Ermenegildo Zegna N.V. Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Good afternoon. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the Ermenegildo Zegna Group first half 2026 preliminary revenues earnings call. Please note that today's material and presentation are available under the zegnagroup.com website. Before we begin, we need to point out that the team will make certain forward-looking statements during the call. The group actual results may be materially different from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Also, these statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those described in our SEC filings. Please refer to the forward-looking statement cautionary statement included at page two of today's presentation. I will now hand over to Paola Durante, Chief of External Relations and Sustainability.

Thank you. Thank you operator, good morning, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's call. As usual, Gianluca Tagliabue, Group CEO, will chair the call, while I will begin with a brief comment on our second quarter revenue results before handing over to Gianluca for some final comments on key events of the quarter that you can see also highlighted in the opening page of the presentations and for some closing remarks. I remind you that, as always, when commenting on revenue trends, I will, and we will focus on organic performance, which exclude foreign exchange impacts and therefore better reflects the underlying business dynamics. Let's skip the first pages and move directly to page 12 of the presentation. In the second quarter of the year 2026, our group revenues reached EUR 517 million, up 11%, marking a sequential acceleration compared to the previous quarter.

ZEGNA brand continued to outperform, recording EUR 324 million revenues with a 70% growth, also in sequential acceleration, driven by a strong DTC channel performance across all regions. Thom Browne reported EUR 65 million in second quarter revenues, up 3% organic with a positive double-digit growth in the DTC channel, partially offset by the ongoing rationalization of the wholesale. On TOM FORD FASHION, the business reported EUR 89 million in second quarter revenues, plus 7% organic, with the solid performance of the DTC supported by the very good reception of the spring/summer collections. Finally, on second quarter tech side performance that was down 3% is largely due to different phasing of deliveries. I will not comment much on other revenues, which as you know, related to ready-to-wear garments produced for third-party brands because this is now a marginal business, changes are really not meaningful.

Let's move now to page 13 of the presentation where we look at the revenues by geographic areas. Starting with EMEA. EMEA, which in the first half of this year represented 33% of the group revenues, in the second quarter was up 2% organic with DTC, direct to consumer, up solidly across all the three brands, counterbalanced by the reduction in the wholesale, which reflects the group strategic decision to prioritize a retail-first business model. Also, the Middle East will turn positive in the second quarter. The Americas, which represented 31% of group revenues in the first half, recorded a very good 22% growth, making another quarter of sequential accelerations supported by double-digit growth across the three brands in the DTC channel. Greater China region, which in the first half of this year accounted for 24% of total revenues.

In the second quarter, it was up 9% organic with a further accelerations compared to what we reported in Q1 this year. Finally, the rest of APAC, which contributed to 12% of group's H1 revenues, in the second quarter reported a 19% organic growth with all markets contributing, especially Korea and Japan. I will skip really commenting page 14 of the presentation since we will look in details at the trend by channel for each brand. Let me just highlight one number. In the second quarter of this year, DTC accounted for 86% of group's branded revenue. You know that branded revenues exclude the textile and other revenues which are by definition and by nature B2B businesses. Let's go to page 15 and let's concentrate on ZEGNA brand revenue by distribution channel.

In the second quarter, ZEGNA DTC, which reached 90% of the brand's H1 revenue, sequentially accelerated compared to the previous quarter and posted 18% organic growth. A growth entirely comp-driven, with all the regions contributing to this performance. The Americas continue to be very strong. Revenues in Greater China region improved sequentially, and the rest of APAC continued to strengthen. Europe also perform very good, and the Middle East, as I said, improved sequentially during the quarter and return to a positive growth despite the disruptions caused by the war. The brand's network remained unchanged. In the wholesale channel, revenue was down at 3% organic as we continue to focus on the direct-to-consumer model based on exclusive customer experience. We confirm here the indication of a low double-digit decline by year-end. Moving to page 16 and commenting Thom Browne.

In the second quarter, Thom Browne reported a solid DTC momentum, +16%, driven by the Americas, Korea, and Japan. Thom Browne DTC performance was also helped by space contribution. In terms of retail network in the quarter, the brand opened three net doors, including Chicago and Vancouver. The wholesale channel reported a -29% organic performance, reflecting both the decision to streamline the channel and the conversion of the distribution in Hong Kong. We confirm that by year-end, this channel, wholesale, which I underline is increasingly less relevant for the brand, in the first half it was only 17% of the brand revenues, will be negative in the -30% area. Let's now move to page 17, and let's talk about TOM FORD FASHION. DTC revenues for TOM FORD FASHION grew 13% organic in the second quarter, which was led primarily by the Americas.

Rest of APAC in the quarter outperform. This performance was exclusively driven by the comp store sales growth, which is a further proof of the client appreciation of the spring-summer collections. In terms of store network, TOM FORD FASHION closed one boutique during the quarter. Looking at the wholesale, the wholesale was down 3%, reflecting also in this case, the group's retail-first strategy. The performance in the quarter benefited from some anticipated deliveries of the fall collections, which have been driven by better good production timing. By year-end, the channel should be down low mid-single digit, and this is a confirmation of what we already said in past calls. Moving now to page 18. As usual, here you can find the summary of the group store network. With this, I completed my hopefully short presentation, and I will hand over to Gianluca for his important remarks.

Thank you, Paola. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Let me share a few final remarks on some important brand initiatives and on our business. First, as Paola also mentioned, I would like to celebrate once again the extraordinary event that ZEGNA brand hosted in L.A. this June, which we called the La Villeggiatura. In Los Angeles, we told another chapter of the ZEGNA story. This time, the story was rooted in the Italian tradition of villeggiare, which means to spend the summer in a villa. We brought to life the ZEGNA family summer villa inspired by a time in the '70s when the entire family would spend the summer together in a house, always open to relatives and friends. This is what we did in Los Angeles at Chateau Marmont Hotel.

We welcomed friends of the brand to discover exclusive collections. We invited them to experience the runway presentation on the Malibu pier while living the ZEGNA legacy. Those were memorable five days, delivering results in terms of coverage, recognition, and client interest that exceeded our expectations. I want to express again my sincere congratulations to the entire ZEGNA brand team, starting with Edoardo and Angelo Zegna and Alessandro Sartori, for the focus, creativity, and quality brought to this project, and for the outstanding execution that made these results possible, all underpinned by Gildo's vision, guidance, and unwavering encouragement to keep the bar always high. Villa Zegna, Los Angeles was not the only major initiative the brand pursued in the quarter.

At Art Basel in June, the ZEGNA brand continued to champion art as a force for responsible progress through its support of artists who engage directly with communities, society, and the environment. This initiative reflects a belief that has long been part of the ZEGNA brand's, and overall of our group's, identity, that business, culture, people, and nature can create lasting value when they evolve together, just as our founder envisioned more than a century ago with the creation of Oasi Zegna. As you can see, everything ZEGNA does is part of a coherent vision. Every ingredient is already there, written in the ZEGNA family book. We simply have to open it and bring to life its values, culture, and way of living. That's how we express what makes ZEGNA unique, an authentic Italian lifestyle that goes far beyond products.

Let's now return to Italy, where we proudly welcomed Thom Browne for his first-ever show during June Men's Fashion Week in Milan. This debut was a powerful expression of the brand's tailoring heritage and commitment to craftsmanship. At the same time, it demonstrated Thom's ability to continue to evolve his iconic creative codes, introducing a broader color palette and exploring a sophisticated range of fabrics, textures, and techniques. We were very pleased with the show, which attracted significant positive attention from industry, media, and clients. At the same time, Sam Lobban, the CEO of Thom Browne, is making progress on the brand's objective to drive a stronger retail-first culture across the organization. This includes investing in talent at every level, ensuring that the brand's creativity and merchandising stories are effectively brought to life in the stores.

There is still important work ahead, we believe that the team is moving in the right direction. Moving now to TOM FORD FASHION, the recent 2026 Met Gala and Cannes Film Festival in May marked two defining moments for the brand. Through a curated celebrity presence at both events, the creative and marketing teams contributed to enhanced global visibility, while driving significant earned media coverage. Combined with increasingly focused collections and with improved CRM capabilities, these efforts are supporting the development of the retail business, as shown by recent sales performance in the directly operated stores. Lelio Gavazza, the CEO of TOM FORD FASHION, and his team continue to work actively across all these levers, marketing, merchandising, CRM, selected new openings, to drive future growth of the business.

Indeed, we believe that TOM FORD FASHION ongoing success will come from a combination of comparable store growth, new space contribution, development of existing clients, and acquisition of new ones. Today, our priority is to selectively expand the retail network while deepening our relationship with existing customers. Over the medium term, the focus is also to drive comp store growth, also through new customer acquisition. Before taking your questions, let me conclude highlighting that the strong performance we saw over the last quarter is the result of actions we began implementing years ago, and which are bearing their fruits now. We know we have much more to do, as important projects remain underway. These projects will continue to require resources before delivering sustainable value, they are strategic and relevant for our future.

As we enter the second half of the year, let me offer a few general observations on what we are seeing across our business. While we are only a few weeks into Q3, and therefore we have yet limited visibility, what we are seeing today is that the underlying DTC trend of the business remains very solid. That said, it is important to recognize that Q2 benefited from some specific initiatives that are not expected to be repeated in the same way in the remainder of the year. For instance, we Zegna Los Angeles and the ASICS launch for Thom Browne. The momentum we continue to see reflects the work undertaken over the past several years to strengthen the ZEGNA brand.

While at Thom Browne and TOM FORD FASHION, it reflects the early progress of the initiatives we have put in place, fully aware that we are still in the early stages of the journey and many things remain to be done. As a final remark, our commitment to investors remain unchanged. We remain focused on delivering our 2027 targets. The second part of the year might be a bit more challenging in term of comparison. However, we are confident that 2026 full-year consensus is reasonable. With that, we will now open the Q&A session.

Thank you, Gianluca. Please, operator, if you can open the Q&A session.

Thank you, Paola. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset while asking a question to allow for optimal sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question is from the line of Adrien Duverger at Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon, Gianluca and Paola. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have three, if possible. The first one is on the performance throughout the quarter. Could you please comment if there is any material difference month-on-month? Also, if you can comment on the last few weeks and if you have seen any change in the consumer environment. My second question would be on China. I see there's quite a strong acceleration for two quarters in a row now. Could you please comment a bit more on what you are seeing in the region, particularly in terms of the DTC trends, are you seeing any difference in performance between mainland China and offshore spending? My last question is on profitability.

With the strong set of numbers today, is there anything we should be aware of in terms of phasing out costs for 2026? Do you also reiterate your comments that full-year 2026 margin should be broadly stable, versus 2025? Maybe lastly, does that give you a bit more confidence regarding your 2027 EBIT guidance? Thank you very much. Thank you, Adrien.

Many questions. I leave Gianluca to start with the performance in the quarter.

Hi, Adrien. The quarter had a solid performance across all three months, probably with a bit of acceleration in May and June. I would qualify also in these two months above our own expectations. In terms of China, to give you also some color, for instance, in ZEGNA, I think there are some elements of the offering, in June, like the linen, is being positively received. I think that this to give you some color on a month by month. China sequentially improved, as you noted. I think it's all about the consistency of our execution. We said that we were focusing on the key factors in China, namely some areas of underperformance, Su Misura, Triple Stitch, and I think we are starting to see some traction there. We continue to see positive signs, and the good brand momentum of the ZEGNA brand.

Looking forward in China, I call out we will have a couple of important openings. Probably the most important one is in Hong Kong, Harbour City. We just opened an interesting and important second store in Shenzhen, MixC Shenzhen Bay. While we focus, and I think we said last time, we will have some pruning on the footprint. We keep on investing in China in fewer, better doors. This is the message I'm giving on China.

I think the question was also, if I understood well, on the cluster, I say there is not really difference between the results in China and the cluster. Also the cluster has been accelerating in the quarter.

Yeah, remember always that our Chinese consumers spend almost, well, I'd say 90% locally. To us, cluster and geography for Chinese- That's it very overlapped.

Profitability. Profitability, as we said before, so we keep on investing on what is strategic.

That's why we believe that the consensus is reliable and feasible, both for the full year as well, I think, commenting also on the first half, because there is some cost incidence on first half. That's why I believe that the consensus that is out there on the marketplace is reasonable for both H1, as well full year 2026.

Next question. Thank you. Just to give a color about the cost, I think that there are two direction of cost where we are investing, of course, supporting our brands, the three of them, from marketing standpoint and so on, and investing in group initiatives to start creating a group layer that will then trigger some synergies and better group management going forward.

If there is no follow-up from Adrien, I would go to the second set of questions. operator.

Our next question is from the line of Natasha Banoori at Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions and congratulations on the good set of results. The first question, obviously, the ZEGNA brand performance is quite impressive. Which categories and regions drove the outperformance? My second question would be, can you break down Q2 via volume price mix? Is mix still the biggest driver in Q2? Are you seeing an increasing number of new clients to your brands? Thank you. In terms of mix for the ZEGNA brand, I would call out Su Misura, so make to measure is definitely outperforming.

It's not just formal, it's across the board. The luxury leisure wear side is performing extremely well, and the shoes. Those are the three drivers of growth for the ZEGNA brand. In terms of KPIs or mix, AUR is the driver, is the main contributor to the DTC growth. It's not just a pure price increase, it's a mix thing. The driving force are the Second Skin part of the collection. Bedazzar, of course, make to measure, as I said before. On Tom Ford, it's the success of leather outerwear, which by the way, going back to make to measure, is now also available on a make to measure format.

I think all the most elevated part of our offerings are the ones that are being more credible in the eyes of the consumer. In terms of new or existing loyal clients, I think there has been one new element that is becoming more and more solid throughout the year. Of course, our strategy has always been the top of the pyramid, as we have called out several times, and it's continued being so. The events, the CRM, and so on and so forth. This is generating a side effect, also bringing in new clients. I'm not saying new clients from the bottom of the pyramid, but new clients. Most of the time, these clients come in also for high-ticket items.

We are seeing also an increase of client base, namely on the ZEGNA brand, which you called out was the driving force of the growth, which is a new part of the equation for us, is in welcoming new clients into the brands.

I think there was a question on ZEGNA also, what was the region driving the growth, I would say, Natasha, all the regions have been really important to the ZEGNA performance.

Probably looking what is happening in the marketplace, probably I call out the fact that Middle East as being positive in Q2 for us. Which talks about the resilience of the brand and the resilience of our customer base, namely the local ones, which have more than offset the shortfall of tourist demand in that market.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Natasha.

To the next one. Your next question is from Oliver Chen of TD Cowen.

Please go ahead. China and the Americas, really nice momentum there.

What is happening on traffic relative to ticket? It sounded like you had nice contributions from both in different ways. Second question, when you mentioned new customers and Tom Ford, what is underlying that opportunity now versus prior? Third, as we think about new customers more broadly, how is that interplaying with how you are thinking about marketing spend and marketing spend composition? Thank you. Thank you, Oliver.

The first one was traffic versus ticket. Are you referring to the three brands or ZEGNA only? I did not get if it was specific on ZEGNA.

Zegna would be- Yeah Zegna would be helpful.

China's and America's. Thank you.

Thank you. China and America.

Yeah, slightly positive. I think that the main driver, as I said before, is AUR. Hi, Oliver, by the way. The main driver has been AUR, positive traffic.

Conversion. Conversion. The biggest driver has been AUR, and traffic-driven, also in China by the revamp, some good momentum that we start seeing around the brand.

New customer for Tom Ford.

The part of the collection that is growing the most is women.

Yeah. That's an area of focus for the overall team, starting from design and merchandising.

The women's side ready-to-wear is the one that is probably giving a bit more momentum, and of course, the untapped opportunity is on the daywear side of women because the evening and ceremony-related is strong historically, but the daywear side of the collection is the area that we see more opportunity. Again, going back to what I said before, the make-to-measure, which is sitting on the basis of our unique supply chain capabilities, we started in TOM FORD FASHION to offer make-to-measure on tailoring for women, which is a unique proposition in the marketplace, taking advantage of our short lead times and sleeve units capacity. I would say that women is definitely an area of- Maybe just- worth for TOM FORD FASHION and somehow enlarging the client base.

Yeah. Just wanted to underline or to specify, when Gianluca first, in the previous question, was referring to new customer, he was talking mostly about ZEGNA, that was a comment that was really on ZEGNA, on new customers, that there is this snowball effect, even if we are concentrating on talking to our community, that what we are seeing is actually that this brings also new customers to the brand.

This last part, I was talking about Tom Ford.

Yeah. No, in fact, just to clarify with Oliver. In terms of talking about new customers, Oliver was asking about the marketing spending, what are our thoughts there?

Well, marketing spending on ZEGNA continues with the same cadence that we have done in the last six, 12 months. Which is amplifying the message, especially through the right communities, events, creating unique experiences. On Tom Ford, you will see probably in the next three, four months, adding into the opening of the store in Paris in January, we will amplify a bit more the message, increase a bit the volume of our marketing spending to both increase awareness and consideration for the product. That, I think, is the only change of direction in terms of intensifying a bit the marketing spending on Tom Ford, because we believe that it's the moment to do so.

Okay. On your comments, Gianluca, on Los Angeles, which was a great event, what's happening with what we should model with that benefit in terms of a more normalized Americas growth rate? The Americas numbers have been outstanding, but curious about what might be a run rate in terms of longer term of that region.

Of course, a Villa is meaningful, but it doesn't move the needle of ZEGNA or the group in North America. To give you a sense, Villa generates revenues that are the size of a mid-size store in a year, more or less, give or take. The Villa, although being very successful, generates revenues that are recorded over the months since they largely depend from products that are not ready to buy, but need to be produced on order. If your question was, is the Q1 or Q2 inflated by the Villa? I would say to a very limited extent.

We will benefit the revenues of Villa partially in Q2, of course, because there was a part that was ready to buy, there will be also in the, I would say Q3, there will be the manifestation of revenues of some products to be delivered.

Okay. Last question on AI. We're doing a deeper work here, as you know. What are some of your call-outs for how you're using artificial intelligence across the organizations or key priorities and/or any benefits you've been seeing on that front? Thank you. We have defined our battlefield on AI, looking at already we are on the underlying data and how easy for us is to capture low-hanging fruit.

We have defined three main areas of intervention on AI. One is on operational planning, which means used AI to make the right demand planning, especially on continuative items, because it's the part that requires more statistic, because if it's seasonal product, you have not enough data behind. One is operational planning, demand planning. The second is supporting AI in the interaction with the clients. The engine of CRM, making the right proposition to a customer, either directly on the web or through our customer advisor. These are streams that are underway. The third is on the internal productivity. All the, call it, back-end functions.

We are chasing opportunities to improve efficiency, by adopting either software that are AI with an AI engine or developing algorithms to support better productivity. These are the three areas where we decided to put our bet.

Thank you, Oliver. Best regards.

Thank you to you. Next one.

Your next question is from the line of Anthony Scheffer at BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. I have just two. The first one is a clarification on the Middle East performance. You said that Q2 turned positive. For some reason, I had in mind that the region was already positive in Q1, yeah, just a clarification on this point. Sorry about this question. The second one would be on Villa Zegna in Los Angeles and to know a bit the cost in term of, as you're doing more of those events, and they are getting more and more costly as I understand. Just to know if the ZEGNA brand particularly was prioritized in H1 and you reduced investment on the other two brands.

My last question, Gianluca, maybe it's on the top line, when we see that we have higher AURs and better mix, with more uber-luxury sales, made to measure, more sales with personalization. I understand that those are quite helpful in term of margin. Like, basically it's maybe 20%-30% more ASP and in term of costs, not much addition. Curious to know why we should still see a consensus number in H1, which would imply basically your margin down 30 or 40 basis points. Thank you so much. Thank you, Anthony.

Anthony, on the Middle East, let's qualify. You're right, in Q1 it was positive, probably turned positive is not the proper language. Of course, in the first quarter, we had just one month of disruption which was March, and instead we expected to have a longer disruption in Q2, which actually didn't materialize. Probably this is the better framing of the situation.

Just to clarify what we said also in Q1, the quarter was positive because January, February clearly was growing at very nice double digit that the region was growing. Then we said, at that time, you remember in April, we said since the war started that we were down double digit. What we are seeing today is that the second quarter, which has all the months impacted by the war, is actually positive, slightly positive.

It turned positive compared to March.

Yeah. In terms of the ZEGNA cost, this is information we don't disclose, of course, as you pointed out.

We are intensifying. These are costs that belong to the marketing line, that's why we said we are investing, that's why we are saying, let's stay cautious on the consensus despite, as you point out, we have a better mix. We have two elements that are bringing us to be prudent on the consensus. One, as we said before, especially in the first half, we have FX headwind, which hopefully should be less material going forward in the second half. We have these investments. These investments on ZEGNA are the experiences, and Villa is the pinnacle of the experiences.

Tom Ford, as we said before, we are going to pump up the volume in a way, because we want to make sure that the fashion part of the business is more visible on the marketplace. When you call then about make to measure, there is a surcharge. It's true, but also the cost of those products is higher. Make you an example, just to make you sure, the cutting of the fabric is much higher because it's cut one by one. There are accessories or finishings of the garments that are richer. The equation is not higher price of make to measure, higher margin. Also the mix, of course, the mix is helping the growth, but typically, the mix comes with more sophisticated fabrics or more elevated leather, like it is the case of the Second Skin.

It doesn't immediately translate in increased gross margin percentage.

Thank you. Thank you. Anthony, thank you to you.

Let's move to the other question.

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Gao at CLSA. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Hi, Gianluca.

Hi, Paola. Thanks for taking the questions. Firstly, congrats on the great numbers. Actually, I have three questions. The first one is about APAC. I have a quick follow-up. For the broader APAC, GCR has been performing really well and also sequentially improving. I remember at earlier of this year, your Chinese cluster guidance, is about flattish this year. Do you think actually, it is likely to do better than what the market expected at the beginning of this year, right? Would you going to raise the guidance of the Chinese cluster? And also among the other APAC market, can we have a sense how much Korea contributes to the mix of Zegna Group and ZEGNA brand? And how much of this growth from the other APAC segmentation is driven by local and how much from tourists? This is about the APAC.

The second question is about wholesale. We see the wholesale channel decline in the second quarter is actually much narrower than market expectation, especially for ZEGNA and TOM FORD FASHION. Just wondering if there's any updates for the full-year guidance of your wholesale channels for each brand, and how should we look into the second half? My last question is about the concentration rate of your top customer spending. We can see very positive acceleration of your growth, and historically you have mentioned like roughly top 5% of your consumer contributes around 40% of your ZEGNA revenue. Is this contribution ratio going higher this year, thanks to the strong D2C performance as you have been seeing across regions? Thank you. Thank you, Chris.

Thank you so much. On APAC, GCR, and Korea, I leave Gianluca to comment on the performance by region and clusters.

Let's start. Hi, Chris. Let's start from rest of APAC, which represents slightly north of 10% for us. We are aware that we are probably underrepresented in those markets yet, we are working to improve there. What we are seeing definitely is a good momentum. Korea, which remains strong, off a small basis, but remains strong. In Korea, the demand, we are happy to observe that it is very much driven by locals.

Yeah. In Japan, we are improving, there is a combination of improvement on locals and tourists, which are roughly 30% of the business.

In Korea, it's much less. In terms of GCR, we observe a sequential improvement. We want to be cautious because, of course, we are seeing some volatility. We are aware that we will have some openings, we will have some closing going forward. I think that while we are happy about comp results, we need also to be cautious that going forward, we will have, as I mentioned before, some important openings, we have also some concentration of the footprint in the logic of fewer better doors.

In terms of wholesale, I think Paola, in her speech, remarked the guidance, which is on ZEGNA brand, it's a low double-digit decline by year-end, which is more that when you can observe in the first half, because we are intensifying our icon protection strategy. It's a question of protection, it will become more intense. In Thom Browne, we have seen in Q2 29% decline, that is more or less what we expect for the full year in the region of minus 30% at this point. This part is becoming less and less impactful because it's 17% of the business at this point is on sale. Tom Ford, we expect a low mid-single digit, which is not far away from what we have seen so far.

There will be a continuation with a stronger decline in the next months on the ZEGNA side because we want to make a further step on the protection of the icon products.

There was a final question on the concentration rate, the 5% generating 40% of our business, which, first of all, is not something that we provide, let's say, update quarterly or half-years. More than that, Chris, it's very important, our strategy for ZEGNA brand is to talk to our community, to talk to our top of the pyramid customers. This, as Gianluca was saying before, is today generating a snowball effect, and we see many other new customers. This is what we look, what we consider, and these are the KPI that we look at. I would concentrate on these KPIs more than on the one that you mentioned.

Understand. Thank you very much.

Thank you to you, Chris, as always. Moving to the next one.

Our next question comes from the line of Maria Mehta at Bernstein. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, Paola and Gianluca, thank you for taking my questions.

I have three. First, I know you opened quite a few stores for ZEGNA in the U.S. recently. Would you be able to tell us how much space contributed to growth in the region or overall? Could you maybe walk us through the dynamics of new stores a bit more? How many new clients do you have coming in versus existing clients? How long does it take for the stores to reach brand average? Anything basically that you could tell us. Second, in the existing stores that you have, what would be the selling actions that you implemented at ZEGNA that have had the highest impact in terms of sell-through and maybe retail space productivity as well? Even though I know it's only a revenue call. Finally, it's a quick one.

Su Misura, obviously, you're doing more activations with ZEGNA, you're saying that Su Misura is driving some of the growth. Is there a target to go above the 10% of sales, which you have now for Su Misura, for ZEGNA or the group, or you're just waiting to see which performs better? Thank you very much. Thank you to you, Mehta.

Just one quick one. Can you repeat briefly the second one? I personally don't think I got it completely or just don't want to answer something not right.

Yeah, sure. For existing stores, are there particular selling actions that you implemented at ZEGNA? Let's say, more collection drops or maybe specific products that have had the highest impact on sell-through of these items or retail space productivity over the past half year.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, very clear. Okay, on the first one, on the space and how many new existing clients in the U.S. for ZEGNA, Mehta, I would like to a little bit, let's say, not to answer, but I don't think all these details is something that is important to share today. What is really important, and then I leave also Gianluca to comment, is the success of a strategy that has been implemented over the past years, very coherently, very focused. This is working, of course, with the also merchandising strategy, CRM strategy, the team locally that has been very successful and is working very well. All this is today bringing to these results, and in a market that continue to remain solid, but I would say maybe we are outperforming.

This is what is important to understand, and then I leave it to Gianluca if he wants to comment a little bit more on the U.S.

No, in general, as you said before, DTC growth for ZEGNA overall is comp. All the growth is comp. This applies also to U.S. It's not meaningful, the space contribution. In terms of product, I think as Paolo was mentioning, more than a single product, it's the overall consistency and go-to-market execution that is really working well. Any month or there is a drop, of course, any drop has its own story. Once it's a story about linen, once will be a story about Second Skin notebook. There is the underlying support of make to measure, which I come to comment later. I think it's more than a single product story. As we said before, the ZEGNA success is going beyond products.

Of course, we have products that are well appreciated and we are obsessed to have well-done products, outstanding materials with a fantastic identifiable silhouette designed by Alessandro. All this is the overarching story, is the consistent execution, go to market, intimacy with clients, I think.

Yeah. Of course, there is the make to measure success, the linen success, the Triple Stitch success.

We will have further products coming up in fall, iconic products. The Lego building house, as Edo likes to mention, that we are building products that are recognizable and it's the execution that is making the difference. In terms of make to measure, I think we are, at this point, trading higher than 10%, and I think that our next phase will be overall in the brand, which means retail and off-sale, everything all together, the next target is to get to 15%.

Yeah. The question on existing stores and what has been the highest impact in terms of sell-through is if it is our drop strategy, which actually is continue to work very well and to drive. I think there is also a strategy of concentrating of fewer bigger stores because what is true and what we see more and more is that even if a store is bigger and so has more product, the sell-through is actually higher. It's much easier, let's say, to have higher sell-through in a larger store than in a smaller store. This is a strategy that we have started and we are adopting now successfully, in particular for ZEGNA brand, but also for- Also for the others for the others.

Okay. I don't know if we answered to all your questions. Okay, operator, are there any other questions?

Don't hear anything. Operator? Sorry.

Your next question is from the line of Daria Nasledysheva at Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Daria from Bank of America. Thank you for taking my questions. Can I please ask three? Within DTC revenue at Thom Browne, what was the split of comp and space, please, considering two new stores and Hong Kong conversion?

Yes. The next one is regarding recent trends in July.

Are you seeing stable trends or any acceleration slowdown on the year-over-year basis? Aware you were talking about solid underlying, but also aware of the comp difference for the second half, just to help us a little bit with modeling and how to think about it. When it comes to profitability and you being comfortable with consensus, can I please ask and clarify if you're referring to the absolute value of EBIT or to the margin? Thank you. Thank you, Daria.

Yes, I'll leave it to Gianluca for Thom Browne, the incidence of space versus comp, the contribution of space in the DTC.

Oh, yeah. Hi, Daria. The space part for Thom Browne in the first half has been the majority of the driver for the 16% organic for Q2. Still with a meaningfully positive comp basis. In H2, if we look ahead, the space will be less of a driver for Thom Browne DTC. I suggest that needs to be taken into consideration going forward because we will have less of a lift in space from Thom Browne. In terms of EBIT, when we talk about feasible consensus, we talk about absolute numbers.

Yeah Did we answer all your questions, Daria?

Actually, on the July point, because you were talking about solid underlying, which probably implies the two-year stack. Just how should we think about acceleration or slowing compared to what you have shown in the first half, particularly for ZEGNA brand? I know you answered for Thom Browne, but if we can have on ZEGNA, that would be helpful.

Thank you. Yes, sorry, I had it written and I forgot to mention to Gianluca, my fault.

Early to make a final judgment. As I said before, we are happy about the DTC trend that we see still solid. What we are seeing as the only difference, if we can put a comment, is that we see some softer European trend in these three weeks. Then it's a question of the weather, it's a question of the World Cup. We'll see. That is the only color that I would call out. For the rest, we are observing in the first days, Americas still very solid. We are seeing Middle East very well, recovering with resilience. We see Asia in line with the GCR, with some positive signs, and the rest of APAC still strong. I would say that overall are the same features with some softness in continental Europe.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you to you, Daria. I don't know if there is any follow-up.

There are no further questions at this time. We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call to Alice Poggioli, Group Investments Relation Director, for closing remarks.

Okay. Hi, everyone. Thank you for attending today's call. I would just like to remind you that our next release will be on September 3rd for H1 results. The silent period will begin on August 1st, do not hesitate to contact us for any further clarification. Have a nice summer. [Foreign language].

Have a nice summer to everybody.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending.