Les Enphants Co (麗嬰房), a major retailer of children’s apparel, saw domestic sales decline over the past two months as consumers reduced spending and will take a more conservative approach to store expansion this year, an official said yesterday.
Despite positive growth in sales in the first five months of this year, Les Enphants said the decline in economic confidence over the past couple of months led to a sales drop of 0.4 percent and 0.9 percent in June and last month respectively compared with the same months last year.
“Although it was less than 1 percent, it was a significant decline for us,” chairman Eric Lin (林泰生) told a press conference.
The company said it planned for 5 percent sales growth for the first seven months of the year, but cut the forecast to 4 percent after poor sales in the past two months.
“To us, a 1 percentage point decline is equivalent to a 20 percent decline [from 5 percent down to 4 percent],” Lin said.
The latest government data showed that domestic trade — both retail and wholesale — slowed in June from May because of higher borrowing costs after the central bank’s rate hikes as well as reduced consumer spending.
Retail sales, for instance, fell 4 percent to NT$266.8 billion (US$8.7 billion) in June compared with the same month last year, following a 2.5 percent increase in May to NT$274.2 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on July 22.
Lin said the company’s outlook for the second half of this year was not clear.
Nevertheless, Lin said, given the nation’s healthy economic fundamentals, he was confident about Taiwan’s economic prospects, although positive results might not be visible in the short-term.
Les Enphants has opened more than 1,000 stores in China, but its market share in that country is still less than 1 percent, Lin said, adding that the Chinese market has great potential.
The company plans to open 150 stores in China this year and had already opened more than 100 of them by the end of last month, he said.
In other developments, Les Enphants and Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) launched a co-branded credit card yesterday.
Les Enphants said the target market was new moms, who will receive a 20 percent discount when buying children’s apparel at the company’s stores, both in Taiwan and China.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
TRENDS: The bitcoin rally sparked by US president-elect Donald Trump’s victory has slowed down, partly due to outflows from exchange-traded funds for the token Gold is heading for one of its biggest annual gains this century, with a 27 percent advance that has been fueled by US monetary easing, sustained geopolitical risks and a wave of purchases by central banks. While bullion has ticked lower since US president-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in last month’s election, its gains this year still outstrip most other commodities. Base metals have had a mixed year, while iron ore has tumbled, and lithium’s woes have deepened. The varied performances highlight the absence of a single, over-riding driver that has steered the complex’s fortunes, while also putting the spotlight
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
RSS