Tapestry’s stock value (US group that owns Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman) has reached its lowest value of the last 10 years. The stock is affected by some challenges that the group needs to face: the growth of giant online retailers such as Amazon, the consequences of the trade war between China and the USA and last, investors’ pressure after Tapestry acquired other brands. According to some though, this is the right time to buy the stock, as many hope the price will bounce back in the future, considering the brands’ strength and the strategies they are pursuing. According to Seeking Alpha (crowd-sourced content service for stock markets) the most nefarious of all challenges in the short term, has to do with the trade war, since the group makes sales for 737 million USD in China, over a total revenue of 5.88 billion for 2018 (about 12.5% of the total, growing over the last few years). The trade war appears to be much more concerning for the production side than on the commercial front, since a very significant part of production and supply chain of Tapestry’s brands is located in China. The factors at risk are cost stability (as they are going to increase) and profitability (which will diminish), even though the group has already stated its desire to diversify its supply chain, relocating some activities to other countries. Second critic aspect: the web. Amazon has disrupted the retail environment, even though up to this point, luxury sellers have been wary of selling online, they now have to adapt in order to capitalize on this opportunity and dismiss the threat of large e-tailers. What strategies will Tapestry adopt? Will they be effective? Third issue: acquiring other brands can (also) bring problems. One has to do with accounting, because the group could have to recognize part of goodwill as losses. The other has to do with growing inventory numbers, with products that aren’t sold and become old. Tapestry as well has seen how, with the acquisition of Kate Spade, the change in inventory was positive, meaning inventory stock increased. The market is reacting to these mentioned incumbent dangers that Tapestry faces, but Seekin Alpha’s analysts states that the business is in good health, a strong brand and a good strategy for retail sales, thus having a future moderate growth trend. Will it be that way?
