In April, Hong Kong-based jeweller Chow Tai Fook launched a new signature line called Dawn in its stores. In the first three months, it sold more than HK$870 million ($157.7 million) of product. In the three months that followed, it sold nearly HK$2 billion ($362.4 million) more. By the end of September, a collection that did not exist at the start of the financial year had produced roughly HK$2.8 billion ($507.4 million) in retail sales.
That is the bright side of the global luxury group’s latest quarter. The other side is a store network that keeps getting smaller and a headline sales figure that barely moved. In the three months to September 30, the group’s fiscal second quarter, retail sales slipped 0.5 per cent from a year earlier.
Chow Tai Fook has been closing stores, pushing design-led products, leaning on Hong Kong and Macau and reporting a profit figure flattered by the gold price.
“The Q2 performance demonstrated the resilience of our business model and validated the growing traction of our brand transformation,” the company said.
The board said net profit for the six months to September is expected to rise by about 90 to 100 per cent.
Measured by retail sales value (RSV), the quarter was flat. Mainland China, which produced 83.3 per cent of group sales, fell 5.3 per cent. Hong Kong, Macau and other markets, which represent the remaining 16.7 per cent, rose 33.2 per cent.
5 per cent of group RSV, so the balance between the two has moved roughly four percentage points in a single year.
Source link







