The Japanese Fast Retailing supposes for worldwide development to meet to its group net profit?s decline. The parent company of Uniqlo said Thursday its group net profit in the September-February period fell by 24.7 percent to 41.67 billion yen on poor inner sales of fall and winter clothes at its Uniqlo casual wear chain.
Fast Retailing assured it will step up powers to expand its international presence. It will open its third Uniqlo store in New York this autumn, and will also open its first Thai Uniqlo store in Bangkok nearly the same time. At present, stores in a foreign country account for only nearly 15 percent of the company's total sales. As of the end of March, the company had a total of 156 overseas Uniqlo stores in 10 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and the U.S. By comparison the company had 829 Uniqlo stores in Japan.
The group operational profit fell 17.8 percent to 82.06 billion yen on group sales of 457.33 billion yen, down 2.9 percent. It said command for fall clothing was sluggish due to prolonged summer warmth, whereas sales of winter outfit were fragile amid higher-than-usual temperatures in December.
For the industry year ending in August,
Fast Retailing company revised upward its group net profit view to 60 billion yen, up from the past forecast of 51 billion yen, on projected sales of 836 billion yen, down from an early forecast of 846 billion yen.
Nevertheless, the operator of the Uniqlo chain of fashion department stores on Thursday upgraded its return outlook for the complete business year ending August, showing resilience in the face of points over slumping domestic shopper sentiment after the March 11 earthquake.
But notwithstanding the drop, the result was still much stronger than the company's early estimated Y30 billion in incomes. Revenue dropped 2.9 percent to Y457.33 billion from Y470.97 billion a year before, while operating profit declined 18 percent to Y82.06 billion from Y99.89 billion a year earlier.
Looking forward, the company is waiting for better incomes at its department stores out of the country and cost reductions to help highlight its bottom line. For the full fiscal year ending August, the group revised upward its net profit forecast to Y60 billion from Y51 billion, citing a larger-than-expected contribution from its overseas operations. The company also raised its operating profit forecast to Y121.5 billion from Y113.5 billion, but cut its revenue outlook to Y836 billion from Y846 billion.
The group temporarily closed 160 stores in the quake-hit zones of northern Japan. Of these, 123 stores resumed operations within single week. Although 11 stores were still closed as of Thursday, the company expects six of them will restart operation rapidly.
Shares of Fast Retailing have fallen 12 percent since the quake, underperforming a 8.1 percent decline in the benchmark Nikkei average.
