Sa Sa sales are slowing, despite an improvement in Mainland Chinese visitor numbers.

Retail and wholesale turnover for cosmetics retailer Sa Sa International Holdings fell by 5.7 per cent for the first quarter to June 30, according to unaudited data.

Turnover dropped 5.4 per cent to HK$1384.9 million (US$178.585 million) in the Hong Kong and Macau markets, while same-store sales decreased by 4.8 per cent. While there were only slightly fewer transactions, their average value fell 5.7 per cent.

In other markets, including China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan as well as Sasa.com, retail and wholesale turnover dropped 7 per cent to HK$1717.1 million for the quarter.

While still in decline, the group’s retail sales in Hong Kong and Macau recorded a notable improvement compared to the last quarter of the last financial year, the company attributing this to traffic growth of 2.7 per cent among mainland customers.

“Their consumption continued to be on the weaker side, with spending declining by 6.4 per cent per transaction. Local consumption sentiment remained sluggish,” says the company.

Improved sales performances were partially because of the group’s efforts to adjust product offerings to meet market demand.

As at June 30, the company had 112 stores in Hong Kong and Macau, a drop of one from the start of the quarter. At 55, there were two fewer stores on the mainland, Singapore was steady at 23 stores, Malaysia’s 67 stores included had one more outlet, and Taiwan also lost a store for a total of 31. Overall, the company had 288 stores, down from 291.

Sales performance during the period was affected by a series of factors, says the company, so the data for the period may not be able to reflect the overall performance of the reporting period.