Aerie Sales Hit $1.376 Billion In Fiscal 2021

Aerie posted operating income of $20.946 million on sales of $428.418 million in the three months ended January 29, 2022, compared to operating income of $13.438 million on sales of $336.709 million in the same period last year.

For the full year, the lingerie division of parent company American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), reported operating income of $212.287 million on sales of $1.376 billion, compared to operating income of $60.298 million on sales of $989.989 million for the year ended January 30, 2021.

In the call with analysts to discuss the results, AEO CEO Jay Schottenstein noted that Aerie “posted a record year, including the fourth quarter, marking the 29th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Operating profits more than tripled from pre-pandemic 2019 levels as Aerie reached a turning point in its growth track. Our activewear expansion Off-line is hitting it out of the park. Excitement for the AerieReal movement is unmatched, and we see significant opportunity to continue to grow Aerie as we penetrate key markets.”

Jennifer Foyle, AEO’s president and executive creative director of AE and Aerie, added during the call, that she looks forward to continuing the expansion of the Aerie and Offline “store footprint and reaching new markets.” She noted, “Aerie’s fourth quarter profit margins were constrained by industry-wide supply chain disruptions in South Vietnam, where Aerie had a greater presence. We took on higher air freight costs to get our product here on time, and we also experienced uneven inventory flows in our high-demand leggings business, which, of course, is one of our higher-margin categories. Additionally, delayed new store openings due to labor and building material shortages also had an impact. These factors present opportunities for us in the coming quarters.”

AEO CFO Michael Mathias, added that “elevated airfreight cost of approximately $31 million in the fourth quarter translated to an over 7-point headwind to Aerie’s operating margin.” Despite the various challenges, he said, “in the fourth quarter, we opened 45 new Aerie doors, including a mix of new stand-alone and side-by-side formats with roughly half being Offline doors.” But Schottenstein said the firm had hoped for even more doors. “We were counting on opening 35 more stores, 35 more Aerie stores in the fourth quarter and because of material shortages and COVID, we weren’t able to open those stores.” ­—NM