Jimmy Choo's turnaround outpaces Michael Kors's slide in Capri's first quarter without Versace

Capri Holdings reported its first quarterly results as a two-brand company on August 5, the group's first full reporting period since completing the sale of Versace to Prada Group on December 2, 2025. The split investors had been watching for arrived cleanly along brand lines: Jimmy Choo's turnaround kept accelerating, while Michael Kors kept losing ground.

Total revenue for the quarter ended June 27 came to $769 million, down 3.5% year on year (down 4.1% in constant currency), the company said in a regulatory filing. Michael Kors revenue fell 7.1% to $590 million, with every region but Asia in decline: Americas dropped 9.9% to $372 million and EMEA fell 5.3% to $142 million, while Asia rose 5.6% to $76 million. Jimmy Choo, by contrast, grew 10.5% to $179 million, led by a 26.1% jump in the Americas and gains in both EMEA and Asia.

Where the margin came from

The more telling number sits below the top line. Jimmy Choo's operating margin nearly tripled to 7.3%, from 2.5% a year earlier, as operating income rose to $13 million from $4 million. Group gross margin improved 200 basis points to 65.0%, which Capri attributed to higher full-price sell-through and lower tariff rates — a sign the brand is moving more of what it stocks without resorting to markdowns, the discipline that separates a healthy luxury business from a merely busy one. Michael Kors's own operating margin slipped to 9.3% from 9.9%, even as its gross margin improved, a gap that points to cost pressure elsewhere in the business rather than a pricing problem.

Some of Michael Kors's headline decline was flattered, not worsened, by timing: the company said roughly $10 million of revenue arrived earlier than planned as wholesale shipments were pulled into the quarter. Strip that out and the brand's underlying slide runs closer to 8.8%.

Fewer doors, not more

Both brands are closing stores faster than they are opening them. Michael Kors ended the quarter with 662 stores, down from 695 a year earlier; Jimmy Choo had 209, down from 217. Capri did not disclose a store-productivity figure, but a shrinking fleet delivering a sales decline at Michael Kors, against a growing top line from an equally shrinking fleet at Jimmy Choo, is consistent with a company steering capital toward the brand that is working.

Capri does not disclose a Japan-specific figure, folding it into an Asia total that was the only region where Michael Kors grew. That regional split matters for floortok's read: both brands' Japan flagships and department-store concessions sit inside a market that has spent two years absorbing record inbound spending, and a Western brand leaning increasingly on Asian demand while its home markets soften raises the stakes on how well it is served in Japan specifically — a detail this release doesn't give, and one worth watching for when Capri next breaks the region out further.

"We are encouraged by our first quarter results, which exceeded our expectations," said John D. Idol, Capri Holdings' chairman and chief executive.

For the full year, Capri guided to revenue of about $3.4 billion, operating income of about $170 million and diluted earnings per share of about $2.15 — guidance that assumes Michael Kors settles at roughly $2.77 billion (a low-double-digit operating margin) while Jimmy Choo grows to about $635 million, still at only a low-single-digit margin despite this quarter's jump. The company also spent $50 million buying back 2.6 million shares during the quarter, with $871 million left on its repurchase authorisation.

The bet embedded in that guidance is straightforward: Jimmy Choo, still less than a third of Michael Kors's size, is being asked to keep growing into real profitability while Michael Kors is managed for cash and a smaller footprint. Whether that mix moves Capri's overall numbers from decline to growth depends on whether Jimmy Choo's momentum has more than one good quarter in it.