Canada Goose Holdings Inc. beat expectations in its biggest quarter of the year, returning the luxury parka maker to growth for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.
Increasing online sales, store expansions in China and expanding product diversification pushed the company's third-quarter revenues to $474 million, up from $452.1 million a year earlier with a profit of $107 million.聽
The results surpassed estimates and lifted the winter clothing maker's shares as much as 30 per cent during the day 鈥� its highest since 2018 鈥� before closing up $10.05 or 22.4 per cent at $54.95 a share.
"Our business showed remarkable resilience and we have outperformed our own expectations," Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss said Thursday during a call with analysts. "We're entering the final quarter of the fiscal year with strong momentum."
Highlights for the three-month period ended Dec. 27, included a jump in e-commerce revenue of almost 40 per cent while seven of the company's 28 retail stores 鈥� a quarter of its network 鈥� remained shuttered.聽
"Our retail traffic has roughly a split of 50/50 between local and international consumers," Canada Goose chief financial officer Jonathan Sinclair told analysts.聽
"Strategically our focus this year has been on serving those travelling international consumers at home, and driving demand in the local markets," he said. "The fact that we were able to grow our business in Q3 with all of these headwinds is really, really encouraging."
One of the successes of the company's e-commerce strategy has been rolling out online shopping within its brick-and-mortar stores, Reiss said. The retail trend allows shoppers to buy products that are either out of stock or not sold in stores and have them delivered to their homes.聽
"This quarter we truly saw the power of the endless aisle," he said, adding that Canada Goose's "in-store, omnichannel shopping" is a "needle mover for customer experience."
Tmall, an online Chinese language e-commerce website, also served as a "powerful channel" for the brand, Reiss said, noting that sales on the online retail site operated in China by the Alibaba Group were a "bright spot" for Canada Goose during the quarter.聽
"We're still very early in our journey in mainland China, and we see significant opportunity to continue to grow our network in the region," he said.聽
The outerwear company has also more than doubled its stores in China in the past year, Reiss added.
Canada Goose launched its new Standard Expedition Parka last month, what it calls the "most sustainable parka to date" made from recycled and undyed fabrics, responsibly sourced down and reclaimed fur.
"This is only the beginning of a sustainable apparel journey and the consumer response has matched our own excitement as the style has nearly sold out," Reiss said
Meanwhile, Canada Goose said other revenue came in at $13.8 million, up from $5 million, driven by sales of personal protective equipment as part of its COVID-19 response efforts.聽
Overall, its profit amounted to 96 cents per diluted share, down from a profit of $118 million or $1.07 per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the outerwear brand said it earned $1.01 per diluted share, down from an adjusted profit of $1.08 per diluted share a year earlier.
Canada Goose was expected to report 86 cents per share in adjusted profits on $415.3 million of revenues, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GOOS)
Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press
