Operator : Good evening. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler First Half 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Group Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, madam.
Elena Mariani : Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining our call tonight on Moncler Group's First Half 2026 Financial Results. Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on group's current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ even materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the group to control or estimate. Let me also highlight that given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore, cannot be taken as a proxy for full year trends or results. Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference in a listen-only mode. Before starting our H1 review, I would like to hand over to Leo Rongone, our new Group Chief Executive Officer. As you all know, Leo joined the company just 3 months ago, and he would like to share some first observations and thoughts after his first few weeks into the company. Leo, over to you.
Bartolomeo Rongone : Thank you, Elena. Good evening, everyone. It's a real honor and a great privilege to speak to you today for the first time as the CEO of the Moncler Group. Before handing over to the team for the Q2 results and the Q&A session, I'd like to share a few reflections on my first 3 months within the company, an important time for me of listening, learning and meeting so many talented individuals across the organization from headquarters to our regional offices, from our stores to our production. These initial months have been critical to gain a deep understanding of the group, to shape my perspective and to identify where we can continue to evolve and where we will focus our energy from now on. You know, I have admired Moncler from the outside for many years, has always had great respect for what Remo Ruffini and his team have built over the years. Now experiencing the company from the inside, my admiration has increased even more. What I found since joining the group is truly remarkable. An organization that perfectly combines outstanding creativity with strong operational discipline. You all know this is a rare balance and to me, one of the key reasons behind the enduring success of this group. I've also been impressed by the uncompromising commitment to product excellence, quality, meticulous attention to detail and the constant drive for improvement are not simply processes here. They are deeply rooted in the culture of the company. There is something else, the way we tell our stories. In an industry that is becoming even more crowded and noisy, our communication is authentic and engaging. We are able to make our voice heard to build genuine and lasting connections with our communities. This unique capability is a real competitive advantage. Most importantly, however, is the people who have really inspired me. Across every function and every region, I have found a strong sense of ownership, a deep commitment to excellence and a true passion. I've also met a solid leadership team that has built 2 of the most iconic and desirable luxury brands. This is an asset I deeply value and I'm fully committed to preserving and strengthening. Looking ahead, I see exciting opportunities for the group. As far as Moncler is concerned, our strategic priorities are clear: building relevance in regions where we have great potential, cultivating a dialogue with our customers across all seasons and unlocking the full potential of our 3 brand dimensions you're already familiar with, Collection, Grenoble and Genius. The focus now is on a further step-up in execution and making sure each of these priorities translates into tangible and consistent results over time. To do so, we will explore new ways of pushing creative and technical boundaries. Innovation in materials, for example, will be key to embody the true value of the mountain throughout the entire year beyond the single season and to elevate our product experience, the mountains encourage well-being, intentional living and a deep human connection, something we -- deeply rooted in our values and identity. Moreover, there is a significant potential to further extend the brand legitimacy beyond the core outerwear category, always respecting our brand DNA. Talking about Stone Island, I have found a brand with an exceptionally strong identity, a unique culture of innovation and one of the most authentic and engaged communities in the luxury sector. The foundations that have been built over these past years are very solid, and the progress we are seeing today reflects disciplined execution of a clear long-term strategy. Looking at the future, we will continue to focus on product research, strengthen the quality of our global distribution and invest in consistent culturally relevant brand communication. By doing so, we'll deepen our relationship with our loyal community while introducing Stone Island to a new generation of clients around the world. For both brands, the way we engage with our clients represent a clear opportunity. Over the years, we have built a strong platform and a powerful ability to reach and inspire wide audiences. Now we want to translate this strength into even more direct, more frequent and more personal interaction with our VICs, building stronger relationship with them over time. To conclude, these first months have only reinforced my belief that many more remarkable chapters of this group story have yet to be written, and I'm deeply honored to help driving them alongside Remo. His visionary leadership has been the driving force behind the Moncler extraordinary journey so far. Together with him and the entire top management team, we will keep working with a long-term perspective, committed to helping this group reach its full potential, always guided by the health and desirability of our brands. I'm very excited by the journey ahead, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person over the coming quarters when there will be the opportunity to share more on my perspective. But tonight, we are here to talk about our Q2 results. So now let me hand over to Elena, Gino and Luciano for the H1 review and the Q&A session. Thank you.
Elena Mariani : Thank you very much, Leo. For our audience, I mean, of course, there will be the opportunity to meet and get to know Leo in the coming quarters and to have proper discussions with him. But tonight, we are here to talk about our Q2 results. So I will now move on to host our H1 results presentation and Q&A session, of course, together with Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer; and Gino Fisanotti, Moncler, Chief Brand Officer. Before handing it over to Gino and Luciano, let me just present the key highlights of today's results on Page 4. Group revenues in the first half of the year were EUR 1.29 billion, up 9% at constant FX. In the second quarter, group revenues were up 5% at constant FX. The Moncler brand accounting for 84% of the group's H1 turnover was up 9% in H1 and 3% in Q2. The Stone Island brand accounting for 16% of the group's H1 turnover was up 11%, both in H1 and in Q2. In the first half of the year, the group also reached an EBIT of EUR 254 million (sic) [ EUR 245.4 million ] with a margin of 19%. Net result was EUR 165 million with a 12.8% margin, and our net cash position at the end of June exceeded EUR 1.1 billion. Let me now hand it over to Gino for the key highlights of the Moncler brand in the second quarter. Gino, over to you.
Gino Fisanotti : Okay. Thanks, Leo, Elena, [Foreign Language] and good afternoon or night to everyone connected. Before we go into the details of the presentation with Luciano, I just wanted to take a second to share a bit of the strength we're seeing within the brand in the very first 6 months of the year. I think we've seen very robust results, not only in terms of the execution and the quality of the work that we were able with the teams to put out there, but equally robust in terms of the global reach and impact, the community engagement we saw and more importantly, the organic brand interest in Moncler brand. In this case, I think the first 6 months were led by some very special and some first-ever executions for the Moncler brand. I have to say that the 3 driven forces of the last 6 years have been, of course, Aspen with the show of Grenoble, but then our return into the Winter Olympics that was a very special moment for the brand with the whole story. And then last but not least, something that we start covering now in detail, our first formal Spring/Summer end-to-end work. So if we go to the next slide that I think is Slide #5, we can start talking about our official first end-to-end work against Spring/Summer. I think when I say end-to-end, and this is something we use a lot internally. It's about meaning that we make sure that we connect all the different consumer touch points under one single effort and narrative from product to retail, from marketing to digital platforms, from wholesale to e-commerce and even from paid media to traditional media and so on. So this is the first time we officially went into a Spring/Summer like this, and I know this is a conversation we have for many seasons with all of you. And hopefully, you were able to see what was done in the last few weeks. This Spring/Summer campaign, to be honest, meant way more than just a seasonal effort for us. This represents the kickoff of a long-term commitment that we have as a brand. And we strongly believe that this kickoff means for us the opportunity to become relevant and meaningful across the entire year. Then of course, this campaign was called Have A Puffy Summer. But for us, Have A Puffy Summer means Summer, the Moncler Way. We believe that we -- with this campaign, we're able to create a unique opportunity for the brand to tackle this very interesting transition that happened between the spring to summer through a solution that we believe is a system of dress, which are fully expressed through the power of layering that we showcased in the campaign and of course, through the retail experience. This was an effort to push a different tone for the brand while remaining authentic to who we are despite our strong heritage and, of course, DNA into winter. From very impactful executions across media, pop-ups in Europe or Asia, all the way down to countless press coverage, editorials and digital and retail execution, this was just our very first season and efforts that we will keep building on the back of this very, very important first step. To be honest and to share with you, and I'm sure we'll go into details later in the Q&A, we are happy to see the level of results we were able to achieve during this period. We're able to experience not only a strong global reach at a global scale, but more importantly, great results in terms of the consumer and community engagement on top of the performance of the collection itself. Last but not least, we're equally excited about the learnings we were able to capture this season to keep building even stronger plans and execution towards next spring season and the ones to come. So with that, I'm happy to go probably into the next slide that has other highlights for Q2. First of all, on the back of the special season and we discussed about Spring/Summer for Moncler, of course, we did our first efforts as well in Spring/Summer around Grenoble. And if you think about Grenoble, I always think we discussed about this, the reset of this very important brand dimension to start few years ago. And even our first Spring/Summer product started very shy, less than 3 years ago. So to be honest, I think we are very excited to see the acceptance and the global acceptance that this collection is having, the performance that this dimension of the brand is having and of course, the opportunity for us to keep reaching and inviting new and more customers into the brand. Then following into the next part of the last few weeks, of course, we just launched our Pre-Fall '26 for Moncler Collection. And we introduced this collection obsessing what we call the language of detail behind this collection, and this is the great attention we pay not only to the layering and the solutions that we are going, again, in this case, from the transition from summer into fall. Last but not least, a few weeks ago, we hosted at Moncler Global headquarters, a new season of Studio Ascenti. For those who doesn't remember what it is, Studio Ascenti is our annual platform where we present the coming footwear collection to media editors, celebrities and people from the sneaker culture and beyond. I have to say that despite, I think I repeat myself that we don't want to become a footwear-led company. I think we're happy with the calculated efforts regarding the -- this category. We are really happy with the progress we are making in terms of this dimension of footwear this season, introducing new styles like the Citytrek, sorry, and especially new products and collaborations that create some press coverage before launch like the Clarks Trailgrip or some of the fragment collaborations that are about to come on top of new innovations like the Trailgrip Ultra, a new concept that will be launched in 2027. Sorry, one more thing. I forgot one more. I said last but not least. But one final thing for me to share with you all is I want to take the opportunity to thank, of course, the entire Moncler family for the efforts made, but we are extremely proud to share with you that Moncler was able to win the very first Grand Prix award at Cannes Festival, same for other recognitions like a Gold Clio Awards and a Graphite Pencil Awards as a great testament to the work done behind Warmer Together campaign that we launched a few months ago featuring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Clearly, we're not just happy because of the awards or the recognition itself. But as we mentioned many times to each of you in the past, we strongly believe that we as a brand in the power of storytelling and by sharing our values and DNA in a way that can create emotional connection and long-lasting relationships with our customers out there, something that I think Leo just mentioned a second ago. I think when we get the news and we learn about this, I think Remo Ruffini said that advertising come and go, but emotional connections and creativity remains forever, and we strongly believe that, that's the opportunity to keep doing season after season. So that's all from my side. Of course, we'll talk later. I will pass it to Luciano to go into the next part of the presentation. Thank you.
Luciano Santel : Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Gino, and good afternoon and good morning, everybody, and thank you for attending our call today. We are now at the Page 6, where let me spend a few words -- Page 7, sorry, where we report some highlights of Stone Island marketing initiatives. One is the NO SEASONS project that was represented during the Milan Design Week, featuring an iconic outerwear item designed in the early '80s in 6 of the most iconic fabrics of Stone Island, all of them in the same piombo tone. Second activity is about the capsule collaboration with New Balance, revisiting the world of football and featuring few professional football players, Endrick playing with Brazil and Bukayo Saka playing for England. Last, still very important project represented at the end of June that is called Community as a Form of Research and featuring the world champion table tennis player, Xu Xin wearing a pinnacle item of the Fall/Winter collection. Okay. Let's move now to Page 8, where we report our results for Moncler brand revenues by geography. In the second quarter, Moncler brand grew 3% positive and grew a good growth rate, not good as much as in the first quarter, but still something we are happy with a very strong contribution of Asian market, plus 12%, good contribution of Americas, 4% and a weaker, softer Europe, EMEA region down 8%, mostly due to softer tourism flows, particularly from Asia, but also from Americas and also still weak, very weak online performance. Americas, the plus 4% we present is a weighted average of a percent in the direct channel that is higher, slightly higher than the 4%. And this is something important to highlight because, of course, that channel is very important for us. Let's move now to next page, Page 9, where we report the same revenues of Moncler brand by channel. Both channels grew 3% in the quarter with comp store sales in the first half of the year of 7%. Again, the -- both channels and mostly the DTC channel was affected mostly in Europe by the weaker tourism. Wholesale, good. I mean, it was positive first quarter, still positive in the second quarter, better than what we originally expected, also thanks to the good orders coming from the wholesale market, which represent evidence a good sellout of our wholesale network. Okay. Let's go now to Page 10, where we report Stone Island revenues by geography. Stone Island, as Elena just said, for the fourth quarter in a row reports double-digit growth rate of 11%. Good growth in all the different regions, particularly strong in Asia, very, very strong in Americas, of course, on a smaller base, but still very, very encouraging for our project in the future and a weak but still positive growth in Europe. Asia, of course, includes APAC and China, very good. And Japan and Korea, both very, very, very strong. You may remember that Korea until last year was not particularly good. But now, I mean, also in the first quarter is doing very well and of course, much better than in the past. Okay. Let's move now to Page 11, still revenues, Stone Island revenues by channel. Again, behind the average growth rate of 11%, a very nice remarkable and encouraging 15% in the DTC channel that, of course, is particularly important and encouraging for the management team and a good solid 6% in the wholesale channel. Next page, Page 12, we report our retail network for both brands. We opened 3 stores in the quarter for Moncler, one in Monterrey, one in Vancouver, Oakridge and the third one in the airport of Osaka Kansai Airport. Okay. Let's move now to Page 13, where we report as usual our profit and loss for the first half of the year. Elena anticipated some important numbers. Of course, the top line, we already gave you some comments, a total of EUR 1.290 billion. We were slightly below EUR 1 billion in gross profit, EUR 995 million with 77.2% better than last year, slightly better due to a positive channel mix. A very good contribution of selling expenses below last year and a good contribution of G&A that have been affected by a one-off EUR 8 million related to the new governance structure and EUR 8 million in the first half of the year that will be at the end of the year less or slightly less EUR 10 million. So most of this one-off has been reported in the first half of the year. Marketing expenses in line with last year, 9.5% with our usual expectation, we didn't change of 7% contribution of our marketing budget for the year end. At the end, an operating margin of 19%, better than 18.3% we reported last year. Just a comment on net financial expenses that are higher than last year due to higher interest expenses on lease liabilities. At the end, group net result, 12.8%, slightly better than last year. Okay. Okay. Let's move now to Page 14, where we report net CapEx EUR 89 million with the distribution between the infrastructure and the distribution in line with last year, slightly higher in percent of revenues, but still with -- I mean, with an expectation for this year to go back to the 6% incidence by the year-end. To go back because last year, due to some important investments we made last year, the incidence was closer to 7%, as you see 6.9%. So many projects on the distribution side, including the upcoming new opening of our store in New York Fifth Avenue, but also many projects on our infrastructure. Okay. Let's move now to Page 15, where we report net working capital at 10% higher than last year due to a higher inventory level due to strategic decision in investing in some strategic raw materials, particularly in down for several different reasons. But everything under strict control, nothing to highlight. And still with a plan for the year-end to go back to a percent, substantially in line with what we reported last year that was 9.7%. Net financial position at Page 16. Okay. EUR 1.112 billion at the end of June as compared to the EUR 981 million last year, end of June last year. Just a comment about our lease liabilities that are equal to EUR 1.199 billion as compared with EUR 1.109 billion last year. Okay. Let's go quickly to Page 18, where we report the cash flow statement. I don't make comments on balance sheet. But of course, please if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Cash flow statement, the free cash flow very good, much better than last year, EUR 34 million versus EUR 15 million last year, mostly due to the better operating margin, better EBIT than last year. Important to highlight that the net cash flow was negative, but after the payment of EUR 374 million of dividends. Okay. So we are done with the presentation now. Thank you for your attention and ready to answer your questions.
Elena Mariani : Yes. We will now hand it over to the operator for your questions. Operator, you can now open the Q&A line. Thank you.
Operator : First question is from Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.
Natasha Banoori : The first one would be, could you please give us some color on the performances by cluster for the Moncler brand, but also in terms of volume price mix because I believe pricing was low single digit in Q2. And then the second one, did you see any difference in trends throughout the quarter per month? And anything you can give us on current trends you've seen so far? What's the mood like in Q3 for these first 2 weeks?
Luciano Santel : Thank you for your question. About the cluster, cluster, of course, nationalities, I can tell you that Chinese and Americas were positive, Koreans and Japanese flattish and Europe of course, negative, single-digit negative. About the contribution of price volumes in the second quarter pricing was predominant. Volumes were flattish, slightly negative in the second quarter. In the first quarter, as you may remember, they were positive, but second quarter, we reported slightly negative volumes. Something about the quarter. Okay. The quarter has been good, not great, but good, very good in the first few months of the quarter. Honestly, April and May were both a very good months of the quarter. June softer, much softer due to an evident and clear decline in traffic in all the different regions. Something we observed in June was behavior of customers of people that is more and more a buy now, wear now. I mean, this is something different from the past that we started seeing a couple of years ago last year and this year, even higher than last year. That, of course, implies a little bit delay in the purchasing of the Fall/Winter season. On the other hand, the good news not visible in the results, but strategically very good for us for the management team is that in all the 3 months of the quarter equally April, May, but also June, the Spring/Summer collection performed well, performed very well. Of course, the very good performance of the Spring/Summer collection in June was not enough to offset the decline in the Fall/Winter collection. But again, it is still a very good and encouraging sign because, as you know, as Gino said, I mean, the effort and the investment we made for this collection was only the first but a very important step of a long journey project that, of course, we see Moncler more intention, even more intentional next year. Something I said during the presentation that, of course, impacted the slowdown in traffic mostly in June was the evident significant decline in tourism. That, of course, impacted Europe, EMEA more than the other region. But of course, this is an explanation not only of the softer results in EMEA, but also of the softer results overall. And this is something we saw again mostly in June. Remember that our business historically with the tourist was still -- is very important in second quarter, mostly in third quarter, much less in Q4 and Q1. But this year, even more than last year, we face a decline in tourism coming from Asia and from America to Europe.
Operator : Next question is from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.
Anne-Laure Jamain : My first question is on the split between space and like-for-like in Q2. Would it be possible to have an indication of what was the space contribution in Q2? And how should we think about it in the second half of the year and for the full year? And then my second question is about the U.S. So we have seen strong performance across the few companies that have already reported for Moncler, it's a slight sequential slowdown. Is it only linked to the normal seasonality of the business and all the campaign was received -- the Spring/Summer campaign was received in the U.S. And maybe a last one still about the U.S. So when you have the big flagship opening in New York in September and given we haven't had any Genius events since October 2024, should we expect Genius format event linked to that opening or any different concept that you will deploy around that opening?
Luciano Santel : Okay, thank you for your question. First question, I mean, of course, you know that we don't report this information by quarter, not because, I mean, we have something to hide, but because the space contribution in one quarter is honestly not particularly meaningful. I can tell you that for the year-end, we plan for this year in line with what we said, and I'm sure you remember, in about 4% space contribution. Of course, in the quarter was slightly below, but again, nothing particularly important, honestly. And about the performance in America. Again, I wanted to highlight that the 4% we report, of course, is the weighted average between wholesale and DTC. Why is that? Needless to say, wholesale is driven by our deliveries plan. Of course, in America, there is -- I mean, our wholesale business is with the department stores with what was Saks Global, and now is out of the Chapter 11. But I mean, long story short, of course, we delivered less than what we could deliver. But what is very important to highlight is that the DTC business was higher than that 4%. So overall, I don't know. I mean I do know, but I mean, it's meaningless to compare Moncler with other brands that, for sure, have become more relevant in that region than what Moncler is now. But in any event, I can tell you that our growth rate in the North America and in the U.S. specifically is something we are happy with and encouraging to keep investing in that country.
Gino Fisanotti : Anne-Laure, adding to what Luciano said. I think we discussed this probably in the last few calls as well about the journey the brand is into the U.S., right? So I think we can even correlate this to probably the last 2 calls we have. I think Luciano said we are happy with the results we have. That said, I think it's important to keep reminding ourselves that this journey in terms of the level of maturity and awareness that we have in the U.S. is very different from what we have in Europe and in Asia. Therefore, we keep seeing this as the opportunity and the challenge in terms of the execution, I will say, you mentioned something about -- specifically about Spring/Summer or the campaign. I think I will reinforce what Luciano said. We are happy. I think things work well. For us. Of course, sometimes we expect more to go to -- into that potential. I think as we discussed at the beginning of the year, we just come at the first 3 months of the year with the execution we did in Aspen, the opening of the new Grenoble store. And of course, we're going into September when we'll open Fifth Avenue and Moncler biggest store in the world. Of course, the expectation here is, again, building blocks towards that opportunity to unlock that market. Again, we don't believe in today's world that there's a silver bullet that will unlock everything in one go. I think what we are doing right now is, of course, working heavily in terms of leveraging the opening of this store in the context of something that is an offense altogether for the U.S. across all the different touch points. So in a nutshell, I think I could understand more or less some comments about is this a type of Genius or something. Again, we will open the store, as I mentioned before, in September. We are working through that for a few months now. We are excited about what to come. But personally, I would say on behalf of the team, we're equally excited about the journey we're embarking into and something we started on the back of last year, and beginning of this year. And of course, results are positive. We expect more. We all want more, but we have to do the work and build a stronger foundation, and this will come as a consequence season-after-season.
Operator : Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi. Next question is from Luca Solca, Bernstein.
Luca Solca : Maybe a stupid question, but you do have a global retail network. And I would like you to maybe help me understand how is it that tourists not coming to Europe cause you a dent in revenue growth? How come that these tourists cannot be recaptured elsewhere in Asia or in America? Is it because maybe they exploit the big geographic price differences and so that you continue to have a significant price gap between Europe and Asia, I wonder. My second question, given that we have the pleasure of having Leo on the call, I was wondering if Leo after 3 months, on top of appreciating the great strengths that the Moncler Group has, if you identified any specific areas where you could potentially bring your experience and improve how the company performs and which would be these areas?
Luciano Santel : Luca, your first question is very good and right question. Actually, I may have been not precise. But my comment about tourism flow was mainly related to Europe to explain the soft performance of Europe that's unfortunately something we have been facing for a while because also previous quarters were not particularly good for Europe. But you are right, I think that people that did not come to Europe purchased in their local markets. But I think that this is also the reason why Asia was so good because plus 12%. Honestly, I believe it is quite remarkable. It's not the over 20% of the first quarter, but I think that nobody expected to replicate that, let me say, unusual number due to the Chinese New Year, whatever. So 12%, mostly driven again by China, Korea and to a lower extent, but still positive single-digit by Japan. And the same for the U.S. So again, you are right, I mean, in part because, of course, it's difficult to provide a scientific answer, but I think you are right.
Elena Mariani : And on the -- yes, on the second question, I mean, of course, Leo will share some thoughts. Clearly, there will be then -- look at dedicated opportunities in the coming quarters to meet him and discuss all these broader topics with the time and attention that they deserve. So here tonight, we will focus on Q2. But Leo, over to you for some thoughts.
Bartolomeo Rongone : Yes, of course, I can share a bit of color, and thank you for the question, Luca. So as was mentioned before, together with extraordinary abilities that are very clear in this group, I've also noticed a few opportunities we're going to develop. So based on your question, I'm going to stick to your curiosity, let's say, on the clients. And I would say that for sure, Moncler clients, let's say, frequently rank among top spenders in other brands in the luxury industry. And we have demonstrated in the past years to be able to talk to large audiences, wide audiences. So a clear opportunity that I see and for sure, would be a key focus starting for both brands on this is that we can translate this ability into something which is more curated, let's say, allowing this strength into more direct, more frequent personal interactions with our VICs. I'm sure that this dedication to key clients will further nurture our business globally, especially in those countries we have -- where we see today high potential to express our business.
Operator : Next question is from Daria Nasledysheva, Bank of America.
Daria Nasledysheva : This is Daria from Bank of America. I have 2. First one would be on profitability with 19% EBIT margin in 1H and actually 60 basis points higher, excluding the one-off. Could you please share any comment on margin outlook for the full year, considering the cost control that you have exhibited? Consensus currently models just 10 basis points improvement on the year. And my second one, sorry for this question, but can I please quickly follow-up on the current trading? You have very helpfully answered on the shape of the quarter. Should we assume June trends continuing into July? Or has there been any sort of inflection since?
Luciano Santel : Thank you, Daria, for your question about the profitability. I'm sorry, but our usual answer is that we don't know, but simply because operating profitability is totally -- mostly dependent and driven by the top line, which is difficult to predict. Of course, first half of the year, profitability was good for 2 main reasons. One is what you said because, I mean, our attention to cost control is quite high. And we tend and we all work to become more and more efficient in everything we do. But the other important point is that the top line in the second quarter was fairly good, but it was much better and very good in the first quarter that also is much more relevant than the second quarter. So this is what made profitability, operating profitability very good that as you pointed out, taking out the one-off would have been significantly higher than last year. What may be for the year-end is difficult to say. Of course, as you know, we have not a target, but an ambition, a goal to protect our profitability that over the past years has been in the region of 29%, 29-plus percent. And this is still our ambition. But honestly, difficult to predict now what may be. It will totally depend again on the top line in the second half of the year that, of course, needless to tell you is the most important half of the year. About the current trading, I mean, nothing to highlight more than what I said. June was softer than the first 2 months of the quarter. July, I mean, we have only 2 weeks behind us. I mean, beginning was in line with June and then a little bit better. But please don't make me comment business results of yesterday or the current trend of today because it will be totally, totally meaningless. Again, from the qualitative point of view, we see, and let me say again, there are 2 factors. One is negative for the result of this period of the year. It is the buy, wear now approach behavior of people of customers. But the other that is very positive because strategically it is extremely important for the brand and for the future and for our project is the very good performance in April, May, June, and also for what it's worth, the first 2 weeks of July of our Spring/Summer collection. So this is something that -- sorry to say it again, but it is something we are very happy with, okay?
Operator : Next question is from Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.
Oriana Cardani : The first one concerns the share of new customers within the overall customer base. What percentage of the total did new customer represent for Moncler and Stone Island in the first half of the year? Should the strong momentum for Stone Island be attributed to the acquisition of new customers or to an increase in the value of existing customers? And the second question is on space contribution and price effect. Could you already provide some guidance regarding these 2 drivers for 2027 in particular, what are your expectations regarding the price increases for next year?
Elena Mariani : Oriana, on your first question about customers, I didn't get it if you were asking specifically about Stone Island or both brands. Maybe I can just give you some color on Moncler. I think this is a figure that we provide typically on a yearly basis. We don't give Q1, H1. But what we have been seeing over the past few years, and it's been pretty stable, is that about 50% of our revenues are coming from new customers. About 50% of our revenues is coming from existing customers that are already loyal to the brand. From the point of view of numbers, we are slightly more skewed towards new customers. It's about 60-40, 60% new, 40% existing. Of course, this means that the loyal customers, the existing ones are spending a little bit more. But the share of revenues is equally split. And Gino, maybe you want to add...
Gino Fisanotti : No, I think, Oriana, the only color commentary there is beyond the factual data that Elena shared with you, of course, the opportunity regarding new customers around Spring/Summer is a real opportunity. I think as we were mentioning before, this is something that, as a reminder, this Spring/Summer was executed deeply in a few doors of our entire network. We will keep increasing this. This is driving a new interest and the new customers into the brand. So Spring/Summer, again, if you were referring to this Q2, we have good reception from existing clients. But of course, it's allowing us to start capturing new demand and new clients into the brand and even some specifics that hopefully we'll start sharing later about gender behavior, et cetera, regarding the product proposition we have around Spring/Summer.
Elena Mariani : And on Stone Island, I mean, as you can see from our numbers, it's a very nice balance between capturing new customers and also keep cultivating our loyal familia. I think that for Stone Island, this is very consistent with the strategy that we have. So keep a very strong connection with our loyal audience, but also adding new and recruiting new customers into the brand. And on this, I mean, results, as you know, are very organic. All the retail KPIs on Stone Island are positive, very encouragingly. It's a very high-quality growth coming from just the underlying development of the brand. As you know, there is no space. And so we are seeing both type of customers buying into the brand.
Luciano Santel : And Oriana, about your question about space and pricing, I understand that you are talking about Moncler. Moncler for 2027, honestly, it's quite premature and early to give you a precise number. I can tell you as a rough indication that we expect space to be still in the region of 4%. And the pricing based on the current production cost increase and the current level of currencies, of course, should remain low to mid-single digit. Of course, any more precise indication will be provided in the next future when we have a better understanding of what may happen next year.
Operator : Next question is from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.
Melania Grippo : This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. Congratulations to Mr. Rongone on your appointment. So my first question is on online. I understand this is -- performing is a bit weak, and I remember it was also the case in Q1. I mean anything -- is there anything specific happening to this channel? Is there anything that you can say around it? And my other question is on the Spring/Summer collection. I actually had the opportunity to visit some of your stores in the past week. And it seems to me that, yes, there were not too many products that you could wear -- that would be worn immediately. So I was wondering whether you intend to change the cadence of the deliveries to give more floor space to Spring/Summer products.
Gino Fisanotti : Melania, thank you for the question. I think on the first on online, just I think Luciano mentioned a bit this before. But I think the reality of the picture of online, I will almost tell it in 2 halves. I think we have a weaker performance in Europe from the beginning of the year. So this is something we saw in Q1 and Q2, while the other part of -- or the other regions have been performing in pair or even in some cases, better than physical retail. So I think this is a bit of the context. I think we have a good performance in the U.S., in the Americas, solid performance in all the different Asian markets. I think in Europe, specifically, we are seeing a bit of a softer demand and a bit of a softer traffic, while the other regions is exactly the opposite. So right now, as you can imagine, we're working through those details. We -- we understand that there's opportunity for us to do better in certain markets within Europe. But again, I will say the overall picture is almost 2 halves. It's Europe and the rest of the world with very disparate performances between Europe and the rest. Regarding Spring/Summer, I think it's a great question. And I think I want to go back to a few comments we make at the beginning. This Spring/Summer for us was, as I mentioned before, the first ever, right, effort. And I think the other important reminder is when we execute this initiative, we literally use a small percentage of our retail network to fully deploy the collection and everything we have done around summer because we really wanted to learn about this, as I mentioned before, was the very first step. In some cases, we found out that some of the styles and the new products were performing quickly pretty well, better than we were expecting. And then, of course, I think this is -- as you mentioned before, I think as you were going into June, we're already having Pre-Fall and in some of the stores, they started to have a more fall type of assortment versus a bit more of a Spring/Summer. I think as you mentioned before, this is -- what I mentioned today, we are taking the learnings of this Spring/Summer as we go to next year as well. One of the areas we're focusing more is to make sure that our offering will be not only relevant as we believe we have the product, but even extended to make sure that we can cover the season on entirely and not having a specific push on the very beginning of the season and then run back into old behavior. So again, take it as we said at the beginning, we are happy. At the same time, we are the first one to know that we have tons to do and tons to improve, and this is part of the process.
Operator : Next question is from Erwan Rambourg, Goldman Sachs.
Erwan Rambourg : Welcome to Leo Rongone, and thanks for your enthusiasm. So 2 questions on my side. First, given the magnitude of the New York opening and potential events around, maybe Luciano, can you mention what influence it has? Will it be visible on the cost base? And do you have any other major openings that are planned in H2 that could weigh on the cost base? And then secondly, can you talk maybe about Korea, South Korea, how relevant it is in terms of Asia growth given the wealth creation we've seen recently? What is the weight of Korea? Is it relevant? Is it a real standout? Or is the growth in Asia really broad-based?
Luciano Santel : Thank you for your question. Starting from Korea. Korea represents about 10% of our business overall. It is still growing very nicely. Remember that Korea has been very strong for Moncler since many, many years ago. And even during COVID, Korea was the only region that was growing and kept growing in 2020, 2021. And so again, last year, there was some kind of slowdown in Korea. But this year, is still growing with very, very high sales density. But again, I'm saying that because we keep growing, but of course, we start -- we have a base of comparison that is quite important. About New York Fifth Avenue cost impact, let me see if I understand the question because, of course, there will be an important cost impact associated with the cost of the store, with the rent, and with the cost of people that will operate that store. We don't disclose the cost, but let me say again that for sure, it is an important cost. Of course, what we expect from that store is to perform very well. This may not be 100% the case in the first 3 months after opening of 2026. But of course, we have great expectations for that store in the next years. But please tell me if I understood correctly your question.
Erwan Rambourg : No, I was wondering if it had an impact in terms of the weight of H1 versus H2 in terms of your cost base relative to a normal year. I was also wondering if you had other big projects that were lined up for H2 outside of this New York opening.
Luciano Santel : Yes. So there are other projects, but for sure, this is the most important one -- of course, all the expenses associated with New York as well as all the stores, are reported in selling expenses. And so again, it will depend how much will be the top line and as a result, how much will be the productivity of the store. There might be some dilution, maybe, but I don't know, honestly, but nothing I need to highlight right now because I don't know. Also, again, I expect the first weeks after opening to be good, I hope. But for sure, not as much as we expect the store to perform after 1 year, after 2 years, okay?
Operator : Next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler.
Charles-Louis Scotti : I have 2. The first one on Stone Island, which delivered a very strong performance in the first half. Could you please elaborate on what explains the relative underperformance in EMEA? I would assume the brand is less exposed to tourist flows than Moncler. And also now that the wholesale to retail transition has largely been completed and the brand momentum appears particularly strong. Does this give you greater confidence to accelerate store openings in line with the ambitions you initially outlined at your Capital Market Day a few years ago? Secondly, on licensing, if I'm not mistaken, your fragrance licensing agreement with Interparfums expires in December this year. There is apparently an option to extend it for another 5 years. Has the decision already been made regarding the renewal? And more broadly, would you consider entering into a long-term licensing agreement with a bigger player such as L'Oréal, for example, and adopting maybe a less selective distribution strategy in order to build a much larger beauty business as many of your peers have done?
Luciano Santel : Charles, thank you for your question. About Stone Island, Stone Island performance was very good. To your point, in Europe, less than in other regions, for sure. But I mean Europe is for sure at this time, we discussed a lot about Moncler, but I think for all the brands, Europe right now is not particularly strong region. There is a slowdown in demand. And this is what makes the growth rate of Stone Island but not strong, not as much as in other regions. Also in the region, in Europe, there is a very important relevant wholesale business that is under review -- under, let me say, scrutiny because we keep selecting that channel. We keep selecting the best wholesale doors. And of course, this implies a negative impact in terms of wholesale doors. But I mean, overall, the organic growth even in Europe is good, is very good. Talking about the future and how much the current momentum may imply, let me say, a distribution growth over the next years. I believe that, I mean, for the time being, to the best of our knowledge, we don't have very important plans of new openings for 2027. And so our approach, our strategic approach will still be to make our channel -- that channel to grow organically. But of course, maybe next year, during next year and hopefully the year after, we may start to open, still on a selective basis some additional stores. But we want first to make sure that the brand achieves a relevant top line and significant sales density. Other question?
Gino Fisanotti : Yes. Charles, thank you for your question. I think shortly, I think, yes, it's true, our license expired regarding fragrances. I think we decided together to put a pause for a second and decide our next step. And I think this is the process we are in right now in full transparency. And I think for us, as a brand always is, in this case, is being extremely selective in terms of the strategy we have and try to make sure that we have a relevant proposition at the highest level in the market. So more to come, but thank you for the question. We're in the process of reevaluating the best next step forward. Thank you.
Operator : Next question is from Carole Madjo, Barclays.
Carole Madjo : A couple of questions from me as well, please. The first one on Spring/Summer. Can you come back on how much of your offering in store in Q2 was Spring/Summer compared to being your classic Fall/Winter offering? And how should we think about the split evolving in the year to come? Second question, similar question still on the Spring/Summer. Any comment on the economics of the Spring/Summer versus Fall/Winter in terms of basket size, sales density? Anything to keep in mind here around that? And last quick question. To come back on your comment on see now, buy now. What do you think is the reason behind this trend? Have you seen it across all the key markets? Or is it maybe a bit more influenced in Europe where there was really hot weather in June. So any comment around this see now, buy now trend and how long do you think it can last going forward could be interesting.
Luciano Santel : Okay. Thank you for your question. The first one about Spring/Summer impact in terms of product in second quarter. For sure, April, very important, May, very important. In June, we start to deliver to our stores the Pre-Fall or I mean, the first delivery of the full winter season. So overall, Spring/Summer is predominant in the second quarter. But in June, as I said before, Fall/Winter season is important too. About economics, I mean, some of your questions are something that we don't look at, honestly. I mean I can tell you that Spring/Summer collection did very well in terms of conversion rate because this is something that we monitor and we look at specifically for Spring/Summer also in terms of basket, in terms of UPT. But in terms of sales density, honestly, it's quite premature to give you numbers also because, again, this was this year the very first, let me say, intentional investment that we made in -- for this season. About -- I mean, you said see now, buy now. Actually, what I said is slightly different is buy now, wear now. I mean, see now, buy now is the behavior we saw in the past, honestly, when some people coming to the store wanted to buy prematurely a product of Fall/Winter season because they saw them, they like them and they bought them even though they knew that they could wear them in September, October, November. What I said is buy now, wear now. So they may see the collection, but they prefer to buy the collection in season. And so they buy now what they can wear now. And so product that for sure is lighter, again, Spring/Summer product, and this is one component of the good result of Spring/Summer, and of course, a Fall/Winter product too, but to a lower extent as compared to the past.
Carole Madjo : Yes. Sorry, I meant just what you said buy now, wear now. And do you see this trend across all the key markets or just in some particular region?
Luciano Santel : Yes. This is the trend that we saw in all the markets. Honestly, this is across the markets. Of course, in some markets, less than others, and this is demonstrated by the results. I mean, in Asia, we do see this approach, this behavior. But of course, the results are very good and much better than in other regions. Of course, in Europe, this together with, as I said before, the tourism, the decline in tourism made the number of Europe negative. But the buy now, wear now behavior is something we see across the different regions.
Operator : Next question is from Chris Gao, CLSA.
Chris Gao : I have 2. So my first question is also about the buy now, wear now behavior. So just wondering if the consumer behavior will continue. Does it mean that more demand of your Fall/Winter products will shift from June to the second half of the year, maybe in the winter? And if that will be the case for your store level plans, events, what could be your plan ahead of your peak season to better drive the sales? And also, would you do something in terms of your supply to make sure when people come to buy now, wear now during the peak season, you have enough of the inventory to supply so that you won't see the shortage of supply? This is the first question. My second question is regarding Stone Island. We have been seeing a very strong DTC growth here. So could you help us break down a little bit about the contribution of volume, mix, pricing at the back of the strong DTC growth? And also, how should we look at the midterm EBIT margin trajectory? How will it contribute to the group EBIT margin elevation?
Gino Fisanotti : Chris, I will take the first one. Good to hear your voice. I think, again, a few things. I don't think we need to overdo what we are discussing about buy now, we now, of course, we are obsessed about trying to understand customer behavior, right? And that's what we do every single day and try to understand what's going on. And I think as Luciano said, we see a bit of this starting last year and this year. This doesn't mean for us a radical change in the way we do business, right? I think, of course, we still have customers who come to us and buy when we launch Pre-Fall and we launch Fall/Winter later in September, et cetera, et cetera. Of course, opportunity for us, as we discussed already, is to extend our offering as we go into Spring/Summer, have that opportunity to understand that Spring/Summer can be even a bit longer than we originally planned. But then, of course, we keep leveraging the core of our business as we have been doing and improving it every time we come. I think what we are trying to do in the context of this conversation is to share a bit of the behavior we're seeing right now. But again, none of those things will radically change today the way we are doing business. But of course, what we do is try to monitor day by day the learnings we can get from customers and see if there's a certain slight delay in terms of weeks, but not a dramatic change there.
Luciano Santel : Chris, about your question on Stone Island, the growth rate, of course, implies a growth in volumes for sure. But also the second component is price mix and not the price itself because we didn't increase the prices significantly, again, about low single-digit. But what was and still is quite important is the price mix impact due to a continuing shift in the categories we sell. You may remember the long story that in the recent past, I mean at the time of the acquisition, business was doing very well, but mostly driven by entry price categories like sweatshirts, like T-shirts, pants. And right now -- I mean, right now, the day after the acquisition, we decided strategically to reinvest in the categories that made the origin, the identity of the brand that are outerwear and knitwear. These categories now are performing very well and the contribution of outerwear is way higher than what it was a few years ago. And this, of course, implies a higher average selling price. Talking about profitability, needless to tell you that growing organically as Stone Island is doing, implies a better operating profitability and a higher opportunity to increase that profitability. Having said that, of course, I mean, it is still a long journey also because, I mean, profitability -- operating profitability, as you know, is driven by the sales density. So sales density for Stone Island is much better than 1 year ago that was better than the year before, but still not at the level we want and we believe that the brand can achieve. But in any event, yes, with such organic growth rate, if this will continue as we hope, profitability will improve.
Operator : Next question is from Jean Danjou, ODDO BHF.
Jean Danjou : I wanted to come back on a point raised by Carole on the mix between Spring/Summer and Pre-Fall, and Fall/Winter during Q2 and Q3. Could you tell us historically how much of the sales in Q2, Q3 were driven by Fall/Winter compared to Spring/Summer? And I suppose this mix must be shifting pretty rapidly.
Luciano Santel : I understand your question. I mean, we don't disclose in details this kind of information, honestly. I can tell you that in Q2, Spring/Summer is extremely important and more important than Fall/Winter. In Q3, Spring/Summer is less important than Fall/Winter simply because we sell Spring/Summer in July, in August, in September, our most relevant sales start to be with Fall/Winter season. So again, this is the pattern of our business. April, May is Spring/Summer, June, we start with the Fall/Winter. July is still a mix of the 2. August, more or less the same, September predominantly Fall/Winter season.
Elena Mariani : And Jean, just as a reminder, I mean, we provide an indication for the full year in terms of sales. Last year, we had about 25% Spring/Summer sales versus 75% for the winter. I mentioned this in the past, but it's worth reminding everyone that actually the share of summer -- Spring/Summer has slightly increased sequentially over the past few years. And the only thing that I would add to what has already been disclosed is that, as you might imagine, particularly in Europe, when you have tourists coming to buy, often not all the time. But of course, if you have Asian customers coming to Europe, sometimes in July, August, given that we have pre-delivered Fall/Winter in the past, perhaps they were anticipating the purchase. And so given that we are proceeding and feeling this lack of tourists in Europe, this has been felt a bit more in this region.
Operator : Next question is from James Grzinic, Jefferies.
James Grzinic : Congratulations also from me to Leo on his appointment. I just have a quick one, particularly given the time. Gino, really on your point that only a small percentage of the retail network carried the full Spring/Summer offer in Q2. Can you perhaps share what proportion exactly of the retail network did have the full assortment? And I'm wondering, are there any constraints on merchandising the full offer really driven by average store size that you're looking to overcome maybe for next year?
Gino Fisanotti : Thank you for the question because you allow me to clarify something. So what I meant is, of course, the collection, the full collection was spread out across the entire network. When I talk about a certain part of the network was the full experience around Spring/Summer. I think if you look about this, this is not a collection that we put on a specific jacket and specific knitwear, specific cut and sewn. This was almost around 2024 looks full of like layering. So what we tried to do was while the collection was spread out everywhere is in this X amount of stores that we have and a percentage of these stores was the full execution. And again, it's where you were able to see the whole layering system where you were able to see the whole collection where having not only windows by each store execution where the whole customer experience was regarding this layering system in the way it was approaching the retail experience. So that's what I meant when we said, for us, it's very important that we are, as always, trying to learn from what we do, knowing that this is entering a different behavior for us as a company and a different behavior that we're asking customers to start looking at ourselves. So that's why for us is while the product was spread out and available in the entire network. For us, it was very important to take the lessons and learn from the stores that we want full execution. And this is something that you will see gradually as we go season after season, not only the product and the offering will get better, but in terms of the experience we'll provide for customers. And I think this is something that when Luca was asking Leo about opportunities there, I think he was mentioning about how we can even elevate our experience at retail, especially in VICs. This is something that we will keep evolving, not only in terms of the network and the amount of doors we have, but even in the experience we will provide around that.
Operator : Next question is from Paola Carboni, Equita SIM.
Paola Carboni : Just 2 follow-ups for me. The first one is about Korea, which was mentioned as one of the main drivers for the DTC performance of Moncler in APAC. But at the same time, the Korean cluster was mentioned as flat. So if you can comment a little bit here about the different behavior of tourists in the country and local customers and the different weight this have in your revenues there and what you expect, or what you see as a future evolution of this region? And a second question is about the initiatives for Q4. You have surprised yourself in the last few years with different events or a very powerful marketing campaign of last year. I was wondering if you can spoil us something -- not in detail, but, at least, let us understand how -- I mean, the magnitude of your efforts we should expect for the core winter season going forward.
Luciano Santel : Yes, Paola, your first question about Korea, you are totally right. Korean cluster is flattish, but Korea market performed very well, which implies that apparently, they didn't travel as much as in the past. Honestly, I don't know why. I can tell you that this is a trend I saw also in some publication, if I remember correctly, Global Blue. But in any event, Korea -- business with Korean in Europe is down as compared -- significantly down as compared to last year. But the business with them in their local market is good. And so at the end, the cluster is more or less stable, but with this peculiarities I told you.
Elena Mariani : The only thing I wanted to add is that, of course, we've captured Asian tourists into Korea. And so the fact that Korea was the strongest market that we've had in Asia is reflecting both good local consumption, but also tourists going into the country. And a lot of the explanation, as you know, comes down to FX.
Paola Carboni : And can you please add...
Gino Fisanotti : Paola, thank you for -- go, go.
Paola Carboni : Sorry. I was wondering if you can add the exposure to local demand in Korea versus inbound tourism.
Luciano Santel : I mean, of course, I'm not providing numbers, Paola, but I can tell you that in Q1, the inbound tourism from China was quite relevant. Second quarter much less. But in any event, the demand in Korea from locals is good, is very good. I mean there is -- I mean, this is common to other brands, as you know, and as far as I know, as I understand. And this is due to several different factors, including, let me say, the wealth effect, but also the fact that Moncler brand in Korea has been since ever, and of course, it is now very, very strong. So again, long story short, very strong demand in Korea, let me say, mostly from locals in the second quarter and a much weaker -- significantly weaker business with Korean customers in Europe.
Gino Fisanotti : Paola, I will quickly answer your second question regarding Q4. First of all, I was happy to hear that you said that we keep surprising you every year in the past few years in Q4. We will try to keep that promise up. We will try to keep surprising you with the work we will deliver. I think, as you know well, I think we are talking today a lot about the work we're doing in Spring/Summer and all the different initiatives we have. That is always an add-on on top of what we will do always around Q4 and our core season. So I think it's important to remind ourselves. Of course, I cannot share the deals, but we feel confident about what we have planned for the second half of the year. I will say, just to tease a bit more, if you like, I just mentioned that in September, we'll be opening the flagship store in New York. And from there on, you will see kind of a relentless approach towards the end of the year and beginning of '27. So count on us again on trying to surprise you again, and then you will tell me.
Operator : Next question is from Piral Dadhania, RBC.
Piral Dadhania : So my first question is just on the gross margin, please. Could you help us walk through the main moving parts. We would have thought that maybe there was a bit more margin optionality given the positive regional mix, the positive channel mix and likely Grenoble outperforming the mainline collection. So could you just help us understand where those headwinds come from? I imagine it's probably to do with raw materials and inflation, but any help there would be useful. And my second question is just on -- again, sorry, coming back to Spring/Summer and the way you set the business up. If we read between the lines, is it fair to say that perhaps the inventory availability and the risk taking wasn't as high as it could have been. And therefore, there was a kind of a product availability issue for some customers in store, which impacted conversion, and that's something that you will address with perhaps better or higher inventory levels next year. Is that the right way to think about what you've been saying this evening?
Luciano Santel : Okay. About gross margin, I mean, the improvement of gross margin is totally driven by channel mix. Gross margin overall has been impacted. There are several different factors impacting gross margin. Honestly, nothing material to highlight. Of course, markup was substantially in line with last year. The need of reserve for obsolescence was substantially in line with last year. I mean, some negative impact of FX, of course. But again, honestly, nothing particularly relevant to highlight. Of course, when I'm talking about channel mix, that was positive. This implies both brands because, again, at this point, not only channel mix of Moncler, but also the impact of channel mix of Stone Island that I mean has been growing in the first half of the year, mostly in the DTC business. About your...
Gino Fisanotti : I'm happy -- again, I'm happy just to give you a short answer there. I think the question -- just Luciano, for all of us was more about -- there was a feeling a sensation that we were maybe short of inventory on certain things if we didn't take the enough risk. I would say the answer is for me is a bit the opposite. I think there was a risk that we took, but it was a calculated risk. I think I want to go back in perspective. I think when you think about it, it's the very first real effort against Spring/Summer in almost 75 years of the company. So again, it wasn't easy for us to think that on the communication, on the message, on the approach, on styling, on the amount of different classifications, it's not that simple to put all that together and then go full on into an uncalculated risk. So the risk was there. I strongly believe that we like to be in this scenario versus the opposite scenario of having a lot of inventory and not able to connect with customers. So I think what we have been saying for the entire call is we're very happy with the results. We have good results, not only in terms of the performance of the collection, but even as brand overall that gives us the confidence to keep building into this. And for us, I think we always said from day 1, this is a building block. We don't have a silver bullet that can make us Spring/Summer relevant in the first season. And again, as I mentioned before, we feel more confident being on this side of maybe we were short of certain items and we didn't have enough inventory that being on the other side of this conversation.
Operator : Next question is from Thomas Chauvet, Citi.
Thomas Chauvet : Can you hear me?
Gino Fisanotti : Yes. Yes, of course.
Thomas Chauvet : Sorry for the bad connectivity earlier. I hope you can hear me. If not, I'll take this offline. Two quick questions, please. Firstly, coming back to the DTC growth by nationality. The Chinese cohort was up over 20% in Q1. Luciano, you said the cluster was positive in Q2. Can you be a bit more specific? Was it still up double digits? And how did domestic versus offshore compare? And secondly, could you come back to the reasons behind the softer performance in June versus April and May, especially as you started delivering the Pre-Fall into stores?
Luciano Santel : Thomas, nice to hear you again. I mean -- about the nationalities, I mean, China -- Chinese cluster was up. Again, let me say, yes, yes, double digit. The other nationalities, as I said, Americans also were up and the Korean and Japanese are flattish. And the Europeans, unfortunately, negative. But let me know if I answer your question. Yes or not?
Thomas Chauvet : Yes, yes. Was the Chinese cohort better offshore than onshore? You talked about Chinese and Korea.
Elena Mariani : No. I think it was -- look, it was good both onshore and offshore for us. So there was no particular difference. Let me also take this chance to take the second question because I believe we've been quite clear about the performance over the quarter, June and the reason behind it. I don't know if you were able to follow the entire call, but otherwise, happy to take it offline.
Thomas Chauvet : Okay. We'll take it offline. It's quite late. Yes, I did follow the call, but I want some clarification. We can discuss that in a few moments, Elena.
Operator : The next question is from Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.
Chiara Battistini : I have just 2 very quick follow-up questions, actually. The first one on profitability on the second half of the year. Rather than talking about profitability, thinking about the OpEx development in H2, you delivered very tight cost control in H1. Should we extrapolate that into H2? Or should we think about an acceleration of OpEx? And to that, when thinking about the New York opening, I'm guessing that the rents are already in the OpEx base, so it would be an acceleration of employees, but not rents. Am I correct? And the second question, just to come back on the like-for-like very quickly on Q2. I know you don't comment on quarterly like-for-likes, but just trying to square the 7% for H1. Is it fair to assume that like-for-like in Q2 was positive and actually space was negatively impacted by online?
Luciano Santel : Chiara. About OpEx in the second half of the year, we don't see any material significant element to highlight. As I said before, let me think, as I said before, the one-off will be much, much smaller. It will be about EUR 2 million, slightly less than EUR 2 million as compared to the EUR 8 million we reported in the first half. And talking about selling expenses, I mean, you are totally right about the rent for New York. For any store we open, we start to report in our results the rent cost at the time we take over the store. So independently on when we open the store. And of course, something I didn't highlight, but the rents without revenues is a metric we monitor and in the first half of the year was quite important and higher than last year. So honestly, at this point, to the best of my knowledge in the second half of the year, I don't see any significant element. Of course, there might be elements that are very volatile, and so very difficult to predict associated with the cost of energy because -- I mean, honestly, right now, apparently is better than what we expected just a couple of months ago. But, this is a completely open issue. But this may be a risk. But right now, we don't assess that risk as particularly material. The other question?
Elena Mariani : I think you've asked about the like-for-like in the second quarter.
Luciano Santel : Like-for-like in the second quarter, of course, we don't disclose this number, but let me give you some qualitative answer. The first quarter was very, very good. So 7% is the weighted average of a very, very good comp in the first quarter and much less in the second quarter. So this is -- and the -- was also the -- there was another question. I don't remember, but correct me...
Elena Mariani : No, I think it was the last one. So yes, I mean, just slightly positive is a good assumption. We are generous today.
Operator : Ms. Mariani, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Elena Mariani : All right. Thank you very much to everyone. Just a quick reminder of the next release. Our Q3 2026 results will be released on October 21, post market close. And our quiet period will start on September 22. Thank you again. For any follow-up questions, as usual, you can contact me any time. Have a great evening. And for those of you going on holiday, we wish you a wonderful summer break. Thank you.
Operator : Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.
