Hong Kong’s retail resurgence isn’t providing windfalls for everyone.

Apparel retailer Bossini is the latest low- to mid-market brand to warn shareholders of a looming loss, after larger rival Esprit did similar last month.  

In a stock exchange filing, Bossini chairman Tsin Man Kuen Bess said a loss attributing to shareholders for the year to June 30 would be somewhere between HK$26 million to $32 million (US$3.3 to $4.1 million).

Of course, that’s a fraction of crippled Esprit’s expected $2.2 billion loss based on write-downs, exit costs – and a continuation of falling sales, announced on June 21. Another rival, Giordano, appears in a much better place, announcing same-store sales up 16.7 per cent in the march quarter, despite closing 30 non-performing stores in the preceding year.

Bossini posted a profit of $5 million last year.

The company blamed the downturn on foreign exchange losses due to the appreciation of the Renminbi against the Hong Kong dollar and lower profit from export franchising business, “as a result of the continuously weak and competitive apparel retailing environment”.

Bossini says audited results for group will be announced in late September.