Financial Year 2024/25: Otto Group secures turnaround

After two difficult financial years, the Otto Group turned its performance around in the past financial year 2024/25 by reaching its target of stable revenue growth while at the same time significantly increasing profitability. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) are significantly up at 276 million euros compared to 8 million euros in the prior financial year. Consolidated revenue remained stable at just under 15 billion euros. On a comparable basis*, sales revenue is even slightly higher than in the 2023/24 financial year. By focusing on profitability and liquidity, the Group has also created the basis for returning to a sustainably successful growth path in the coming years, for continued increases in its economic performance and a return to strong growth in the medium and long term.

Petra Scharner-Wolff, Chairwoman of the Executive Board and CEO of the Otto Group: “Despite the continuing and extremely tense geopolitical environment and the gloomy consumer sentiment we are still experiencing especially in Germany, our clear focus has enabled us to succeed not only in keeping revenues stable, but also in bringing the Otto Group clearly into the black at all earnings levels. We have faced up to the challenges of the market and coped with them very well. Of course, we are satisfied with what we have achieved over the past financial year. This has further increased our financial stability and now allows us to look forward with a degree of optimism.”

Differing trends across the segments
The various segments categorized by the Otto Group to manage its diverse companies – Platforms, Brand Concepts, Retailers, Services and Financial Services – have developed differently in terms of revenue and earnings. Once again, the breadth of its various business models and markets has been the cornerstone of the Otto Group's solidity.

In the largest segment in terms of sales, Platforms, which includes the e-commerce platform OTTO and About You, the trend is encouraging. IFRSs sales revenue shown here increased by 4.7 percent year-on-year, from 6.2 billion euros to over 6.5 billion euros. OTTO’s IFRSs sales revenue includes traditional revenue from its own business and the services offered by OTTO, as well as commission from the OTTO marketplace business. In line with IFRS reporting, these e-commerce sales from the OTTO platform increased by around 5 percent to 4.4 billion euros. They do not, however, reflect the significantly increased total value of partner revenue on the platform.

OTTO's Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), i.e. the gross total value of all purchases on the OTTO app and at otto.de, shows the remarkable success of the marketplace business launched by OTTO in 2020. GMV rose by around 9 percent in the 2024/25 financial year, from 6.5 billion euros to over 7 billion euros. Overall, OTTO is growing faster than the competition in Germany and has gained market share. The number of active customers climbed by 4 percent to 12.2 million.

About You – still part of the Otto Group and therefore fully consolidated – also achieved its business forecast for the 2024/25 financial year. Revenue increased by 3.6 percent from just under 1.9 billion euros to 2 billion euros.

By contrast, the Brand Concepts segment, which mainly comprises the Crate and Barrel, Bonprix and Witt Groups, posted a 3.3 percent drop in sales from 5.3 billion euros to 5.1 billion euros. The weakening of business operations in the USA under the Venus brand has had a significantly negative impact on sales development for the Bonprix Group, headquartered in Hamburg, alongside the cautious consumer sentiment and increasing competition. Sales at Crate and Barrel, Chicago, one of the leading suppliers of homeware and lifestyle products in North America, fell by one percent and thus remained reasonably stable. The Witt Group based in the Bavarian town of Weiden, on the other hand, chalked up a significant increase in sales of 5.1 percent. Both companies also made a very considerable contribution to the positive EBIT of the Brand Concepts segment. Crate and Barrel achieved the best result in the company's history.

The Retailer segment, which is less relevant in terms of sales and includes the Baur Group, Limango and Manufactum, among others, posted a 4 percent drop in sales on a comparable basis, down to 1.7 billion euros. As announced, in the course of the 2023/24 financial year the Otto Group discontinued the loss-making business activities of Mytoys in Germany and Unigro in Belgium, which were most recently part of this segment. The performance of Limango in the retailer segment is positive, with the company was once again increasing revenue.

The Services segment, which includes the Group's logistics companies and the Otto International purchasing network, grew by 12 percent and generated revenue of 419 million euros compared to 374 million euros in the same period of the previous year. The segment benefited from the slight increase in demand in online sales. This resulted in larger parcel volumes and increased orders at Otto International, both in terms of the Group’s own and its third-party business. Revenue from the parcel distribution activities of Hermes Germany has not been included in the Otto Group's consolidated financial statements since the 2020/21 financial year.

Performance in the Financial Services segment, which primarily features the Eos Group, is once again very gratifying with revenue rising by 5.8 percent to just under 1.1 billion euros. The segment once again proved to be highly profitable.

In the 2024/25 financial year, the Otto Group employed some 36,300 people (full-time equivalents) compared to 38,500 in the same period of the prior year, which is due to portfolio adjustments that have been made and a continued restrictive recruitment policy.

Positive trend across all earnings levels
The focus on profitability and liquidity is impressively reflected in the positive trend across various earnings levels, all of which were up in the 2024/25 financial year. In the past financial year, the Otto Group achieved EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of 916 million euros compared to 741 million euros in the prior year. EBIT is also significantly up, from 8 million euros in the prior year to 276 million euros in the year under review. The same applies to EBT, with earnings before tax of 311 million euros being posted compared to -353 million euros last year. Overall, the retail and services group of companies generated a net profit of 165 million euros in the period under review.

At the same time, net financial debt was cut by 579 million euros – almost 22 percent down year-on-year, with the dynamic gearing ratio improving from 2.0 in the 2023/24 financial year to 1.3. The Group's equity ratio rose from 34 percent to 36 percent.

Petra Scharner-Wolff: “Our business figures are a clear indication of the Otto Group's resilience and stability. We have been able to impressively demonstrate our ability to take action – even in past, crisis-ridden years – and we are now in an excellent position to face up to the challenges ahead of us and shape our future with sustainable success.”

New strategic agenda ensures future viability
The basis for this is the Otto Group's new strategic agenda, which the Executive Board, led by the new CEO Petra Scharner-Wolff, has adopted and which was presented at the annual press conference. It replaces the focused growth strategy that laid the foundation for the Group's current strength eight years ago. The overriding aim of the new strategic agenda is to secure the Otto Group's future viability in the medium and long term.

The Group therefore intends in future to place even greater focus on the needs and requirements of its customers and partners. This goes hand in hand with a clear focus on business models that meet the specific needs of very different target groups – from retail to services and financial services. The aim is to inspire the Otto Group's many millions of customers worldwide with its array of high quality products, unique choice of goods and an array of services. The Group is still looking to show that value-oriented operations and economic success can go hand in hand and that its key claim of “Responsible Commerce that inspires” will continue to encourage customers to shop at Otto Group companies and its brands in the future.

At the same time, the Otto Group plans to scale up successful business models in its core portfolio such as OTTO, Crate and Barrel and Eos to facilitate strong growth in the medium and long term. The international business in Europe and North America is also to be expanded.

This is to be prepared by securing financial robustness combined with an increase in profitability and a capacity for future investment coming from the operating business. By 2030, the Otto Group is aiming to achieve an even greater degree of financial freedom than it already has and to take its core portfolio to a whole new level in terms of revenue and profit.

Petra Scharner-Wolff: “Our overarching goal is to return to strong growth in both the medium and long terms while pursuing our new strategy, to vigorously seize new opportunities and to position the Otto Group to ensure its lasting future. With this in mind, we are focusing even more strongly than before on our core portfolio, ambitiously expanding the financial strength of individual business units and the foundation for strong growth. And, of course, we want to inspire our millions of customers worldwide with high-quality products, unique choice of goods and an array of services.”

This strategic agenda will be placing greater emphasis on the Otto Group's technological competitiveness. The Group has already made massive investments in the areas of IT, digital transformation and logistics in recent years, making its own business activities more efficient and inspiring for customers at all levels. The past financial year saw the opening of a logistics center in Iłowa, Poland, and a state-of-the-art shuttle warehouse in Altenkunstadt, for example.

When it comes to generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI for short, the Group is continuing to seize the opportunities arising from its deployment. GenAI is already a relevant component in almost all processes and projects in the Otto Group, especially when optimizing customer-oriented services. At OTTO alone, more than seventy AI products are in use in almost all value streams. The Otto Group is setting the pace in this field in retail and intends to remain so.

In future, Mahbobeh Sabetnia will be responsible for technology and retail issues on the Otto Group's Executive Board. Her extensive expertise in the field of digital transformation, her deep understanding of data and technology and her clear focus on inspiring customer experiences all support the respect she has gained in international retailing. She will play a key role in further strengthening the Group's ability to innovate in future.

Further significant increase in profitability planned
Given the current geopolitical and geo-economic upheavals and the associated uncertainties with regard to the specific effects on global trade and consumer sentiment, the market environment will continue to be extremely challenging in the year ahead. This makes forecasting even more difficult. Nevertheless, the Group is aiming to keep sales revenue stable on a comparable basis and once again significantly improve its own profitability.

Petra Scharner-Wolff: “We want to make significant progress in the current financial year too. If we assume that 2026 and 2027 will still primarily be years of consolidation, our overriding goal remains to further strengthen the Otto Group's resilience and solidity, and position us favourably should the general conditions continue to be volatile. In times like these, it is good to know that you have an entrepreneurial family in the background that takes a long-term view of things and that thinks in terms of generations. We are going to stay true to our values. We are going to hold our course.”

* Revenue trend adjusted for currency translation effects and effects from changes in the scope of consolidation.