Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越) is confident in its business outlook for this quarter and next year, the down jacket and garment maker’s president, Charles Wu (吳朝筆), said on Friday.
Although the company is entering its traditional low season this quarter, its top seven brand clients — including Adidas AG, Nike Inc, Under Armour Inc and New Balance Inc — will be the main driving force for next year’s growth, Wu said in a statement.
“As the company’s product development, production quality and innovations continue to lead in the world’s mid to high-end down jacket market, the average selling price [ASP] of products has increased for three years, while gross margin and operating margin have also been backed by the stable exchange rate trend of the US dollar,” the firm said in the statement.
Two days earlier, the company reported that third-quarter net income grew 8.95 percent year-on-year and revenue rose 10.55 percent, driven mainly by orders from global sportswear brands.
On a quarterly basis, net income jumped 80.42 percent and revenue surged 68.19 percent due to seasonal demand, company data showed.
In the July-to-September quarter, net income was NT$672.37 million (US$22.11 million) and earnings per share (EPS) reached NT$6.5, compared with NT$617.16 million and NT$5.97 respectively a year earlier.
Third-quarter revenue grew to NT$6.79 billion on the back of orders from Adidas, Nike and Patagonia.
However, gross margin of 17.77 percent and operating margin of 12.73 percent were both down from 18.79 percent and 13.7 percent respectively a year earlier.
Overall, net income in the first three quarters surged 32.54 percent year-on-year to NT$991.396 million, with EPS rising to NT$9.59 from NT$7.24 a year earlier.
Gross margin and operating margin fell to 17.07 percent and 10.16 percent each, compared with 18.09 percent and 10.7 percent over the same period a year ago.
The company on Friday also posted revenue of NT$1.43 billion for last month, an increase of 7.01 percent from a year earlier, but a decrease of 41.36 percent from September.
Cumulative revenue in the first 10 months soared 25.83 percent to NT$14.57 billion, the highest for the same period in the company’s history.
“In addition to the gradual synergy gains from merger and acquisition, the main sales growth still came from the top 3 customers led by Patagonia, Adidas and Nike as well as new customers like Under Armour, New Balance, Mammut [Sports Group AG] and Helly Hansen [Group],” Quang Viet said in the statement.
For next year, given a long-version design trend for down jackets and a 3 to 5 percent annual growth in ASP, the company’s sales are forecast to grow by a double-digit percentage from this year, mainly supported by orders from Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Under Armour, as well as orders from The North Face Inc and two potential Canadian brand customers, analysts said.
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