Allbirds Looks to Store Expansion & Third-Party Retail Partners for Growth After Hitting International Headwinds

Allbirds shares continue to trade lower on Wednesday, a day after the company reported that certain international regions have run into demand headwinds towards the end of the first quarter and have extended into Q2, particularly in China and the European Union. This news has investors concerned. As of Wednesday afternoon, Allbirds’ stock was down 12% hovering around the $4 mark. On its earnings call Tuesday night, Allbirds’ co-founder and co-CEO Joseph Zwillinger further explained the company’s challenges in the quarter. “In Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting humanitarian crisis has had an indirect influence on our business via the impact of inflation on the psyche of the European consumer and petroleum prices,” Zwillinger said. “Despite this, we believe our store and digital model of vertical retail is working there, particularly in our two focus regions in Europe being the U.K. and Germany.” As for China, Zwillinger said that COVID restrictions have slowed sales in stores via four shutdowns and slowed overall demand in the region. “We believe these to be transitory impacts on our business in China, but we are preparing for extended restrictions of varying severity through the remainder of 2022,” Zwillinger added. “We continue to view the scale-up

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