Bravissimo’s Impact On Wacoal

Bravissimo’s new Lake Como Bikini top and bottom, and the new Bravissimo Millie Bloom Bra and panty on the U.S. website.

In Wacoal’s 77th Fiscal Year Annual Securities Report, released on July 18, the company revealed the impact of its 2024 acquisition of the UK retailer, Bravissimo Group, on its overall business performance, which included a small loss. “Sales and loss generated by Bravissimo Group since the acquisition date amounted to 4,641 million yen [JPYM, about $31.4 million at current exchange rates] and -673 million yen [about -$4.6 million], respectively.” The company added that for parent company Wacoal International Corp., “assuming the business combination had been conducted at the beginning of the period, the pro-forma information for the year ended March 31, 2025, would have been 180,185 JPYM in sales [about $1.220 billion] and 7,490 JPYM [about $50.7 million] in profit for the period.” The Bravissimo brand and its 25 shops, located primarily in the UK, was acquired by Wacoal’s European division. Before its acquisition, for the full year 2023, Bravissimo registered sales of 58.032 million GBP (about $78 million) with an operating profit of 2.870 million GBP (about $3.9 million). 

Actual full year revenue at parent company Wacoal International Corp., which has several divisions, selling products worldwide, fell to 173,896 million Japanese yen (about $1.18 billion) from 187, 208 JPYM (about $1.27 billion) in the previous year. Meanwhile, the company registered a net profit of 6,989 JPYM (about $47.3 million) compared to a net loss of 8,632 JPYM (about $58.3 million) in the year ended March 31, 2024..

Wacoal International Corp. (U.S.) revenue for the year ended March 31, 2025 fell to 24,917 JPYM (about $168.7 million) from 28,038 JPYM (about $189.8 million) in the previous year. On a positive note for this division, operating profit for the twelve months ended March 31 were 681 JPYM (about $4.6 million) compared to a loss of 6,884 JPYM (about $46.6 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

Revenues at the Americas division “fell below the level in the previous fiscal year on a local currency basis due to the impact of the business withdrawal of Intimates Online, Inc. [the failed Lively brand] as well as the sluggish sales resulting from a sharp downturn in the market in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year and beyond. In terms of our retail stores, weak in-stores sales led to stricter procurement restrictions by some of our wholesale customers. While we launched our CRM system for our e-commerce websites, sales have not yet recovered. On the other hand, sales from third-party e-commerce websites continued to remain strong driven by the major platforms.”

Revenue at Wacoal Europe Ltd., which includes brands sold in North America as well as Europe, in the fiscal year ended March 31, rose sharply to 25,201 JPYM (about $170.6 million) compared to 20,353 JPYM (about $137.8 million) in the previous fiscal year. Operating profit for this division shrank to 897 JPYM (about $6.1 million), from 1,816 JPYM (about $12.3 million), the year before. In the July securities report the company noted that the operating profit decline was “due to the one-time impact of the acquisition of the Bravissimo Group.”

Wacoal explained that Wacoal Europe revenues had increased “on a local currency basis due to the contribution of the sales from the Bravissimo Group which we acquired in September 2024. Although sales remained weak in the United Kingdom and North America due to factors such as reduced procurement by some of our wholesale customers, and concerns over the outlook for the U.S. tariff policy, which led to the suspension of deliveries to certain customers who have warehouses in Mexico, sales from continental Europe, particularly Germany and France, continued to grow. On the other hand, operating profit fell below the level of the previous fiscal year due to the one-time impact of the acquisition of the Bravissimo Group.”

A recent visit to the Bravissimo U.S. website as we went to press revealed the following message: : “We have unfortunately had a fire in our warehouse. Whilst it was extinguished quickly, the impact is very complex meaning we are currently unable to take any orders via our website.” We have requested additional information from the company.