Australian-born lingerie brand Honey Birdette has reaped a 9 per cent growth in sales in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The brand’s United States-based parent company Playboy Inc. confirmed the news in a trading update, adding that Honey Birdette’s gross product margin expanded to 77.8 per cent.
Alongside this, the lingerie retailer’s new loyalty program that was launched in October last year has now hit around 80,000 members. Playboy added that management sees Honey Birdette as a future monetization opportunity for future deleveraging.
Honey Birdette’s improving base lines added to a total sales lift for Playboy of 4 per cent, hitting US$34.9 million (~A$49.3 million) for the fourth quarter of 2025. This will include Playboy’s licensing business.
For the full-year, Playboy’s total sales hit US$120 million, with Honey Birdette making up a majority chunk of this of just over US$70 million. The bump up in product margins is buoyed by a push-down on cost of sales.
Playboy’s 10K report for the 2025 financial year confirmed that its direct-to-consumer segment solely comprises Honey Birdette. The report noted that DTC cost of sales dropped by 6 per cent to US$28.4 million, with DTC gross profit up 8 per cent to US$42.3 million. This, according to the 10K, was primarily due to a US$2.3 million decrease in Honey Birdette’s product, shipping and fulfillment costs due to lower sales of discounted products.
“The increase in gross profit and gross margin was due to continued improvement in consumer demand at Honey Birdette, which resulted in increased sales of full-price products at a higher margin,” the report read.
At the bottom line, Honey Birdette reported an operating income of US$294,000, a stark turnaround from the US$2.2 million operating income loss in 2024.
According Playboy’s 2025 10K report, the change from operating loss to operating income for the direct-to-consumer segment, compared to the prior year comparative period, was primarily due to a US$3 million increase in Honey Birdette’s gross profit as a result of the continued improvement in consumer perception of the Honey Birdette brand, which resulted in increased sales of full-price products.
Honey Birdette ended the year with 51 physical stores in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Playboy is also expected to reap revenues from a recently announced partnership with UTG Brands Management Group for the group’s China licensing business, with Playboy CEO Ben Kohn said this deal could pay down a further US$52 million in debt. Playboy had a total debt of US$159.9 million, according to its 10K.
“The UTG partnership is expected to be pivotal to growing our China licensing business, and it will deliver $122 million in cash payments, with almost $52 million to be used for debt reduction,” Kohn said.
“Combined with our high-margin licensing base of over $343 million in unrecognized future revenue, a strengthening Honey Birdette business with expanding margins, and a reinvigorated content engine driving audience growth through Playboy magazine and related promotions, as well as other original programming, every pillar of the business is executing.”
Kohn said the overall business is positioned for sustainable, profitable growth with a strengthening balance sheet, clear growth momentum across licensing, media and DTC, and the upside from the UTG deal.
“Our magazine relaunch continues to generate cultural momentum, with a major female music star with over 70 million Instagram followers recently announced as our newest cover feature. I look forward to continued execution in the months ahead as we strive to deliver sustainable, long-term value for my fellow shareholders.”