms in Germany, Austria and Romania. The Romanian market is promising, as the average disposable income of consumers is increasing, and they are showing a greater propensity to buy. We are planning to open a third Wittchen brand store in Bucharest later this year," the CEO added.

As reported, Wittchen will modernise and expand its own logistics centre in Palmiry near Warsaw. The current two warehouse halls will be supplemented with a third building, while the equipment in hall 1 will be largely automated. Design and preparatory work is scheduled to be completed in late 2024 and early 2025. Construction of the storage hall is currently scheduled to start in 2025.

doa/ nl/