No store cull for Dickson Concepts

The chairman of Dickson Concepts, Dickson Poon, says he won’t be cutting back on the company’s retail store network, despite falling sales.
In May, the listed Hong Kong retailer, which operates the Tommy Hilfiger and Beauty Avenue retail brands, amongst others, says it opened 30 new stores in the year to March, 10 of them in mainland China.
At the annual shareholders meeting yesterday, Poon assured investors the company had no plans to shed staff or shutter stores for the time being – nor would he engage in cut-throat pricing competition to increase sales.
Dickson Concepts reported a sales decrease of 0.7 per cent to $4.322 billion and slumped from a profit in 2014 of $154.8 million to a loss of $110.3 million in its last full year. Yesterday, Poon said sales in April and May fell seven per cent year on year – which suggests some stability is returning to the market.
He expects the lacklustre Hong Kong retail sales to continue as Mainland Chinese shoppers travel to other destinations like Korea, Japan and Europe instead of Hong Kong.
As at March 31 Dickson Concepts operated 248 shops – 47 in Hong Kong, 90 in China, seven in Macau, 81 in Taiwan and 23 in Singapore and Malaysia. About two thirds of the company’s sales are in Hong Kong.
It recently withdrew from a partnership with US Brooks Brothers to sell the brand’s menswear in Hong Kong.
 

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