Australian-born lingerie brand Honey Birdette has reported a positive swing in its metrics in the second quarter of 2025, following a challenged post-COVID run.
Playboy Inc., the brand’s US-based parent company, confirmed that the lingerie brand’s revenue growth has swung to green, up 14 per cent, with same-store sales up 28 per cent. Gross margins have also improved by approximately 200 basis points to 59 per cent.
Playboy’s overall sales, which also include licensing revenue, hit US$28.1 million in the second quarter, up 13 per cent overall. The increase was primarily due to a 105 per cent lift in licensing, which offset the loss of revenue from Playboy’s legacy digital business, with Honey Birdette adding to the swing-back.
The group's direct-to-consumer revenue was US$16.5 million, up year-over-year by 14 per cent. The increase was due to continued improvement in consumer perception of the Honey Birdette brand, which resulted in increased sales of both full-price and discounted products.
Comparable store sales were up 28 per cent and promotional days were reduced a further 40 per cent in a continued initiative to improve the perception of the brand.
These lifts have added to improvements in Playboy’s overall net loss, which is down US$7.7 million in Q2 2025, up from a US$16.7 million loss in Q2 2024.
The net loss for Q2 2025 included US$1.9 million in impairment charges related to the sublease of the company’s Los Angeles office and relevant fixed assets and US$2.1 million related to a one-time settlement of present and future licensing agent commissions.
“In the aggregate, those reflected US$0.04 in earnings per share. Absent those non-operational charges, net loss would have been US$3.7 million and earnings per share would have been US$(0.04).”
The latest lifts at Honey Birdette comes after Playboy reported revenue losses by the lingerie brand over the last year, which included a US$3.8 million fall in revenue in the second quarter of 2024. At the same time, Playboy’s direct-to-consumer revenue then hit US$14.5 million, which also included a US$1.4 million fall in Playboy e-commerce revenue.
In the third quarter of 2024, Honey Birdette was listed as a “discontinued operation” as Playboy prepared to offload the lingerie business amid declining metrics.
In Q4, Playboy reversed its decision to offload the brand as new metrics showed improvements.
“We made continued progress in the turnaround of Honey Birdette and its return to generating meaningful cash flow of US$6.1 million for 2024,” Playboy CEO Ben Kohn said earlier this year.
“Although our gross sales were lower in Q4 due to meaningfully reducing our promotional activity, as we focus on brand health and profitability, full price sales showed year-over-year growth, and gross margins expanded to 60 per cent from 51 per cent in Q4. Same store sales returned to growth and were up 4 per cent year-over-year.”
The improvements continued in the first quarter of 2025, despite a 13 per cent year-on-year decline in total revenue as Playboy prioritised brand health and reduced days on sale.
“The decline in Honey Birdette revenue [in Q1 2025] was solely related to cutting sale days and was offset by full price sales being up 8 per cent YoY, which now represent 80 per cent of Honey Birdette’s total sales, up from 65 per cent a year ago. Honey Birdette’s gross margin expanded to 58 per cent from 52 per cent YoY.”