Despite 2% Sales Dip in Q1, Hugo Boss Shares Rise on Results

A still from the Hugo summer 2025 campaign. — An image from the Hugo summer 2025 campaign. Courtesy: Dan Jackson/ Hugo BOss

Updated 5:59 a.m. ET May 6

Organic sales at Hugo Boss fell 2 percent over the first quarter of this year to 999 million euros. Explaining the dip, Hugo boss chief executive officer Daniel Grieder pointed to the same issues that are impacting everyone in the apparel industry.

“We’ve heard this from numerous companies in recent days and weeks,” Grieder told an online press conference Tuesday. “The consumer climate is rather gloomy in all major markets…[and] all market segments, from fast fashion to the premium segment we occupy and luxury.”

That is why, Grieder argued, he was still pleased with Hugo Boss’ performance over the first three months of the year. Revenues came in slightly better than analysts had expected and were described as a “positive surprise” by some. The consensus forecast had been for sales of around 991 million euros.

“We forecast this in March before the latest [Trump administration] tariffs were imposed,” Grieder said. The erratic way tariffs are being imposed and their impact on the U.S. market — which accounts for 15 percent of all of Hugo Boss sales — makes it difficult to predict what the rest of the year will look like, he explained. But based on all available information “we still feel comfortable with our forecast,” Grieder concluded.

Hugo Boss doesn’t produce anything in the U.S. itself, he continued, and more than 40 percent of the brand’s products sold there are imported from Europe, mostly Portugal or Turkey. Only a midsingle-digit percentage of Hugo Boss goods are made in China, which is where American tariffs have hit the hardest. So the company feels it will be able to cope with the current uncertainty, Grieder said.

“Still, there’s no question that the best tariffs are those that are not imposed,” Grieder stated. “Because in the end it is the consumers — in this case, American consumers — who suffer the most damage.”

The company opened a new flagship store in Shanghai, China, in late March. — The company opened a new flagship in Shanghai in late March. Courtesy: Hugo Boss

Over the first quarter, Hugo Boss sales in the Americas fell by 1 percent, in currency adjusted terms. This mostly reflected softening demand in the U.S. market, the company said, while sales in Latin America rose in the double digits.

In the U.S., consumer sentiment is already being impacted by economic uncertainty, Grieder told WWD. Hugo Boss has 579 retail points of sale in the U.S. and stores are seeing around 20 to 30 percent less footfall, he explained. There’s also a decline in demand from “domestic and international tourists,” noted Grieder, who’s currently in America on business. “You can see it everywhere, even at the airports. There are fewer passengers.”

Back in the company’s home market of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sales slipped 1 percent in currency adjusted terms. The company said that revenues in Germany were steady, but sales in France and the U.K. had fallen slightly.

In Asia-Pacific, sales fell 8 percent and Hugo Boss noted particularly “subdued consumer demand” in China. The rest of the region looked much better, the company said in its statement, noting double-digit growth in Japan.

The German company’s more casual Hugo line, which includes a new denim offering, fell 2 percent to 163 million euros between January and March. Sales of the larger and more formal Boss menswear line also slipped 2 percent to total 766 million euros, while Boss womenswear sales decreased 1 percent.

Market analysts from the likes of Royal Bank of Canada, JP Morgan and Citibank agreed that Hugo Boss was coping well in adverse market conditions. The results signaled “a good start into the year in an arguably difficult trading environment,” Deutsche Bank said in its analysis.