Farfetch has hit something of a soft patch — and is on the outs with investors, again — but José Neves said the platform continues to be very much within the sweet spot of luxury growth and technology.

“We doubled this business within the last three years, so we grew greater than some other online luxury company or etailer,” Neves, who’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, told WWD in an interview. “Nobody doubled. Even probably the most successful brands haven’t doubled.” 

But Wall Street is a really what-have-you-done-for-me-lately crowd and shares of Farfetch fell 11.3 percent to $8.11 on Friday after the corporate’s third-quarter gross merchandise volume slipped 4.9 percent to $967.4 million (a 4.2 percent increase in constant currencies) as adjusted losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization tallied $4.1 million.

Investors have tended to run cold and warm on Farfetch, with swings in sentiment that range from seeing the corporate as one of the best thing ever to a platform whose promise hasn’t materialized in a method or one other. 

Neves painted this yr as a stretch made tougher by macro aspects beyond Farfetch, but in addition as a possibility to focus the business and trim costs after a dramatic expansion. 

The corporate lost 7 percent of its marketplace business when it shuttered its operations in Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. On top of that, China is down by double digits given lockdowns tied to that country’s zero-COVID-19 policies. 

That’s big hits to what were the marketplace’s second- and third-largest markets last yr. 

After which the strong dollar and currency headwinds cut what would have been a 14.1 percent increase in revenues to a 1.9 percent bump up, to $593.4 million for the quarter.

“Now we have proven that this business is fundamentally cash-flow-positive in a normalized yr,” Neves said. 

This just isn’t a standard yr.

And Neves said the corporate would have grown if the closure of Russia were taken out of the equation, with the corporate’s momentum overcoming lockdowns in China and the strong dollar. 

“As with all things in life, these items go up after which come down,” Neves said.

While Farfetch follows the ebb and flow, it’s working on a dizzying array of growth vehicles. 

The corporate has inked deals to gain control of Yoox Net-a-porter, to power the digital businesses of Neiman Marcus and Ferragamo and to make Reebok goods through its Latest Guards Group. Farfetch also launched beauty this yr and has Stadium Goods, Browns, a store of the longer term project and other initiatives underway.  

It’s been a heady few years for Farfetch and through this pause, Neves has refocused the business, trimming costs and headcounts to place resources behind the expansion and future growth engine. 

“When you’ve this COVID[-19] surge in demand and you’ve all these opportunities and all this growth you usually are not optimizing for efficiency,” the CEO said. “Now we have to have a look at these times as a possibility to have a look at your organization, that’s what we’ve done.”

Jessica Ramírez, senior research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates, said Farfetch has modified the worldwide digital landscape in luxury. 

“It’s a really progressive and disruptive company,” said Ramírez, pointing to the way in which it “brought luxury into e-commerce, the way in which it’s worked with brands and delivered to life the posh shopping experience.” 

But additionally it is a tricky time now to be playing so heavily in technology. 

“They’ll grow,” Ramírez said of Farfetch. “What scares investors is that it’s a tech company at heart so there’s quite a lot of money that goes into that you can also hemorrhage. Digital will take you far into the longer term and it’s going to futureproof your organization, but you’ve to balance all the pieces else.”

Neves said the corporate is sticking to its mission, its “north star,” which is to construct a platform for the worldwide luxury industry.

“Now we have our eyes firmly on the north star and our feet firmly on the bottom,” he said, noting the corporate had consistently hit its profitability targets. 

“Once we say that in 2023 we’re going to be back to growth, we’ve been here before,” he said.