Down jacket and outdoor garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越企業) yesterday said revenue would expand at an annual rate of at least 25 percent this year as customers are betting on pent-up demand in light of the stabilizing COVID-19 situation worldwide.
The company said that outdoor garment vendors are adding orders for shipments this month and that it has seen “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We have seen orders pick up from April and they should last through the whole year. We are now looking at 25 percent annual growth at least,” Quang Viet president Charles Wu (吳朝筆) told an earnings conference in Taipei. “We are optimistic about this year’s revenue and profit outlook, as more people are getting vaccinated.”
Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei Times
The growth momentum is to extend into next year, he said.
The North Face and Patagonia, Inc showed the strongest order growth among the company’s customers, as both companies have increased orders by 50 percent, faster than the 40 percent he estimated five months ago, Wu said.
Patagonia contributed 16 percent to Quang Viet’s revenue last year, second only to Nike Inc’s 33 percent, but ahead of The North Face’s 12 percent, the company said.
Last year, North America was the largest market for Quang Viet, accounting for 33 percent of its revenue, followed by China, with 31 percent.
Wu said that a controversy over cotton produced in China’s Xinjiang region would not have any impact on the company’s operations, as it uses synthetic fiber, goose down or duck down for its jackets.
Quang Viet’s net profit last year almost halved to NT$557.83 million (US$19.62 million) from NT$1.1 billion in 2019, the company’s financial statement showed. That translated into earnings per share of NT$5.2, down from NT$9.73 a year earlier.
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue last year plummeted 25 percent to NT$12.19 billion from NT$16.26 billion in the prior year, while gross margin dipped to 10.55 percent, from 15.65 percent in 2019.
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