After weeks of retail giants blaming Hong Kong for falling sales, global skincare brand L’Occitane says the city was one of its fastest growing markets in the first nine months of the financial year.

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, L’Occitane, registered in Luxembourg, reported a 9.8 per cent global sales increase for the nine months to December 31.

Sales in core Asian markets outperformed all other: In Hong Kong and Macau on a constant currency basis they rose 15.8 per cent, in Japan, by 19.5 per cent and in China by 13.4 per cent.

The group’s net sales were euro 882.3 million, the 9.8 per cent rise dwarfing the 0.3 per cent improvement for the concurrent period a year earlier.

Local currency growth was 10.8 per cent.

L’Occitane said its online retail channel continued to outperform with a 33 per cent year-on-year growth at constant exchange rates during the first nine months.

Overall Same Store Sales Growth was 5.9 per cent.

Russia, China and Japan were among countries with strong same store sales growth for the nine months.

L’Occitane has been investing heavily in store refurbishments and openings during the last two years. It added 75 stores to its global network during the last nine months and upgraded or relocated 86.

It added 19 stores in China, where it now has 144, four in Hong Kong to expand to 35, three in Japan, (now 107) and one in Taiwan (now 54).