Thu. Sep 11th, 2025
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Vince(VNCE 94.33%) reported second quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on August 6, 2025. Net sales reached $73.2 million, down 1.3% year-over-year (YoY), while adjusted net income excluding a one-time employee retention credit was $4.9 million ($0.38 per share), supported by a 300 basis point year-over-year gross margin improvement and strong direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales growth of 5.5%. This summary provides singular insights on margin expansion, supply chain risk management, and multi-channel execution, all critical to the long-term investment thesis. For reference, the second quarter fiscal 2025 period ended July 31, 2025.

Gross margin expands as Vince mitigates tariffs

Gross profit increased from $35.1 million to $36.9 million compared to the second quarter fiscal 2024, with gross margin expanding 300 basis points to 50.4% compared to the second quarter fiscal 2024, despite higher tariffs and freight costs. This margin strength resulted from a combination of strategic pricing, reduced discounting, and improved product cost management, against a backdrop of a less favorable macro environment for apparel manufacturers.

“Gross profit in the second quarter was $36.9 million or 50.4% of net sales. This compares to $35.1 million or 47.4% of net sales in the second quarter of last year. The increase in gross margin rate was primarily driven by approximately 340 basis points due to the favorable impact of lower product costing and higher pricing, approximately 210 basis points due to favorable impact of lower discounting, partially offset by approximately 170 basis points due to higher tariffs and 100 basis points due to higher freight costs.”
— Yuji Okumura, Chief Financial Officer

Effective margin management demonstrates that Vince’s value proposition and pricing power help offset inflationary and regulatory headwinds.

Vince rapidly diversifies supply chain to curb concentrated risk

In fiscal 2024, the company sourced approximately 80% of its products from China, with aggressive initiatives under way to cap exposure to any single country at 25% by the 2025 holiday season. Such rapid supply chain adaptation is notable given persistent apparel industry vulnerabilities to shifting tariffs and global sourcing disruptions.

“So the product that’s hitting the floor now fall, that really wasn’t impacted. I mean, that was already produced. That was kind of the stuff that was being held. It’s really as we get the prespring or holiday, where we made a lot of the movement. And as we mentioned before, it’s somewhat less about China now because these tariffs keep moving around. It’s really more about not being overexposed in any one country. And, you know, we’re targeting 25% to kinda be that cap in terms of any one country, and I think we’ll get there, for holiday and certainly as we get into spring.”
— Brendan Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer

Vince is shifting to a multi-country sourcing strategy to limit exposure to any single country, targeting a 25% cap per country.

DTC sales growth offsets wholesale softness for Vince

The DTC segment posted 5.5% year-over-year growth, propelled by both retail and ecommerce, even as the wholesale channel declined 5.1% year-over-year due to temporary shipment delays. Store investments, including remodels and new locations in Nashville and Sacramento, target underpenetrated regions and support omnichannel growth strategy.

“With respect to channel performance, our direct to consumer segment increased 5.5% with both our ecommerce and store channels contributing to the growth. This was offset, however, by a 5.1% decline in our wholesale segment as full shipments went out later than the prior year as tariff mitigation strategies pushed the timing of receipts back by approximately three weeks. Despite the impact on the top line, the delays in our supply chain enabled us to elongate our spring selling season, contributing to strong gross margin performance for the quarter.”
— Yuji Okumura, Chief Financial Officer

Looking Ahead

Management guides to net sales flat to low single digit year-over-year growth for the third quarter fiscal 2025, operating income margin between 1% and 4%, and adjusted EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) between 2% and 5%. Planned reinvestments in marketing and retail initiatives, along with anticipated incremental tariff costs of approximately $4 million to $5 million (with half expected to be mitigated), temper the margin outlook for the back half of fiscal 2025. No additional new store openings are scheduled beyond Sacramento in October 2025.

This article was created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool’s insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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