Year of recovery for Chow Tai Fook sales

Jewellery giant Chow Tai Fook says it has had a year of recovery with encouraging development.

For the year ending March 31, Chow Tai Fook sales grew solidly on the back of rebounding consumer spending. With a 15.4 per cent year-on-year increase, revenue reached HK$59.1 billion (US$7.5 billion). Gross profit was $16.2 billion, with adjusted gross-profit margin down by 130 points.

“Thanks to the encouraging business performance and operating leverage, core operating
profit surged by 20.6 per cent to $5.6 billion.”

Greater China’s retail market fuelled the company’s upturn. In Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, same-store sales growth (SSSG) turnaround started in the second half of last year.

During the year, the group opened 204 points of sale, taking its total to 2585 as at March 31. In Mainland China, net openings reached 203, of which 199 were under the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery brand. In Hong Kong and Macau, consolidation of outlets in tourist areas continued while there were openings in residential neigbourhoods. Three outlets were closed, but Korea and Japan both gained two points of sale.

Meanwhile, the group has been developing six other brands: House 1929, Hearts on Fire, Jewelria, Chow Tai Fook T Mark, SoInLove and Monologue.

Riding on the sweeping trend toward online transactions through smartphones, the group drew on the power of instant sharing on social-media platforms to boost the sales of its collections. The group also rolled out a self-service experience corner with the idea of “grab-and-go” for jewellery retail.

E-commerce business accelerated by 73.2 per cent for the year, which finished with 1.3 million members in its membership program in Mainland China and 817,000 members in Hong Kong and Macau.

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