Losses Widen at Douglas in Q2

BERLIN — Douglas Group reported a second-quarter net loss that ballooned to 156.9 million euros, or $205.6 million, driven by heavy restructuring costs for its foundering Thalia book arm. In the prior-year period, the Q2 net loss stood at 15.3 million euros, or $20.9 million.

During the January-March 2012 period, sales at the Hagen, Germany-based company — whose activities include Douglas Perfumeries and retailers of confectionary, fashion, jewelry and books — rose 3.9 percent to 722.8 million euros, or $947.3 million, partly fueled by consumer spending in advance of this year’s earlier Easter holiday.

Adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 19 percent to 6.4 million euros, or $8.4 million. The company said its earnings were adversely affected by Thalia’s restructuring expenditures, which amounted to 165.1 million euros, or $219.6 million, in its second quarter.

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Second-quarter sales at the company’s 1,184 perfumeries rose 6.7 percent to 407.8 million, or $534.6 million.

Dollar figures are converted from euros at average exchange rates for the period to which they refer.

For the first half of its fiscal year, Douglas Group registered a net loss of 63.3 million euros, or $84.2 million. EBITDA fell 30.6 percent to 142.7 million euros, or $189.8 million, for the six months ended March 31. Douglas was profitable in the year-ago period, posting net profits of 78.6 million euros, or $107.2 million.

Group sales for the October 2011-March 2012 period rose 2.3 percent to 1.9 billion euros, or $2.53 billion. For the period, Douglas Perfumeries registered sales of 1.07 billion euros, or $1.42 billion. Strong home-market performance from the perfumeries and the firm’s jewelry chain Christ helped offset losses from the book sector. German sales were up 4.2 percent on-year. Online sales grew 15 percent to 130 million euros, or $172.9 million, in the first half of the year, representing 7 percent of total group sales.

The company also released figures for the seven months ended April 30, which includes Easter: Group sales were up 2 percent on-year to 2.17 billion euros, or $2.85 billion, up 1.7 percent like-for-like.