Now, Larsson is looking to play off that momentum and continue to grow the business through challenges that include inflation, the war in Ukraine and continued supply chain disruption and virus flareups.
And that means boosting the business in North America, where the tourism business has fallen sharply given the pandemic. That’s a significant hit since shoppers from abroad made up 30 percent to 40 percent of the business pre-pandemic.
“You can see it in Europe through our strong product execution and owned and operated e-commerce growth and in brand-building partnerships with digital pure players,” he said. “You can also see it increasing in Asia, where we lean into big consumer moments like Chinese New Year and win with strength in product on the most important e-commerce and social platforms.”
“And step by step, you’ll see more of that in North America as well, where we are focused on driving higher-quality, digital-led growth and improving product and channel execution,” he said. “The significant COVID[-19]-related supply chain challenges resulted in inventory delays that we will be navigating through with the biggest impact in the first half of 2022,” Larsson said.
So far, he said the company’s home market is seeing “green shoots of progress, including controlled inventory levels and lower promotions enabled us to drive higher gross margins and [average unit retail prices] in the fourth quarter.”“The strength of having two of the most iconic brands, globally most beloved brands in our sector gives us so much of an opportunity to drive systematic repeatable value creation over time,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to go through more in detail.