Apparel manufacturer Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業) on Thursday posted record sales and pre-tax income for last year, as the company benefited from new orders and an expanded customer base.
Consolidated sales rose 4.92 percent year-on-year to NT$15.87 billion (US$546 million) and pre-tax profit advanced 3.21 percent to NT$1.42 billion last year, or NT$8.59 per share, the Taipei based company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
However, pre-tax profit in the October-to-December quarter, totaling NT$234.53 million, was 42.99 percent lower than the previous quarter’s NT$411.41 million and was 39.04 percent less than the NT$384.69 billion it posted for the same period in 2011, company data showed.
Analysts attributed the declines to rising labor costs in China and Southeast Asia as well as falling average selling prices, while the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation against the US dollar also eroded its bottom line in the quarter, they said.
Makalot’s customer base is department stores and includes Kohl’s Corp and JC Penney Co, mass retailers like Target Corp and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, as well as apparel specialty stores such as Hanesbrands, Carter’s, H&M and Zara, with about 85 percent of its products sold in the US.
Last year the company landed new orders from President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), the operator of Taiwan’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, launched new winter shirts made by Makalot, while Makalot, hoping to widen its customer base, broadened its distribution channels and improved its economies of scale through the deal.
JPMorgan analyst Caren Huang said in a recent report that she forecast the project contributed 2 percent to Makalot’s total revenue last year and would contribute 2.5 percent this year.
Last year Makalot also secured orders from Internet-based fashion brand Lativ, hypermarket operator RT-Mart (大潤發), French firm Decathlon and Japan’s Fast Retailing, the operator of cheap-chic clothing chain Uniqlo, helping to boost its overall shipments by 14 percent to 9.3 million dozens.
For this quarter, Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) analyst Kerry Wu (吳致勤) said the company could meet its guidance of 2.6 million dozens and forecast this year’s shipments would reach 10.5 million dozens, driven by strong orders from its US customers and non-US apparel brands.
Makalot has its headquarters and R&D center in Taipei, with representative offices in Shanghai and Paris. It operates factories in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Shares of Makalot rose 2.95 percent yesterday to NT$97.8., in Taipei trading outperforming the TAIEX’s 1.53 percent rise.
It has risen 37.17 percent over the last 12 months, compared with the benchmark index’s 6.9 percent increase.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
RSS