Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業), an apparel supplier for global fashion brands including H&M and Zara, said yesterday that it plans to sell clothes of its Fisso brand in China and Indonesia.
“China is a large and rising market, and Indonesia is the largest country in the fast-growing Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where we have strong interests,” Sam Yen (顏聖育), Makalot’s director of Fisso brand, said by telephone.
Although the company only sells its Fisso clothes online in Taiwan, it said it would sell Fisso clothes in a department store in Hubei, China, starting next quarter and in shops in Jakarta, Indonesia, next year by cooperating with local partners.
“Online shopping in Indonesia is not popular yet as the logistics infrastructure may not be able to provide full support for online businesses, but people in the country are used to shopping in stores during holidays,” Yen said. “We chose Jakarta because it is a major Indonesian metropolis.”
Makalot public relations manager Mavis Chiu (邱美惠) said the company would ship Fisso clothes to the department store in Hubei, but not send employees to China. The company is still in talks with Chinese companies to sell Fisso clothes online, Chiu said.
By entering China and Indonesia, the average costs of Fisso clothes will decline as the sales volume grows, Chiu said.
Revenue and membership in Fisso, which Makalot established in March, are on the rise, and Makalot believes it will achieve its target to have the Fisso division break even within three years, Chiu said.
Chiu said Fisso accounts for only a small proportion of Makalot’s revenue, without giving exact figures.
Makalot posted pretax profit of NT$138.22 million (US$4.68 million) last month, up from NT$116.9 million a year ago and NT$132.77 million the previous month, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The year-on-year increase was because of a low base level the previous year, and the monthly growth was the result of higher gross margins for winter clothes, Chiu said.
According to Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券), the low base level a year ago was caused by high cotton prices and wage hikes in China and Southeast Asia at the time.
Chiu said next quarter’s shipments will be lower than this quarter, but Makalot’s revenue will still register annual increase as orders from the US and Asia increased.
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