Wortmann Schuh-Holding KG Internationale Schuhproduktionen announced that the group’s turnover for the first semester of the current fiscal year – the period between the 1st of July to the 30th of November - reached 504.1 million euros, compared to 498.6 million euros in similar period in 2013.

Based on the numbers for the first half of the year, and taking into account the currently available orders for spring-summer 2015, the Germany-based group estimates a slight increase in turnover to reach approximately 1.018 billion euros in the entire 2014/15 fiscal year (compares to overall turnover of 1.013 billion euros in the previous fiscal year).

During the first half of the fiscal year, the domestic turnover at Wortmann increased slightly. Regarding foreign markets, strong positive development was mainly demonstrated by France, the Netherlands and Poland. Significant drops were noted in the strongest export market for the company, Russia, and in the Ukraine.

The group’s Tamaris system partnership with retail trade partners is growing continually, with a plus of about 9%. As at the end of January, 970 surfaces were under contract in 33 countries.

In December, Tamaris USA Inc., which was founded in 2014, was successfully launched at the FFaNY in New York, an important trade fair and participation in other trade fairs in major cities in the USA is currently taking place.

The private label business of the Wortmann subsidiary, Novi Footwear Singapore/Hong Kong in Asia is once again showing moderate growth and at the beginning of January 2015, Novi Footwear moved into new premises at in Dongguan (China), which offers space for more than 200 employees, in a strategy to solidify its platform for further growth in Asia.

The footwear group declines the responsibility of making any forecasts for the coming fiscal year 2015/16 due to the great degree of uncertainty in factors such as the political and business developments in the Ukraine, in Russia and Greec and the strength of the US dollar, adding that “first sales figures for the coming autumn-winter season do not allow any reliable prognoses”.

Besides the Tamaris brand, Marco Tozzi, Caprice, Jana and s.Oliver shoes are the other brands included in the European part of the group. The Novi Footwear Fareast Ltd. Is the brand arm in Asia. The collections of the Wortmann group are offered in more than 70 countries worldwide and in more than 15 000 shoe stores. Internationally, the group currently has a total of 1 151 employees of which 722 in Europe.