Profit attributable to the owners of Tse Sui Luen Jewellery International (TSL Hong Kong) doubled for the 12 months to the end of February.
Favourable business conditions plus cost-saving measures were cited as the reason when the company announced its second interim results for the period, reviewed by its audit committee. Also contributing to the 100.9 per cent increase to HK$46.6 million was the growth in tourist numbers into Hong Kong and Macau.
The company says this was an encouraging and a welcome relief to the region’s entire retail industry following a downward trend for many years. “Driven by a relatively favourable consumption sentiment across all the festive seasons, the average sales per invoice improved resulting in a year-on-year increase in the revenue of our Hong Kong retail business.”
This, together with the steady performance of the group’s other retail businesses in Mainland China, Malaysia and on its e-commerce platform, saw overall performance stay in line with expectations.
Consolidated turnover for the period increased by 11.8 per cent to $3.8 billion.
Cautious approach
TSL says it has started to benefit from its cautious approach to expansion in Hong Kong and Macau over the past few years. This, together with the rise in tourism, improved consumption sentiment and enhanced product range, has resulted in sales turnover rising 10.3 per cent with stable same-store sales overall.
“Accounting for 39.3 per cent of the group’s total turnover, our retail business in Mainland China continues to play a vital role as the group’s growth engine,” says the company. With the shift away from department stores to shopping malls, TSL is optimising its retail network accordingly. It is hoping this will improve same-store sales figures, which have continued to slip 3 per cent.
Its retail network on the mainland grew by 50 stores to 380, including 187 franchised outlets.
Sales on the group’s major e-commerce platforms surged by more than 20 per cent from last year.
In Malaysia, TSL had an “encouraging boost” of 37.5 per cent in sales, reinforcing its belief in the market after many years.
