(Alliance News) - Take Off Spa announced on Monday that it has closed a total of 12 stores, nine of which are located in shopping malls selected from among the lowest performing and located in the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia-Romagna.

For the nine stores located inside shopping malls, the mediation process has been initiated through the appropriate bodies, namely Aequitas ADR, Milan Arbitration Chamber and Conciliation Body of the Milan Bar Association.

The company specifies that the operation is part of the announced strategy of repositioning stores in more strategic locations for the business, announced last July 24.

As a result, the company has identified suitable locations for the opening of two new Take Off-branded and directly managed stores, planned by 2023 in the Abruzzo and Marche regions.

Due to the continuation of both a complex macroeconomic environment and an unfavorable climatic situation that are impacting consumption, the company expects to close the current fiscal year with lower margin levels than the previous year, specifically it expects a marginality of less than 9 percent, therefore deeming it appropriate not to proceed with the distribution of a dividend on the 2023 fiscal year profit.

The company, in view of the December 31 consolidated KPI disclosure scheduled for January 15, 2024, will include a more timely update of the marginality based on the final two-month data for November and December 2023.

"Our priority for 2024, in a scenario in which new international tensions may exacerbate the effects on the economic and social front, is to preserve the soundness of the financial structure, maintain a good level of profitability with targeted cost containment actions, and lay the foundations for growth through a strategy of expanding the store network that allows minimizing opening investments and achieving break-even," commented Aldo Piccarreta, president and CEO of Tale Off.

Take Off's stock on Monday closed 4.0 percent in the red at EUR0.97 per share.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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