Against a background of fluctuating demand, all divisions did well to achieve sales growth, retail giantDairy Farm International Holdings says in an interim management statement for its latest third quarter.

Underlying earnings were also up as higher contributions from food, restaurants and Chinese hypermarket company Yonghui offset slightly lower profits from the health and beauty and Ikea Indonesia divisions.

In the food division, hypermarket and supermarket sales showed some improvement despite modest like-for-like sales growth being offset by store closures. Slightly higher margins helped produce increased profit.

Higher sales were recorded in convenience stores in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, with profitability also improving.

In the health and beauty division, sales were higher while profitability was marginally below the same period last year, mainly because of margin erosion in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

While overall sales improved in home furnishings, like-for-like sales growth moderated compared with the first half. Profitability was down slightly partly because of stock clearance activities.

F&B company Maxim’s had a seasonally strong quarter in both sales and profit, partly because of its mooncake sales program during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In August, the group completed its further US$190 million investment in Yonghui to maintain its 19.99 per cent shareholding following a 10 per cent share placement by Yonghui to internet
retailer JD.com.

Together with its associates and joint ventures, Dairy Farm has about 6500 outlets including supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, health and beauty stores, home furnishings stores and restaurants. It employs more than 180,000 people. A member of the Jardine Matheson Group, its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange, with secondary listings in Bermuda and Singapore.