Updated 4:06 p.m. ET Nov. 6
Ralph Lauren Corp. is riding the momentum it’s built after years of working to elevate its brand position.
Revenues jumped 17 percent to $2 billion in the fiscal second quarter, an increase of 14 percent in constant currencies. North American net revenues increased 13 percent while Europe was up 22 percent and Asia moved ahead by 17 percent.
Net profits increased nearly 40 percent to $207.5 million.
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Patrice Louvet, president and chief executive officer, told WWD that the numbers spoke for themselves — although he was more than happy to speak for them as well.
“This broad-based momentum gives us confidence to raise our outlook on both the top line and margin,” Louvet said.
Louvet has spent eight years steadily transforming Ralph Lauren, focusing on the core product offering, cutting price promotions and developing what the CEO calls a “rolling thunder” of marketing activations.
Ralph Lauren’s marketing has been particularly sports-heavy lately with the brand celebrating 20 years as the official sponsor of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open tennis championship this summer and more. In golf, the brand outfitted players at the Ryder Cup tournament.
Altogether, the company said its sports lifestyle campaigns drove 67 billion global impressions and more than $350 million in media value.
That steady push of Ralph Lauren into the consumer consciousness is reaping other rewards and more exposure.
When Taylor Swift posted photos of her engagement to Travis Kelce, she was wearing Ralph Lauren — a choice that was a welcome surprise to Louvet.
“We see it as the result of all the work we’re doing to weave the brand into culture,” the CEO said. “To some extent, it’s almost an outcome of all our marketing activations.”
The brand, while proud of the exposure, did not move to exploit the opportunity.
“Social media got very excited around this and it was really nice to see that Ralph Lauren was included in the mentions, but we did not activate this in any way,” Louvet said. “We felt it was important to just keep this as a personal moment for Taylor and Travis.”
And when consumers go to Ralph Lauren, they find a brand that has been steadily moving higher, carefully choosing what and where it sells to get most out of the market.
Average unit prices increased another 12 percent in the company’s direct-to-consumer network during the second quarter.
Adjusted earnings per share tallied $3.79 — well ahead of the $3.45 analysts had penciled in, according to Yahoo Finance. Adjusted operating income hit $283 million for a margin of 14.1 percent, an improvement of 270 basis points from a year earlier.
Ralph Lauren investors, who have grown to have big expectations for the company, traded its shares down 0.5 percent to $313.25 on Thursday. Likewise, Coach-parent Tapestry Inc., which also reported strong quarterly results, was coming under pressure in the market and was down 9.6 percent to $98.79.
The two companies, which share similar brand- and consumer-focused philosophies, are increasingly coming into direct competition as Ralph Lauren builds in handbags, Coach’s bread-and-butter business.
“We look at the handbag opportunity for a few reasons,” Louvet said. “It’s obviously a very important component of a women’s style. Not having a strong proposition there felt like a missed opportunity for the brand since we are about overall style at the end of the day.
“The consumer is clearly telling us that they see Ralph Lauren being relevant in this space, both the Ralph Lauren brand, the Polo brand and the Lauren brand,” Louvet said. “It’s a very significant category, more than $80 billion in terms of the price points where we play.”
The company is also expanding its geographic presence, having already established its 30 key cities and identified another 20.
London, for instance, will see two new stores opening over the next three months, bringing the key city’s total to 10. And the brand is reentering San Francisco from a DTC perspective with four new stores.
For all of fiscal 2026, Ralph Lauren is now projecting revenues will rise 5 to 7 percent in constant currencies, up from the low- to midsingle-digit increase forecast in August. And operating margins are slated to expand by 60 to 80 basis points, up from the 40 to 60 points previously seen.
But Louvet also hedged just a little.
“We’ve also called for some caution. This is consistent with what we said in prior quarters,” he said, pointing to “some caution on the back half based on the potential macro impact of tariffs on consumers broadly in the U.S. If we think about potential pricing actions across sectors, and I’m thinking food, I’m thinking many different sectors that obviously touch people’s lives and the potential macro impacts that we’ll see there. So that’s why we’re calling out for some caution, but we’re raising the guidance. We have momentum, we have broad-based growth across the consumer segments, key regions and key channels. Our mindset continues to be on offense.”
And Ralph Lauren, executive chairman and chief creative officer, is continuing to dream the Ralph Lauren dream, the popularity of which was only reinforced Monday night when he won the CFDA award for womenswear designer of the year.
“For more than 58 years, we have inspired authentic, timeless style, reflecting the easy sophistication of a life well-lived,” he said. “From the streets of Tokyo and Paris to the intimacy of our runway show in our New York City design studio, we are inviting more people than ever to step into their dream of a better life.”