Scan-D Corp (詩肯), which designs and sells teak furniture under the Scanteak brand, yesterday said that it would continue to form cross-industry alliances and strengthen its online-to-offline channels to boost sales in the second half of this year.
“The furniture business has been sluggish and consumers have been conservative on spending, partly due to pension reforms,” Scan-D chief financial officer and spokesman Tommy Ho (何山壯) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The company reported that cumulative revenue for the first five months of the year declined 11.6 percent to NT$644.12 million (US$20.66 million), from NT$728.66 million a year earlier.
The company has been forming cross-industry alliances to buck the negative trend, Ho said.
“We have cooperated with a construction company to offer our furniture as gifts for home buyers. We have also offered coupons to consumers when they buy curtains or massage chairs,” Ho said.
The company said that it also plans to strengthen its promotions through social media and e-commerce platforms.
“Scan-D takes up less than 2 percent of Taiwan’s furniture market, so there is room for expansion,” Ho said.
That includes plans to open more stores, including Scan Comfort (詩肯睡眠), a sub-brand for high-end mattresses, at department stores this year, he said.
Scan-D last month acquired Singaporean furniture retailer Nova Furnishing Holdings Pte Ltd (諾雅家具).
The unit’s profit would decline this year, but is expected to show improvement in three years, Ho said.
Scan-D yesterday held its annual general meeting in Taoyuan, where shareholders approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$3, a payout ratio of 81.74 percent based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$3.67 and a dividend yield of 6.93 percent based on the stock’s closing price of NT$43.3.
In the first quarter, earnings per share declined to NT$0.56, compared with NT$1.36 a year earlier, while gross margin dropped 2.65 percentage points to 53.83 percent.
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