Good evening. This is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Moncler Group nine months 2023 Interim Management Statement conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing Star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Elena Mariani, Director of Strategic Planning and Investor Relations of Moncler Group. Please go ahead, Madam. Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining our call today. The Interim Management Statement call is hosted by Luciano Santel, Chief Corporate and Supply Officer, and by myself. I will start providing a brief overview of our results, and then we will be happy to take your questions. Before starting, I need to remind you that this presentation may contain certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information. Any forward-looking statements are based on the Group's current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements, many of which are beyond the ability of the Group to control or estimate. Let me also highlight that, given the nature of our business, interim results can be influenced by seasonal effects and therefore cannot be taken as a proxy for full-year trends or results. Finally, I remind you that the press has been invited to participate to this conference, in a listen-only mode. Now we can start, moving to page three of the presentation. I would like to start our call as usual, highlighting our key brand initiatives and events launched during the course of the Q3. Starting with our first Moncler brand dimension, Genius. We had two launches during Q3. The first one was Genius by Salehe Bembury. We're very proud to have worked with him, one of the most talented emerging designers of the year. In this co-creation project, he launched his first full ready-to-wear collection and also his own version of Moncler's Trailgrip GPX. We were able to connect both with our loyal existing customers, but also importantly, with new customers and new communities. The second co-creation project was with Pharrell Williams, The Art of Terrain, a collection inspired by the idea of glamping, which was presented at Milan Fashion Week in September during an iconic event at Portrait Milano, which was attended by approximately 5,000 people, and also had a very strong eco effect on all major social media platforms. Moving on to our main collection on page four, two main things to highlight. First, the introduction of a new season of our iconic men's Moncler Edit collection. Pictures on the left-hand side of our slide. As you might know, Edit is the most sophisticated, elevated part of our main collection, with richer fabrics and clean design, and it has been resonating very well with our customers, pretty much across all regions. Second, after the success of the seventieth anniversary, Maya, last year, we launched a brand new concept, RE/ICONS, to celebrate Moncler's most iconic styles. And this year, we reintroduced our iconic Karakorum jacket, in three different versions, supported by a strong brand campaign, and an exclusive partnership with British Vogue. As for the third brand I mentioned, Grenoble, there is going to be a huge focus during the upcoming fall/winter season, so you will hear more about this during our end-of-year results presentation. Moving to page 5, as you can see, we were quite active, also on footwear. We gathered some of the most relevant personalities of the footwear world in Paris at Studio Ascenti to pre-introduce our new fall/winter 2023 footwear products, and it was a very successful event. We also launched new styles, including new colorways and versions of our iconic Trailgrip and of the Gaia Pocket, as well as the brand new, Peka Trek boots and the first Trailgrip knitted high version. Last but not least, we teamed up with Billionaire Boys Club, the brand co-owned by, Pharrell Williams and Nigo. As part of their anniversary celebrations, we launched an exclusive capsule collection, which gained, quite a lot of visibility, particularly in the, in the U.S. market. Moving on to Stone Island on page 6, let me highlight a couple of very important initiatives launched, in Q3. First, we announced a global, multi-year partnership with Frieze, the world's leading platform for modern and contemporary art. In doing so, we became the official partner of Focus, the section of Frieze dedicated to young galleries and emerging artists and of the global membership program, Frieze 91. This partnership, which kicked off at Frieze London 2023, is an important step in the brand's engagement strategy, reaching out to new communities and thereby extending its reach. Secondly, in September in Korea, we hosted the largest-ever installation by Stone Island in Asia, featuring over 70 iconic pieces from the Stone Island archive. It was an immersive experience in the Stone Island universe, which helped us showcase the roots and the identity of the brand. As previously anticipated, with Stone, there will be much more activations in the upcoming months, with 2024 set to be the year when we will further enhance the brand's visibility globally. Let's now move to page 7, where we quickly comment the group nine-month revenue development, focusing on growth at Constant FX. In the first nine months of the year, the group generated over EUR 1.8 billion of revenues, up 17% year-on-year, with Q3 at EUR 670 million, up 7%. The Moncler brand in Q3 was up 9% at Constant FX, with DTC double-digit positive and wholesale high single-digit negative. As you know, due to our seasonality, Q3 is the largest wholesale quarter in the year, and the one with the channel mix mostly skewed towards wholesale. So the overall brand's growth is influenced by the channel mix, and the ongoing conversions, but we will go into more details in a second. Stone Island revenues were in line with last year, also with a double-digit positive DTC and a negative wholesale, which is about 70% of revenues, as our focus remains on elevating the quality of our distribution network, maintaining a very selective approach. Let's now focus on Moncler brand only, and move to page 8, where we analyze the performance by region. Asia, as you know, includes APAC, Korea and Japan, and in Q3, it grew 22%, a remarkable result considering the much tougher comparable base in China, where last year in Q2, we suffered from several COVID-related lockdowns, while Q3 post closures was a pretty solid quarter. And beyond the Chinese mainland, also Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well as Southeast Asia, continued to grow extremely well. Japan and Korea continued to report a very solid performance in the quarter, slightly normalizing but still growing nicely. And, EMEA, so EMEA revenues were up 6% in Q3, sequentially slowing due to a normalization in local consumption, but also a slower recovery of tourism flows compared to the first part of the year. The DOS business continued to show a positive performance in EMEA, up double digit, while online was weaker compared to the first part of the year. The Americas region was down 14% in Q3, mainly due to the conversions of Nordstrom and part of Saks from a wholesale to a DTC business model, something we talked about already during the H1 results. We had in the region a diverging performance of the two channels, DTC continuing to grow at a double-digit pace and wholesale the opposite, declining at a double-digit rate. Moving on to the revenues by channel on page nine, you can visualize more clearly the diverging performance of the two channels. Wholesale was down 9% in the quarter. EMEA and Asia remained solid, while Americas was affected by the conversion of Nordstrom from a wholesale to a hybrid business model, and the conversion of parts of Saks from a wholesale to a concession model. Excluding the impacts of these conversions, the performance of the channel would be flattish in Q3 and positive year-to-date. Importantly, the guidance for the year in terms of development of this channel is unchanged. We expect a decline of the wholesale channel of about mid-high, high single digit. And obviously, these conversion activities will be fully annualized only in the second part of next year. The DTC channel in Q3 instead grew by a solid 18% year-on-year, with, in particular, Asia and Americas outperforming. The growth of the channel was affected by a deterioration in the performance of the online channel, particularly in the EMEA region. In fact, the DTC growth in the quarter would have been above 20%, excluding these negative impact from the online channel. All in all, if you look at the big picture and at the development of the channel mix for Moncler, you can notice that while last year in the first nine months, we were still at 70- 30% DTC wholesale mix, this year, we are already getting closer to an 80-20% mix in the first nine months. Now, moving on to Stone Island regional trends on page 10, you can see that EMEA revenues in the quarter were in line with last year, with a strong double-digit performance in the DTC channel, entirely offsetting the decline in wholesale. Asia grew 1% in Q3, with a strong performance of Japan compensating for the weaker performance of the Korean market. And finally, the Americas region was down 2%, much better than in the first part of the year, but still impacted by softer business trends and a more cautious approach from department stores. Looking at the trends by channel on page 11, also for Stone Island, you can see the different development of DTC versus wholesale. Wholesale recorded a decrease of 6% in Q3, primarily due to the strict volume control adopted in the management of this channel, with the objective of continuously improving the quality of the distribution network. DTC, instead, was up 16% in the quarter, mainly driven by the very solid performance of EMEA and of Japan. The direct online channel for Stone Island also grew nicely. Let me take one second to highlight also for Stone Island, the ongoing evolution of the channel mix, with DTC in the first nine months now accounting for 35% of revenues, 5 points more compared to the first nine months of last year. Finally, let's briefly examine our store network on page 12. At the end of September, Moncler DOS store network reached 262 units, with five net openings and six relocations and expansions in Q3, including the beautiful stores of Miami, Bal Harbour, and Paris, Galeries Lafayette, which you can see on page 13 and 14. The Stone Island network counts 77 stores, and this quarter we would highlight, in particular, the relocation of our Munich store, for which you can see some pictures on page 15. I'm going to stop here now, and I will hand over to the operator for your questions. Operator, please, you can open the Q&A session. Thank you. Thank you. This is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. We will now begin the Q&A session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. We will pause for a moment as callers are joining the queue. The first question is from Melania Grippo with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Good evening, everyone. This is Melania Grippo from BNP Paribas. I have three questions. My first question is on retail. Could you please tell us which trends are you currently seeing, compared to the 2018 you reported, and how this is served by geography? My second question is on price increases. If you could please remind us any action that you have taken on prices for 2024 and your level or where your price gap stands? And finally, on Stone Island, if you can please tell us, which are the first actions undertaken by the new CEO? Thank you. Okay, thank you, Melania, for your, for your question about current trend. I mean, I think that Elena reported very, very deeply and clearly the trend in Q3 that was good. Of course, not as much in the H1 of the year, but of course, the best of comparison in some regions, specifically in China, but not only was much, much tougher. We started to see some kind of slowdown in September. Looking at the Q3, first July and August were quite good, quite strong. September, less. There was a slowdown starting in the H2 of September. That continues in the first, in the first couple of weeks of October. So right now, the current trend is softer, but I mean, of course, it's still too premature to come to any conclusion. Also because something important to highlight is that the base of comparison in the H1 of October was very tough, because last year, the first two weeks of October were literally extraordinary on the back of the event we held in Milan for the 70th anniversary. That was a great success, and the business coming right after that event was extremely strong in all the different regions, specifically in China, with probably the best ever Golden Week. So again, the current trend is fairly good, not great, but again, nothing important or meaningful for the next weeks that are very important for our business, as you know. Second question about the price increase in 2024, it will not be important as it was this year. It will be in the region of mid-single digit, so nothing particularly relevant. And with the price gap, that will improve a little bit. I mean, next year, we expect to go below 140, so in the region of 135, probably more or less. And again- For China? Yes, for China. Sorry, but I mean, I think that the price gap was the question regarding the China, but I think I know, because it's important to specify. So the 135, 137 next year, of course, with the final goal in a couple of years, as you know, to go down to 1.3. Of course, when we are talking about China, we are also talking about the other equivalent markets like Korea, like Japan, even though in Japan, as you know, due to the current weakness of the currency, the price gap is already much lower than in the other markets. So we are much closer to the final goal of 1.3 in Japan than in the other markets, but this is due to the current level of the currency. About Stone Island, of course, the results I think are very clear. Weak wholesale, much better and encouraging results on the retail. Talking about Robert Triefus, that was your question, of course, Robert joined the company in June, so he's already actively working on the brand, because, I mean, his background is a brand strategy background, developed in some very important and relevant luxury brands. And this is the main reason why we decided to get him on board. So he started to work on the brand. Of course, I mean, I can mention a couple of events he already organized, one in Korea, the first event after many, many years, with the community of that country. That is a very strong community for the brand. And the agreement, the partnership with Frieze that I already mentioned, and the second event in London, still with the Frieze that held in the Dover Street Market store. So I mean, these are only the first initiatives. We are still at the very beginning, of course, but at the very beginning of a process that, I mean, is intended to increase the level of awareness, the voice, but most importantly, the perception of this brand, that is a very, very strong brand, but still with a lot to develop. Of course, needless to say, to continue this process, to convert a wholesale business model into a DTC business model, which of course, as you know, I mean, this is an old story we already told you other times, of course, it requires the development of a strong DTC culture, retail, physical retail culture first, but also an online culture. On this aspect, let me remind you that next year, mid-2024, we plan to in-source the online business that right now is still operated by YOOX NET-A-PORTER. Of course, in order to develop this culture, we are creating a pretty solid online organization. We have a new head of the online business who is doing a great job. So again, I mean, we have great, great expectation for the future. Thank you. The next question... Sorry. The next question is from Oriana Cardani, from Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one regards the contribution of tourism. Can you quantify the weight of tourism on total European sales in Q3? And how does it contribute in the month of October? Do you see an acceleration in tourism? The second question is about the growth profile of revenues in Q3. So how much is organic growth? And what is the balance between price mix and volume? And finally, regarding footwear, how is this category performing in this nine months of the year? Thank you. Okay, Oriana, thank you for your question. About tourism, let me focus on tourism from outside the region for Europe, because I think, I guess this is your question, but if it's not, let me know. I mean, in Europe, as you probably know, because this is what we represented at the end of the H1, we started to see more and more tourism coming from other regions. Of course, still way below the level we achieved in 2029. That still remains our benchmark. In Q3, honestly, we have seen more and more tourism, but we didn't see a specific acceleration in the flow of tourism coming from other regions. Just to give you some more qualitative, some more color about the nationalities, you may remember that American customers represented number one. Now, I mean, Americans and Chinese is, Chinese represent still the most important nationalities, but Korea also is a nationality that is growing and has been growing during Q3. Honestly, in October, I mean, of course, it's still very premature to give you any meaningful, relevant information, but I can tell you that we don't see any specific change in regards to what I said about Q3. Second question? If I understood well, you asked, with regards to the organic growth in retail, the contribution of comp versus space and then price versus volume. Is that right? Yes. If it correct. Well, yeah, because as you know, we don't disclose the comp by quarter. So we're not going to give you that flavor, but the space contribution guidance for the year is unchanged at mid-high single digit, and for price versus volume, similar answer, but maybe Mr. Santel wants to give you further. Yes. Yes, we don't report the numbers, but I can give you some color. I mean, our overall and historical guidance, but also the guidance for this year, is that volume normally represents two-thirds and the price one-third. In the Q2, and even more in the Q3, we see price to grow more than the volumes, so it's difficult to predict how much maybe at the end of the year, but probably it might be instead of two-thirds, one-third, it may be 50/50 or 60/40, something like that. But also, this is due to the fact that, of course, the price increase in this current season may play a role in the final number. Last question about the footwear. Of course, footwear is still a very small business for Moncler, but we have now great expectations, honestly, because finally we see our collections, specifically the new line that was launched one year ago, the Trailgrip line, developing first the appreciation of our customers, the credibility of our customers, and also volumes. I mean, that category is growing faster than the other categories. Of course, we are talking about of still a very small business. So even if the pace of the growth is very good, the numbers are not visible as much as we hope they will be visible over the next couple of years. Oriana, just to give you additional color, if you want some quantitative color. So footwear year to date was the fastest growing category, followed by knitwear and cut and sew, and then the third one was outerwear. So the other categories have grown year to date faster than outerwear. Okay, thank you very much. The next question is from Louise Singlehurst, with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hi, good evening. Thank you, Elena and Luciano. Just a couple of questions for me, if I can. Just on the commentary by Asia, obviously very interesting, up 22%, so you must be thrilled with that, given the tough comp. Can you just give us the color about the Chinese cluster, particularly that two-year stack, and how that's progressed throughout the year to date, to Q1, Q2, and Q3? And more specifically, if there's anything that makes you feel differently about that Chinese consumer behavior from earlier on in the year. And then secondly, just given, obviously the like-for-like progression that we've seen or the underlying growth progression, not like-for-like, but the progression we've seen in Q3, can we just talk about that margin target that you've talked about previously, Luciano, of around 30%, and what parameters that you need in terms of growth to get there? I presume the investment schedule with Grenoble and the other activity and the brand engagement is a priority for Q4. Thank you. Okay, thank you for your question. About the Chinese cluster, I mean, China overall did quite well in Q3. We are talking about the Chinese cluster because we just said that the Chinese customers are starting to travel also to Europe, but not that much, not as much as in 2019. But they travel, are traveling more and more in their market, in China itself, and just to mention the island of Hainan, that is a destination for tourism that is doing very well. Also, our stores are doing very well, but also the close by markets like Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan. Japan more and more, because also thanks to the weakness of the currency that make that market right now more competitive for Chinese customers. Having said that, the Chinese cluster in Q3 is in line with what we reported in the H1 of the year, that is up 50% as compared to 2021, the two-year stack. So Chinese cluster are still, still very good. Again, the Q4 are still, still premature, also because, you know, we have just two weeks, or three weeks behind, but again, the Chinese cluster is still doing, still doing very well. Talking about margin, I mean, our margin target, I mean, ambition, Elena says ambition, she's, she's right, is still to deliver a margin, operating margin this year, substantially in line with what we did last year. This is still our our indication. Of course, everything will depend on the, on the business trend over the next 10, 11 weeks, that are, needless to say, the most important weeks for our business in the year. But again, this is still our, I mean, ambition, this is the right, the right word. That's very clear. Thank you. The next question is from Luca Solca with Bernstein. Please go ahead. Yes, hello, Luciano and Elena. Maybe a simple question about the Stone Island. We see that it has continued to increase its exposure to retail. Is Stone Island growing into retail and moving the channel mix from wholesale to retail dilutive in terms of profit margin? And what is the gap that you currently have in retail space productivity between Stone Island and Moncler? Has it been closing or is it in line with what you had seen in the past few quarters? As far as retail or direct-to-consumer growth is concerned at Moncler, I wonder if you could give us a rough idea of what is space and what is like for like. Thank you very much indeed. Luca, thank you for your question. The first one is a very interesting question. Of course, I'm not sure I will be able to give you the answer you may expect, but I mean, I'm sure you have a part, you have part of the answer. Of course, Stone Island, right now, is culturally a wholesale business model company. And culturally means that, I mean, we are developing the DTC business, but as you know, as we said in the past, we want to develop the business. I mean, we want this business to grow organically, and so we are not anxious to develop that business by opening many, many stores, but we want the existing stores and some others that we expected to plan that are in our pipeline to perform in the right way. Of course, needless to say, the sales density of Stone Island is still below the great sales density of Moncler. How much is something that I can't tell you, but of course, I mean, it is still below. Of course, we have to close this gap step by step, and the reason why we are very prudent in, I mean, predicting the future of the brand is that, I mean, as you know, as we said before, wholesale channel is not particularly strong right now everywhere in the world, particularly in Europe and in the U.S., even more. And it's very important strategically to develop the DTC business. But again, we want this business to grow organically in a clean way, and so it will take some time. But for sure, sales density is what drives margins, and the sales density right now is below Moncler. So margin-wise, Stone Island, even if right now is substantially in line, a little lower, Moncler, but simply because we spend, we spend less money in marketing, which is something we want to adjust in the future. But, I mean, this is the picture I can give you right now. About Moncler, the DTC space versus comp, I mean, our indication we gave- Yeah, for the full year. Yes, for the full year, because I mean, Q3, I mean, of course, we don't report comp, but also it will be, it will be totally meaningless. But for the full year, we still expect space to represent a percent in the region of mid- to high-single-digit% and the comp also. No, and Luca, if it can help you, I mean, you know, space contribution was a touch more than the first part of the year, but we still have the most important openings in the Q4 that should lead us at year-end to the guidance we've been providing since the beginning of the year. Understood. Thank you very much indeed. You're welcome. The next question is from Thomas Chauvet with Citi. Please go ahead. Good evening, Elena and Luciano. Three questions, please. The first one on the trends, to clarification, when you said slowdown it was happened in the H2 of September, continued in October. So if we estimate like-for-like at around 10-11% in Q3, based on what you said, Elena, on the space, is it fair to assume that perhaps the end of September and October are now only up single-digit like-for-like? And then, as you commented, Luciano, on the Chinese cluster "evolution," could you talk about the other nationalities, Europeans, which I think were still up double-digit in Q2, Americans, which I think were up over 20%. Second question on the online business. You highlighted the weakness in the quarter, particularly in EMEA. Looks like online globally was probably down double digit. Can you elaborate on why you think it's happening so suddenly? Is online worse in your third party business than on your own website? And what measures are you taking at the moment to try to fix that, to, I don't know, rejuvenate the traffic and conversion, and I don't know what the other issues are. And finally, on inventories, they had increased by a third at the end of the H1, and it was due to your production output of fall/winter. Are you happy now about the inventory levels at the end of October, based on the wholesale sell-in and obviously the retail sell-out, given your comments on September, October? Thank you. Okay, I've counted four questions, so we'll try to address them quickly. Sorry. Yeah, thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Thomas. So about the first question, the slowdown, I mean, of course, we don't report comp in Q3, you can imagine that, I can't tell you how much is comp in October. Also, honestly, I don't know it. But in fact there was a slowdown in the H2 of September. This slowdown, I mean, if we can call it a slowdown, I said that is a softer business, continued in the H1 of October, but also because the base of comparison with last year was particularly strong, because last year, the first two weeks of October were extremely strong. So this is what I can tell you. Something important to highlight, which is also your third question, is the online, because online is the channel that more than others experienced this kind of slowdown. Starting in September, H2 of September, we faced a significant slowdown in the online business, mostly driven by a decrease in traffic. Why traffic decreased so much? Honestly, it's difficult to say. What I can tell you is that, I mean, in that industry, I think that looking at performances of retailers and looking also at performances of retailers where we have e-concessions, also in this site, traffic was significantly down. What are we doing now to adjust this trend? Of course, we keep monitoring this trend, but we are not... Taking specific actions to pay traffic, and you know what I mean? I mean, we don't want to force people to come to visit our site, paying, paying in performance ad. And so this is something that for the time being we monitor also because, I mean, our aim is to grow organically that business and not to pay traffic to come to visit our business. This is about online. Okay, nationalities. Okay, we told you before that Chinese cluster grew on the two-year stack 50%. I can tell you that Korean cluster grew strong double digit, honestly, more than what we see in that market. I mean, that is for sure the weaker market in that region, but nevertheless it is still doing fairly well for Moncler. But in addition, on the top of that business, Korean customers are traveling, as I said before, to Europe, and traveling also to Japan, thanks to the better, better prices they can find in Japan. So overall, Korean cluster did very well, double digit. Japan fairly well. Europe, I can tell you that, I mean, of course the deterioration, the slowdown in the online business, but also slowdown in the local consumption. But I mean, the European cluster is still, still very strong. And the American cluster, it is more or less- It is still positive, but it's not a double digit that we have seen before. Yes, single digit, correct. Yes, because we are annualizing this trend that started sort of like middle of last year. Okay, last question. Inventory. Inventory was quite good. I mean, it depends on the different points of view, but I mean, it was quite healthy at the end of June. It is still healthy. I mean, we are ready to fulfill the demand from the market. It is a healthy inventory because it's made only or mostly of a current season product. And so of course, we have no worries that we are in a very good position to fulfill the demand of the markets. Thank you. The next question is from Erwan Rambourg with HSBC. Please go ahead. Hi, good evening. I hope you can hear me, Elena and Luciano. Yes, we can hear you well. Yeah. Okay, okay, thanks. I'm just using a new system. Thanks for your patience. Just a few follow-ups, please. I think you said, wholesale was down 9%, but if you, backtrack from, the changes in the approaches for Nordstrom and Saks, it would have been sort of flattish. Can you talk about the mechanics of that shift from wholesale to retail? Is it fair to assume that you're losing nine points of wholesale growth in Q3, but that should maybe transfer into four points of positive, incremental growth in retail in Q4? Is that the way to think about it, or, would you think about it differently? Secondly, looking at the Chinese cluster, can you maybe comment on purchases at home versus purchases abroad today with the Chinese cluster, relative to what the levels were pre-COVID? Knowing that, presumably, to your previous point about Europe, they're taking a much longer time to reappear offshore, if I can say. And then thirdly, just coming back to online, I'm just wondering if you can quantify what percentage of retail sales or overall sales online represents today for the group. Thank you. Okay, thank you for your question. About the mechanics of the conversion, I mean, the -9% would have been, I don't know, -1%, anyway, flattish, as compared to last year. The mechanic is due to the fact that in Q3 last year, as usual, we deliver the vast majority of the wholesale orders, including, in this case, Nordstrom and Saks, and that business completely disappeared from the wholesale channel. Of course, there is a shift on one side from one channel to the other, because to your point, of course, some of that business should be visible on the retail side, but there is also a shift from one quarter to the other. And so some of the business will be visible in Q4. Some of the business will be visible in Q1 of next year. So it's not something totally mathematics that business will appear in Q4, because some business will be done in Q1 of next year. I don't know if I answered your question. Of course, the reason why we are implementing this kind of commercial strategy is because we strongly believe that from the demand point of view, from the quality point of view, we want to operate directly these stores. So of course, we implemented this hybrid model with Nordstrom, and we implemented a pure concession model with Saks in the store of Fifth Avenue. And this is because we believe that in this way we can enhance the service to our customers, enhance the message, the brand message to our audience. To the question on the Chinese, I can answer because in Q3, it was about two-thirds of spending within China and then one-third abroad, which frankly is not different from what we have observed in Q2. While Q1 was about 80%-85% at home and about 15% abroad. So there was not, you know, a big change in the mix compared to the previous quarter. What is... Sorry, Elena, what is that compared to from the pre-COVID era? So pre-COVID, I think it was for us, it was about 50/50, more or less in 2019. Okay. And then last year, obviously, was for the vast, vast majority at home, about 90, 90%. Yes. Yeah, perfect. Thank you. And your question on online? Basically, we only give this figure for the full year. Just as a reference, in FY 2022, we had about 16% of sales online, and it was about two-thirds direct and one-third third party. Fantastic. Thank you. Thanks. The next question is from Susie Tibaldi from UBS. Please go ahead. Thanks for taking my question. Good evening. My first one, we are seeing clearly some polarization between the very high end and more aspirational consumers. So from your point of view, how do you see your customer base? Do you see any trends to flag, perhaps, different trends by price point? Perhaps seeing this more aspirational consumer starting to really fall off, and any trends by region on this point? Secondly, on the weakness that you saw end of September and early October in Europe, if you exclude the online, do you have any idea of how to think about it in terms of how much of it was driven by the unfavorable weather? How much was more structural? Because now we are getting into Q4, which is obviously super important for your local consumer in Europe. Also trying to think if there was some mixed impact at the end of the quarter because you were not able to sell the fall/winter collection yet. Thirdly, one question about Genius. Given that now, you know, in this environment, where the consumer is, it seems that it's going a little bit more towards classics. Are you seeing any change in trends with this when it comes to collaborations? You had big launch with adidas recently. In this environment, do you find that consumers are still receptive to, to, to collaborations and Genius in general? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Susie. About overall picture of a consumer trend, high end or aspirational, I mean, we don't see honestly a specific deterioration of our picture. Of course, I mean, we have been working a lot over the past year to elevate the level of our collection, and I think that Moncler, as much as other strong luxury brands, is not impacted specifically from the slowdown or the decrease, the decline of the aspirational customers. And honestly, to go to your second question, I mean, you touched a point that I mean, we don't like to talk about, but I mean, we have to live with the weather. Of course, the weather is not helping our business, is not helping any kind of apparel business, of course, because with this kind of mild September, October, people prefer to go to the mountain or to the seaside rather than going to shopping in the city. But, I mean, this is something that every year regularly we face in October or in November or in December. And at the end, of course, weather may be impactful, but just for a few weeks. For sure, to answer your question, September and October have not been strong weeks from the weather point of view. Even if, I mean, we started back in June and July to sell our fall/winter collection. Of course, the most important part of the season still has to come, but, I mean, we have already sold a lot of this collection. Something important to highlight, some kind of color, but is more qualitative, I mean, our customers, like a lot, the collection. I mean, we are very, very happy about the current collection. Talking about Genius, I mean, the strategy behind the Genius is something you know very well. I mean, to increase the audience, we want, we want to talk, to attract new audience, to attract new people, to attract also the existing customers, to keep talking with them, to keep showing them newness. Of course, still with a strong content of innovation. About the current trend, you are totally right, but I don't think that this will be the end of collaboration. Actually, what we are working on right now is more precisely called co-creation. That is something beyond the collaboration. In any event, the collaboration with adidas was very successful, as much the other collaborations with Salehe Bembury, with Pharrell Williams. Right now, today, we launched Palm Angels. First results are only half a day, but are very good. Of course, what is important is not to forget that the taste, the overall taste of the market has changed. So this kind of trend on a more sober, classic, elegant taste is something we take into serious consideration. Just to remind you, we have a specific part of our collection that is called Edit, that has been in our collection since ever. That is talking to that kind of profile, a customer that likes a more classic, elegant, still very rich material product. And of course, that part of our collection is doing very well, but it's not something we invented yesterday, something that has been in our collection since many years ago. Susie, just a couple of clarifications on, on your, on your first question. First of all, we don't just look at the transactional aspect. We monitor very closely all the brand engagement statistics. And what I can tell you, and Gino is not here today, but he would tell you that brand engagement, you know, remained very strong across the board, and Q3 wasn't the exception, led by the work presented at the beginning of the call. We also have still some strong consumer-centric work to come for the next 75 days, on all the dimensions, but I would say probably particularly on Grenoble, when we look at the Q4. So what we monitor is... I mean, for us, it's not necessarily important to look at just the trend over a couple of weeks, but we look at the statistics related to the brand and engagement, which for us are probably even more important. And then on your last point, you know, typically as a brand, we adapt, but we don't really follow trends because we believe in the idea of bringing creativity to luxury and staying true to our DNA. So we find it quite risky to just adapt to consumer trends, which are now changing every six months. And so for us, the most important thing is to stay true to our roots. Obviously, we can adapt part of the business, but nothing that you're seeing right now is new or came up. Also remember that Genius is a very small portion of our sales. So it's basically a dimension that is intended to attract new customers and enlarge our audience, as opposed to generate turnover. Thank you so much. The next question is from Charles-Louis Scotti from Kepler. Please go ahead. Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three. The first one on your stores network. You said in the past that you see potential to open 10, 15 stores a year at Moncler. Considering the expected generalized slowdown in the industry, could you potentially envisage to slow down the pace of store opening and expansion, at least in 2024? Second question, can you please share with us the level of retail penetration by region at Moncler? And what targets do you have in mind with which timeframe? This will help us model the expected headwinds from the streamlining of the wholesale channel in the coming quarters or years. And finally, still on the wholesale business in the U.S. Obviously, department stores were driving some traffic to your brand. Are you confident that you will be able to recoup this traffic in your DOS? Could this potentially require higher NP spendings in the American market? Thank you. Yes, about your first question, I mean, you're right. I mean, we plan, we normally plan about 15 new projects for new openings a year. This also will be the case for this year, more or less, and this will be the case also for 2024. Important to remind you and to highlight that we have normally 15 new openings projects and an equivalent number of relocations and expansions of the existing stores. That strategically have been over the past few years and will still be the most important, because relate to stores, I mean, this year, Zurich rather than Vienna, I mean, Bal Harbour in Miami, and several other stores that are doing very well. And then we find a bigger location or in the same location, we are able to expand the store, to make the store-... Much bigger, but also much more visible, and to properly convey the brand message to our customers and to properly carry all the different categories. Talking about next year, I mean, we're still having the pipeline and equivalent number of projects. Of course, we are positive about next year. I mean, prudent, yes, we are very prudent, but we still believe that all the projects we have in our pipeline are projects important, not only for business, but for the brand. Of course, we have also some degree of flexibility, and this was the case in the past, when the business trend changed suddenly and dramatically to stop or to postpone some projects, but for the time being, we maintain this overall guidance. The second question? So the level of penetration of retail versus wholesale by region. Maybe I can start, I help you here. So, the only thing we said is that, the US, if we look at last year, had the largest, percentage, of wholesale. We did say that it was, you know, more than 30% wholesale, and the rest was retail. As you probably know well, Asia, Asia wholesale is, very negligible, and so you can do the math, on the rest. The last question was about the wholesale in the wholesale business in the U.S. I mean, the wholesale business in the U.S. is dominated by department stores. Department stores, I mean, we work with three, four names that are the most important ones. Our strategy is, once again, very qualitative. We started with them in a very selective way to select only the best of those. And right now, we are working very closely with some of them to convert a part of that business from wholesale to DTC. This was the case with Nordstrom, we said before, and with the Saks in the most important store they have, that is in Fifth Avenue. We are working still with the Saks on other potential conversions, something that is premature to mention. Of course, Neiman Marcus, the other big, big player, that, I mean, as everyone knows, is quite reluctant to think about the e-concession. But I mean, it's something we keep talking with them. Of course, I mean, overall, the wholesale business is dominated by players that also have faced some financial problems. So it's a business we monitor very closely. But I mean, we are quite confident about the business we are doing now. Something important to highlight is that the wholesale business in the U.S., this year, independently on the conversion, is weaker as compared to last year, but this is because, I mean, our approach with them, as usual, has been to reduce the quantities when they place the orders, in order to make sure that they bought all the product they needed, but not more than that. So, I mean, we have been very selective and very prudent in the order campaign. Thank you very much. The next question- You're welcome. Sorry. The next question is from Chris Gao from CLSA. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good afternoon, Luciano and Elena. Thanks for taking my question. I have three. So the first one is related to Chinese clientele. We're wondering how is currently Chinese tourist spending power and ticket size compare with pre-pandemic? Are there any consumer profile changes and spending pattern changes for these offshore spenders, according to your observation? And also, what is the ticket size and UPT difference of Chinese spending onshore versus offshore this year? The second question is related to your selling and marketing expense trends this year and the coming 2024. And sorry, Chris, can you... Sorry, Chris, this is Elena. We are really struggling to understand you. The line is not very clear, so can you speak a bit, perhaps slowly? Thank you. Okay, no worries. Thank you. So the second question is related to your selling and marketing expense trends this year and the coming 2024. We noticed that the peak season of brand investment is already in place in the H2, and also the competition has been intensifying in the luxury sector throughout the year. So we are wondering if there is any guidance on the selling and marketing expense ratio trends in the H2. And if we're looking a step forward, what will be your priority in terms of brand investment in the 2024? The last question is related to your existing customer versus your new customers' contribution in your growth. Can you please share a bit about the growth by clientele? How much of your growth of Moncler brand this year is from existing customer, with purchase record this year and last year, and how much is contributed by the new customer recruitment, i.e., the new customer this year? These are my three questions. Thank you. ... Yes, Chris, let me, honestly, I'm not sure to have understood everything, but the second question about the marketing. I mean, our guidance is the same we gave to the market since many years ago, which is in about 7% marketing budget for this year, for next year. Of course, the timing of this budget has been different this year from last year and maybe different than next year. I mean, this year we held the most important event of the year in February, in London, and this is the reason why you may have seen a marketing spending higher in the H1 than last year. Of course, we plan to offset this, that difference in the H2 of the year, but still spending a lot of money in the H2 of the year, because if you make the math, the 7% implies a significant marketing spending in the H2 of the year, of this year. For next year, it's premature to talk about the seasonality of the spending, but it will still be the 7%. Of course, the brand strategy is in line with what has been implemented this year. It will be based on the three pillar of our brand, that are Genius, of course, the main collection, but more and more Grenoble. I mean, Grenoble is something you will see more visibility in in 2023, in the upcoming two months, and of course, the first months of next year, because Grenoble is an extremely important from the strategy point of view, but also business point of view, pillar of our business, because it fully represents and incorporates the heritage of the brand. About the last question about our customers, normally we have about 65% new customers and 35% existing customers. Of course, this incorporates also new stores that we open, that by definition include mostly new customers, but this is more or less the ratio. The first question- Yeah, we didn't really understand your first question. If you can repeat it, please. Yeah, maybe I can quickly repeat my first question. Actually, I want to understand a bit more about the spending power of Chinese tourists offshore this year. So how does Chinese tourists' spending power look like compared with the pre-pandemic level? Are they actually spending more with high ticket size or low? And do you see any customer profile changes regarding you know this portion of you know overseas spenders? Yes, I mean, in your question, there is already the answer, Chris. I mean, you are right. The spending power of Chinese customers traveling abroad is higher than the average spending power of Chinese customers traveling before pandemic in 2029. Of course, they were at that time, many, many more, but the few that represent a contribution of our business in Europe specifically, but not only, are, let me say, people for sure with a higher spending power. And we see that from the average, average ticket, from the units per transaction. And so, for sure, you are, you are totally right. This is understandable also because it's not easy, and it's not cheap to travel out from China. So right now, this relates more to people that have this kind of spending power, not only to buy our products, but also to face the cost of the traveling. Understood. This is very helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. The next question is from Piral Dadania with RBC. Please go ahead. Okay, thank you. Evening. So I'll stick to three as well. Just quickly, if we could just maybe go back to the momentum you're seeing in your retail channel by price point. Elena, I think you talked about some of the lower ASP categories outperforming your core outerwear category. Has that been the case for the last couple of years, or is that something that's changed more recently? And then maybe just on the back of that, perhaps Luciano, you could give us some insight into the retail KPIs that you're seeing in the Q3. Appreciate it's not as important as Q4, but anything you could give us in terms of traffic into store conversion and then average basket size in terms of units and value would be helpful. My second question just relates to the European local consumer. I think you touched on it already, but obviously the fear out there is, there's a slowdown in terms of local consumption in Europe. To the extent that you can, is that something that you are visibly seeing, maybe in terms of customer behavior or traffic, or do you have anything further to add on that point? And finally, my third, third question is on just your relationship with Pharrell Williams. So you -- I think he did a an event with you in late September. I just wanted to understand whether that was already contractually obligated and what the forward-looking relationship between Pharrell Williams and Moncler is expected to look like. Thank you. ... And sorry, Piero, I've counted four questions, so perhaps who comes next, please, kindly stick to two, because we have quite a few people on the line still. Thank you. Sorry. Okay, your first question, retail channel and other categories. I mean, as Elena said, other categories are performing well and at a higher pace than outerwear, and this was the case for footwear. But the second leading category in our business is knitwear, and knitwear is still performing very well. It's not something that happened this year or last year. It's something that has been developed season after season since probably 10 years ago, 8 or 10 years ago. And so I mean, these categories are performing very well, and they represent a significant portion of our business. Your question about the KPIs, of course, we can't provide the KPIs of retail for Q3. What I can tell you is that, of course, that kind of slowdown, also getting to your second question, is a combination of traffic, for sure, and also of conversion. I mean, the conversion is more driven by the weather, because, I mean, people may like to visit our stores, but then, of course, they find it premature to buy product, because the weather is still quite warm. Which is, to some extent, the answer to your second question. I mean, we see a slowdown in the locals in Europe. Honestly, the first answer, the very simple is that, I mean, the comparison is very tough because Europe and local customers in Europe have been growing a lot over the past couple of years, specifically last year, and they were very, very strong. So I mean, a slowdown is something not, not unexpected. Also, I mean, the weather, once again, may play some kind of role because we still have, we are still at the beginning of of the season. About about Pharrell Williams, I mean, let me forget for a second any kind of agreement or contract. I mean, he's he has a contract and agreement with with with Louis Vuitton. What I can tell you is that, Pharrell Williams has been very close to the brand, and let me say very close to Mr. Ruffini himself, since many, many years ago. 2009, that was the first collaboration with Pharrell Williams. I think that the words he spent during the event, with, with, with Mr. Ruffini, are quite self-explanatory about the strong friendship that, they have, they have, each other. And this is the main reason why, he was open and very willing to, to participate to, to our, to our event. Of course, we will still, I mean, we are friend, I mean, Mr. Ruffini is very close friend of him, and so if there will be potential opportunities in the future, we will be very, very happy to, to continue this, this kind of collaboration. The next question is from Rogerio Fujimori with Stifel. Please go ahead. Oh, hi, Luciano and Anna. I have two quick follow-ups and apologies if I missed. But with the European cluster growth in Q3, I think I've made flag that mid-single digit decline in Q3. So I just want to clarify, what was the European cluster number in Q3? And then for the US cluster, I think you've mentioned that it was double digit in Q3 and it was double digit in Q2, but was there any meaningful difference in terms of magnitude and more specifically, consumer behavior that you see in Q3 versus Q2? Thank you very much. Okay. European cluster in Q3 was honestly quite flattish, and the US was positive single-digit positive. So not strong as much as the other, I mean, the Chinese and Korean, I told you before, that were a double-digit, double-digit up. Of course, important to highlight that the US cluster started to be very strong exactly one year ago, in the Q3 of last year. So, I mean, the measure of comparison, once again, this year was quite quite tougher. But still, the US cluster was positive, single-digit. Thank you. You're welcome. The next question is from James Grzinic with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good evening, Luciano and Anna. Just two very quick ones. The first one, Luciano, can you clarify when you talked about that slowdown in the H2 of September and so far in October, did that relate only to Europe, or was it a global comment? That's the first question. And the second question, on Europe, would you please pull out any specific markets that are different from the average, either clearly better or clearly worse, please? ... Yes, about the slowdown. Honestly, I mean, it's more or less across the board, some regions better. Again, Chinese China market, better, the markets close by China, like Hong Kong, are very well. I mean, but this is related to the base of comparison. Europe quite soft. Korea, fairly good in that market, but as I said before, good outside the market. So Korea cluster was very good. Talking about in overall, yes, US quite soft. Of course, I'm talking about the end of September and October, because, I mean, during the Q3, the US cluster was very strong, and also business in the US in our DTC channel was very strong. Talking about Europe, I can tell you that, I mean, the north countries, less well, and Italy and France, better. Very, very, very well. UK, weaker, Germany weaker, France and Italy well. Thank you. The next question is from Paola Carboni with Equita. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. I was wondering if you can share with us a bit of color on Stone Island for 2024. If you have any indication in terms of new store opening and a possible at least increase. I wouldn't expect the budget per se, but what kind of step up in marketing are you planning for Stone Island the next year? And also, as far as Moncler is concerned, you mentioned sometimes that you have several initiatives in terms of brand activation, marketing events for Q4 as well. Can you give us some insight, at least to get a sense of, let's say, the impact of these should be louder, louder activity than Q3, for example? How should we think about this, yeah, looking to Q4? Thank you. Okay, Paula, thank you for your question. About Stone Island, I mean, the, the--I don't, I'm not gonna tell you the long story because I think that I already, I already tell the story of Stone Island in the current scenario. Long story short, for 2024, we believe that 2024 will still be a transitional year, during which we will develop the strategy we told you before. We expect a moderate, single-digit, mid-single-digit growth rate for next year. That will be the combination of different profiles in the two different channels. A decline, first, a decline in the Wholesale channel, and this is again, totally in line with our strategy. We don't want to force our customers to buy more, but we want our customers to buy only what they need to develop an healthy sellout. And also, of course, we still need to clean further the market in some regions, in some markets. And so wholesale will be negative. The DTC will be, I mean, will be, we expect, we plan to be positive, but any growth rate will be mostly organic. So we have not many new openings. And again, the few projects we have for next year are only dedicated to enhance the strength, the visibility of the brand. And so the growth in the DTC business will be mostly organic. So again, a moderate growth, but for the benefit of the brand. About Moncler activity in this quarter, I mean, we have some important Genius launches that are to come. I mean, one today, I said before, Palm Angels, now we have Rick Owens. And then something I said before, but important to say it again, I mean, we have a quite important communication activity for Grenoble that is coming in December, and of course it will continue in the first two months of next year. I don't know if you asked about, you know, 2024 as well, but you can definitely expect us to keep investing in elevating the brand across all the three dimensions. So you should expect for next year some events that would be as impactful as the one we've had this year and the previous one. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Mrs. Mariani, there are no more questions registered at this time. So thank you, everyone for participating in this, in this call. For any follow-up question, as usual, do not hesitate to contact the IR team, I'm around, tonight. We have published today our 2024 financial calendar, and the next earnings release will be on February 28, when we will report our FY 2023 financial results. So it's all from our side. Thank you again, and have a great evening, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over.