Aritzia Inc.’s United States expansion strategy is continuing to pay off. The Vancouver-based women’s apparel retailer reported Thursday that net revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 reached $895 million, exceeding its outlook and putting it in strong position to weather the challenges posed by U.S. tariffs.
The company said the strength of its U.S. business helped bring net revenue up 31 per cent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, which ended March 2. Excluding net revenue earned in the extra week in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, net revenue increased 38 per cent.
U.S. net revenue grew 48 per cent year-over-year to $548 million, or 56 per cent excluding the extra week in Q4. The retailer said it continues to see a long runway for growth in the U.S. and plans to broaden its reach to five new cities this year.
Aritzia chief executive Jennifer Wong said on a call with analysts that optimized inventory position, strategic marketing investments and a record number of boutique openings all fuelled “accelerated momentum” in the U.S. and Canada, both in store and online.
“In fiscal 2026, we remain focused on our winning real estate strategy, which continues to prove itself over and over again,” she said.
Opening four new U.S. stores in the fourth quarter, as well as the repositioned Fifth Avenue flagship boutique in Manhattan, helped drive a 24 per cent increase in retail net revenue year-over-year. Excluding last year’s extra week, retail net revenue increased 31 per cent.
Online traffic growth helped e-commerce net revenue increase 42 per cent, or 48 per cent excluding the extra week.
While softness in the Canadian market was a concern over the last year, Canadian net revenue grew to $347 million, an increase of 11 per cent or 16 per cent excluding the extra week.
Chief financial officer Todd Ingledew said while U.S. tariffs pose a “significant challenge” to the retail industry, Aritzia already received the “vast majority of inventory required to satisfy demand for our spring-summer season” prior to U.S. tariffs kicking in.
“At this time, 40 per cent of our revenue is generated outside the United States and we have already on hand almost half of the inventory we anticipate needing for this fiscal year,” he said.
Ingledew said the company is working to offset the impact of tariffs through four strategies: reducing costs across the business, partnering with suppliers to help absorb added costs, focusing on multi-year initial markup opportunities and shifting production to countries with lower tariffs.
Aritzia’s production is spread out over 13 countries across four continents, with the majority of it taking place in China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Wong said the company has reduced its production in China from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and is working to bring that number down to a mid-single-digit percentage by spring of next year.
Branching out to new suppliers and new countries was already in the works, Wong said, but tariffs accelerated the process.
“This has been part of our existing strategy to diversify now for nearly a decade,” she said.
Aritzia evaluates its pricing on a seasonal basis, but Wong said the company currently doesn’t see the need to commit to increasing prices because of tariffs.
“If we execute as we are setting out on all four of those mitigation strategies, pricing is not a primary lever at this point in time,” she said.
The company reported a strong liquidity position at the end of the fourth quarter, with nearly $286 million in cash, zero debt and no money drawn from its $300 million revolving credit facility.
Looking ahead, Aritzia forecasted net revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 to be in the range of $620 million to $640 million. The company plans to open a minimum of 12 new boutiques and five repositioned stores in the next fiscal year, as well as rolling out an international commerce site and mobile app.
“I’m confident we’ll successfully navigate the current external uncertainty, including tariffs and the potential impact on our consumers,” said Wong. “Our successful 40-plus year track record demonstrates our resilience across varying economic conditions.”
Aritzia shares were up more than 15 per cent as of mid-Friday, to $57.42.
• Email: jswitzer@postmedia.com
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Aritzia says no plan to raise prices as it adjusts to Trump tariffs
2025-05-02 17:33:04