While tech stocks have taken a hit—mostly reeling from Netflix’s first subscriber loss in more than 10 years—apparel companies may have a better outlook.
For one, athletic wear company Lululemon is looking to double its 2021 revenue over the next five years, as the Covid-19 pandemic has increased demand for workout clothes. This puts the company on track to reach $12.5 billion in sales by 2026.
Specifically, Lululemon announced, on Wednesday, announced several long-term growth targets to help ensure they can reach these goals. Among their biggest strategies, expanding their relatively new men’s business should help drive this momentum. Along with market expansion, Lululemon has noted improved customer service and new product innovation as additional key drivers.
In fact, the athletic wear retailer hopes to double their revenue from the sale of men’s apparel. They also want to double their digital sales numbers and then quadruple revenue from international sales. And, again, this ambitious plan should achieve their target within just the next five years.
According to Lululemon Chief Executive Officer Calvin McDonald, “We remain early in our growth journey. I am excited about taking our strategies to the next level.”
This growth is important as shares fell about 2 percent in early trading on Wednesday.
Similarly, Lululemon CFO Meghan Frank calls these targets “bold but realistic.”
Indeed, the expectations appear to be more than reasonable. Lululemon posted sales growth of more than 40 percent in 2021, alone, over the previous year, to a total of $6.25 billion. Again, this was largely driven by direct-to-consumer sales (mostly online) thanks to the pandemic-driven desire for yoga pants, sports bras, and leggings, both for the purpose of home-based workouts and more comfortable home apparel.
This nearly double the sales of 2019, which came in at $3.98 billion. The bump did, indeed, benefit from a boost Lululemon’s men’s business, which achieved internal company targets an astonishing two years ahead of what they had originally scheduled. Furthermore, the tripling of digital revenue from 2018 to 2021 should help them move forward with any strategies in the year to come.
