Uniqlo defies sluggish China market with double-digit profit growth
Parent company Fast Retailing shrugs off a 0.6 per cent drop in China’s total retail sales amid frayed Beijing-Tokyo ties Same-store sales rose, driven by enhanced marketing and “buoyant demand” for summer products in May, when temperatures started to rise. Easy pants, UV-protection items, T-shirts and other summer products all saw strong sales, according to the earnings report from Fast Retailing, the parent of Uniqlo, released on Thursday. As the group’s second-largest market globally after Japan, Greater China – including mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – recorded 510.5 billion Japanese yen (US$3.1 billion) in revenue for the nine-month period ending in May, accounting for 19.5 per cent of its global sales. Fast Retailing also reported significant revenue and profit growth in the nine-month period. It saw sales reach 3.1 trillion Japanese yen, up 17.1 per cent year on year, and net profit came in at 426 billion Japanese yen, up 25.6 per cent year on year, according to its business results.
