“Our strong fourth quarter results – in which we achieved mid-single-digit North America comparable store sales for the Coach brand and drove solid growth at Stuart Weitzman - capped an excellent FY17 performance for the company. For the year, we posted a double-digit increase in net income as we continued to make progress on our brand and company transformation plan… the Coach brand evolved across the key consumer pillars of product, stores and marketing (...)” commented Victor Luis, Chief Executive Officer of Coach, adding: “We were also very pleased with the overall contribution of the Stuart Weitzman brand as we invested in the brand, both in stores and most significantly in people, bringing in the key leadership and design talent to drive performance in both growing the global footwear category and in their nascent accessories business.”

The results for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ending on the 1st of July included an extra week compared to the previous year, which contributed about 84 million US dollars to 2016 sales.

Net sales for the fourth quarter totaled 1.13 billion US dollars as compared to 1.15 billion US dollars in the prior year. Excluding the additional week included in fiscal 2016 results, net sales increased by 6% on a reported basis and by 7% on a constant currency basis. As planned, the company’s strategic decision to elevate the Coach brand’s positioning in the North American wholesale channel through a reduction in promotional events and door closures negatively impacted sales growth.

Net income for the quarter on a reported basis totaled 152 million US dollars, which compares to 82 million US dollars in similar period in 2016.  On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the quarter totaled 142 million US dollars (126 million US dollars in the previous year).

Net sales for the full fiscal year totaled 4.49 billion US dollars as compared to 4.49 billion US dollars in the prior year. Excluding the additional week included in fiscal 2016 results, net sales increased by 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis. Net income for the period totaled 591 million US dollars on a reported basis, which compares to reported net income in the prior year of 461 million US dollars. On a non-GAAP basis net income was 609 million US dollars (compared to 552 million US dollars a year ago).

The company expects revenues for fiscal 2018 to increase about 30% versus fiscal 2017, to 5.8 US dollars to 5.9 billion US dollars.