Nonwoven product manufacturer Nan Liu Enterprise Co Ltd (南六) yesterday said it expected its profit to grow both sequentially and annually this quarter after it launched new retail networks for its facial masks in China.
“Starting this month, we can sell our facial masks in postal offices in China’s Henan, Hunan, Zhejiang and Guizhou provinces,” vice president Sam Chang (張三華) said at an investors’ conference.
Sales of facial masks and wet wipes accounted for 43 percent of the company’s annual revenue of NT$3.7 billion (US$124.38 million) last year.
MARKED RISE
In the first quarter of this year, net profit was NT$63.09 million, or NT$0.98 per share, up 94.66 percent from NT$32.41 million a year ago, and up 5.15 percent from the NT$60 million posted in the previous quarter.
The company posted revenue of NT$1.35 billion from January through last month, up 17.56 percent from the NT$1.15 billion it posted in the same period of last year.
Chang attributed the growth momentum to rising sales in China, which accounted for 34.19 percent of the company’s revenue last year.
As a major supplier for Kimberly-Clark Corp’s Huggies and Uni-Charm’s MamyPoko, the company expects it can benefit from the growing population of children younger than three in China, Chang said.
There are approximately 29.05 million Chinese children under three years old and the number is set to grow by 3.8 percent each year, Nan Liu said, citing a report from US-based consulting firm Frost and Sullivan.
“Parents in China are willing to buy the best-quality diapers for their children, especially those manufactured by our clients,” Chang said.
MARGINS
Nan Liu also expects sales of its medical-grade spunlace nonwovens used for surgical gowns and drapes, products with a bigger profit margin, to rise to 805 tonnes this quarter from 688 tonnes last quarter, compared with 266 tonnes in the same period last year.
Last year, medical-grade spunlace nonwovens accounted for 3 percent of the company’s revenue.
Nan Liu’s shares rose 2.18 percent to NT$70.4 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which was up 0.81 percent.
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