Farfetch remains optimistic despite fourth quarter decline

While Farfetch founder José Neves announced late last week that he was pleased with the results, the fourth quarter data was down. Indeed, in the last period of the year, Farfetch recorded entries for 629 million dollars, a significant drop in sales corresponding to -5% compared to the last quarter of 2021. Regarding net profit, Farfetch ended 2022 with 345 million euros, down from the 1.47 billion euros that the company recorded for the year 2021.

The Portuguese entrepreneur from Porto, considered the "Jeff Bezos of fashion" and whose personal fortune exceeded $2 billion at the beginning of 2022, commented optimistically on the multinational's financial results: "I am proud to announce that Farfetch has weathered significant headwinds and unprecedented challenges throughout 2022 and despite this has posted consistent growth and a GMV of $4.1 billion." (GMV is the metric used by e-commerce companies, which displays the amount of product sales, other revenues and business volume of the marketplace taking into account orders already validated and sent) and points out that "Farfetch has been able to capture new market share and its GMV has nearly doubled since the start of the Covid 19 global pandemic. (...) Farfetch starts this new year with a new image: that of a more competitive company thanks to its strategic reorganisation and the optimisation of logistics costs."

José Neves also announced that 2023 would be a year of strong growth, marked by the launch of new commercial and strategic partnerships.

The changes will also affect the company's board of directors, with eight-year CFO Elliot Jordan having announced his resignation by the end of the year. The company has already begun the process of identifying a possible successor.