Dr Martens targets £25m savings plan as profits dive
Profit and turnover at Northants boot and shoe maker Dr Martens have fallen sharply on the back of a poor performance in the US.
Preliminary results for the year to the end of March, released this morning (May 30), show that profit before tax fell by almost 43% to £97.2m on the back of revenues of £877.1m – drop of over 12%.
In April, Dr Martens warned that its profits could drop by as much as two-thirds as its share price dropped to an all-time low. Now, it is targeting savings of around £25m. It is unclear whether this includes job cuts.
The plan will be led by new CFO Giles Wilson and the firm’s leadership team and will target £20m to £25m of cost reduction, with savings from “organisational efficiency and design, better procurement and operational streamlining”. Dr Martens says it will see the results of this in its 2026 full-year results, with the FY25 benefit likely to be immaterial due to the costs of implementation.
A statement from Kenny Wilson, the CEO of the company, said: “Our FY24 results were as expected and reflect continued weak USA consumer demand. This particularly impacted our USA wholesale business and offset our group DTC performance, where pairs grew by 7%.
“We have achieved robust performances in EMEA and APAC, and our supply chain strategy continues to deliver good savings. We are clear that we need to drive demand in the USA to return to growth in FY26 onwards and are executing a detailed plan to achieve this, with refocused and increased USA marketing investment in the year ahead.
“We are also announcing a cost action plan across the group, targeting savings of £20m to £25m. I am confident that the actions we are taking as we enter this year of transition will put us in good shape for the years ahead.”
