Zegna Group's direct retail channel climbs to 86% of branded sales as wholesale keeps shrinking

Ermenegildo Zegna Group, the Milan-listed luxury group behind the Zegna, Thom Browne and Tom Ford Fashion labels, reported first-half 2026 revenue of €987.3 million, up 6.4% year on year (9.3% at constant exchange rates), according to the group's results filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sales through the group's own stores and e-commerce — its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel — rose 12.1% to €782.8 million and now account for 86% of branded product revenue, up from 82% a year earlier, while wholesale revenue fell 14.6% to €131.7 million and slipped to 14% of the branded mix from 18%, the group said.

Performance diverged sharply by label. The core Zegna brand grew 11.2% to €634.6 million and lifted its adjusted operating margin by half a percentage point to 14.8%, the group's strongest-performing unit. Thom Browne, the New York house the group took full control of in 2018, fell 4.7% to €123.1 million and posted a negative adjusted operating result of €8.3 million, a business the group describes as being repositioned around its own retail rather than wholesale. Tom Ford Fashion, the ready-to-wear and accessories licence the group has run since acquiring it from Estée Lauder in 2023, grew 2.7% to €156.8 million and narrowed its operating loss to €12.1 million from €19.4 million a year earlier.

By region, the Americas led growth, up 15.1% to €302.3 million, followed by Greater China, up 5.8% to €236.1 million. EMEA was roughly flat at €330.0 million (+0.3%), while the group's "Rest of APAC" category — which does not break out Japan separately — rose 5.4% on a reported basis (13.6% organic) to €117.6 million. Ermenegildo Zegna, the group's chief executive, said in a statement that "our first half 2026 results reflect the effectiveness of our Group's strategy, anchored in the strength of each of our brands' identities and their direct connection to clients."

The direction is the same one every maison on Japan's department-store floors is navigating: fewer goods sold through a wholesale partner, more sold through a brand's own staff, fit-outs and data. Thom Browne, whose sculptural tailoring and cropped trousers remain one of the stronger draws in Japanese department-store menswear, is exactly the kind of business this channel shift bears on — a group-wide push toward direct retail would mean tighter control over which stores carry the line and how it's presented, even as the label's own sales are currently going backwards. Whether that translates into more directly run Thom Browne floor space in Japan, where the group discloses no country-level figures, is the open question the results don't answer.