(News Bulletin 247) – The high-end furniture specialist recorded sales growth in the first quarter, despite a basis for comparison that has become demanding. This publication in line with expectations does not prevent Roche Bobois from feeling the blow on the stock market, bowing under the weight of profit taking after an excellent stock market performance since the start of the year.

As inflation erodes household purchasing power, the publications of specialist retailers will be closely scrutinized. Household goods will be sacrificed in favor of essential purchases. Last week, Fnac Darty, for example, indicated a sharp decline in sales of large household appliances during its first quarter business update.

As for Roche Bobois, the first quarter was solid in line with a robust year-end. The high-end furniture specialist once again delivered strong sales momentum. Between January and March, Roche Bobois’ sales amounted to 104 million euros, compared to 92.9 million euros in the first quarter of 2022, up 12% (+10.5% at exchange rates). constants). The group attributes this performance to “sustained deliveries” since the beginning of the year despite “a demanding basis of comparison”.

The group’s driving force United States/Canada zone

All regions posted dynamic organic growth, particularly in the United States/Canada region, which posted the strongest growth in the quarter. Roche Bobois saw its turnover jump by 24.3% (+19.8% at constant exchange rates), to stand at 38 million euros in the first quarter of 2023 against 30.6 million euros in the first quarter 2022.

This region benefited in particular from the positive impact of the transfer of the direct store from Boston (United States) to a premium location as well as the first contributions from the stores resulting from the takeovers of franchisees in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta in the amount of 1.8 million euros over the quarter.

In the United Kingdom, sales increased by 5.3% despite an unfavorable exchange rate effect to €5.3 million, compared to €5.1 million in the first quarter of 2022 and €3.4 million in the first quarter of 2021. In the rest of Europe (excluding France and the United Kingdom), Roche Bobois recorded sales of 18.8 million euros in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 16 million euros in the first quarter of 2022 , representing growth of +17.8% at current exchange rates (+16.0% at constant exchange rates). The group noted particularly dynamic activity in Switzerland, Spain and Italy.

The “French art of living” continues to appeal to Roche Bobois’ international clientele. Just like in France. In France, the company saw its turnover increase by 7.6% to 30.3 million euros in the first quarter of 2023 against 28.2 million euros in the same period of the financial year. previous.

For its part, Cuir Center suffered due to its mid-range positioning, which is more sensitive to the economic situation. The activity of this brand is down over this quarter (-13.4%) with a turnover of 8.9 million euros in the first quarter of 2023 against 10.3 million euros in the 1st quarter of 2022.

Thus, the total business volume (all brands combined) of the group controlled by the Chouchan and Roche families fell by 5.6% at current exchange rates to stand at 176.2 million euros against 186.6 million euros in the first quarter of 2022.

“The party is over”

TP ICAP Midcap therefore considers the quarterly performance of Roche Bobois to be “unsurprising”. But the rest is likely to be more complicated, says the design office, while “the order book logically shows signs of running out of steam”.

Roche Bobois recalls that it has an overall portfolio of orders still to be delivered of 175.5 million euros at March 31, 2023, against 170.2 million euros at the end of 2022, for all the brands, this ” which remains a good performance” for TP ICAP Midcap. But the design office recalls that it is down 8% compared to the first quarter of 2022.

The management is confident for the future and confirms “a further increase” in its sales in the first half of 2023, the figures of which will be published on Thursday July 20 after the market.

This optimism of the management of Roche Bobois is not entirely shared by Florent Thy-tine, the analyst in charge of covering the file at TP ICAP Midcap. According to him, the “party is even over”. He estimates at this stage that Roche Bobois will find it difficult to repeat such a performance in the years to come and anticipates a slight decline in organic growth in the second half of the 2023 financial year. to maintain growth in the second half, we are less optimistic,” said the analyst.

The integration of franchisees should, however, support Roche Bobois’ momentum, which authorizes TP ICAP Midcap to raise its sales estimate for 2023 to 427 million euros (compared to 413 million euros) in order to better integrate the scope impact of the takeover of franchisees.

If for Florent Thy-tine, the fundamentals of the group remain intact and its attractive positioning in the current context, he nevertheless downgrades his recommendation to hold against purchase before, judging “the potential for revaluation now limited”. Its target price is positioned at 48 euros.

On the stock market, the publication of the furniture specialist is a pretext for profit taking. Its title stumbles 5.5% to 44.40 euros around 10:50 a.m., after its historic record at 47.90 euros recorded at the end of last week. The file still shows gains of more than 30% since the start of the year.