Dr Martens claims price focus starting to pay off as it returns to profit

Dr Martens has “reduced its reliance on discounts” as the brand’s CEO claims the brand is “on track” to hit its turnaround targets after posting solid H1 results.

The footwear business has been on a turnaround journey under former marketing lead turned CEO Ije Nwokorie who has said the brand will reduce its reliance on promotional tactics and move the brand away from a direct to consumer (DTC) focus.

Dr Martens posted its H1 results today showing group revenue of £322m, up 0.8% when accounting for currency changes, with DTC revenue flat and wholesale revenue up 2%.

The brand’s EBIT, meanwhile shows a profit of £3.4m, considerably up on the £3m loss it made in the first half of 2025. This was due to a much stronger price mix with DTC full price revenue up 6% year on year, the mix of full price to clearance up 5% and an increase of 10% in the percentage of new consumers coming to full price versus discounts.

“That’s particularly important because the objective is to attract more new consumers, which we’re doing, and we’re engaging more of them at that full price basis,” said Nwokorie in a conference call to investors today (20 November). “It’s really critical for us.”

The CEO is confident that the brand has started to get its pricing strategy right and that Dr Martens will offer the consumer “the right thing at the right time”, and as such will engage in offers and discounting around Black Friday, but it will now only do it in “very specific seasons” before returning to that focus on full price sales.

Dr Martens moves away from DTC focus in pursuit of new customersNwokorie also praised the business’s consumer data platform for helping it shift its reliance on promotional activity as it allows it to “directly target” consumers based on their buying behaviour.

“So now, for instance, when we are targeting a consumer who has a high propensity to buy full price, we will not be targeting them with a discount, with a seasonal discount message, because we know that they are motivated by that full price offering,” he said.

The Americas was singled out as a particularly strong region for the brand where retail revenue was up by 15.7% despite the challenges of tariffs – and on what the CEO dubbed “weaker comms” – although EMEA was a more difficult region with revenue declining by 3% mostly driven by a fall in DTC.

Nwokorie said the challenge comes from a consumer who is being “a lot more considered” and doing more “browsing and research” before committing to a purchase.

In some cases they can be motivated only by a discount, but he said the brand has also seen an increase in the number of customers moving towards buying more “quality” goods and considering it an “investment” – a space he believes Dr Martens can find “opportunities to go after”.

He also highlighted the work done in improving the balance of Dr Martens’ product offer and to increase the number of “wearing occasions” that the brand has to offer consumers.

While there has been an increase in the amount of choice that the brand wants to showcase to customers, this has gone alongside a reduction in the number of SKUs – down around 45% now from autumn/winter 2023.

“This is about discipline and curation of choice for the consumer as opposed to proliferation of product,” added Nwokorie.

“We’ve used our customer data platform to customise marketing messages based on customer profiles. Some people are built more for style, and so you pitch a style message, and for some other people, it’s comfort and function.”