Contact lens maker Ginko International Co (金可國際) plans to adopt a multi-brand strategy this year by launching five new brands, as it looks to grow markets in Asia and Europe over the next five years.
This year, it is to sell new contact lenses under the Deesse, Timido, Kukka, Eyesecret and Syreni brands, along with the Hydron (海昌) and Horien (海儷恩) brands that it already markets across Taiwan and China, according to a presentation document on the company’s Web site following an investors’ conference on Wednesday.
Ginko also distributes high-end contact lenses under Japanese brands Givre and Femii in China, and operates the Formosa Optical (寶島眼鏡) chain in Taiwan.
Ginko is the largest contact lens producer in China, with a market share of 25 percent. Its major rivals include Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb, CooperVision Inc and Alcon Inc.
In Taiwan, its competitors include St Shine Optical Co (精華光學), a maker of Ticon (帝康) brand contact lenses, and Pegatron Corp’s (和碩) contact lens subsidiary Pegavision Corp (晶碩).
The company said it would continue expanding its capacity in Taiwan and China to meet rising demand for colored contact lenses.
Ginko has budgeted capital expenditure of about NT$1 billion (US$32.4 million) this year to gradually add new production lines to existing plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and in Danyang in China’s Jiangsu Province, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted Ginko chief financial officer and spokesman Terry Chang (張泰榕) as saying on Thursday.
Last year, the company saw its net profit decrease by 14.18 percent to NT$833.38 million, compared with NT$971.04 million in 2017, which analysts attributed to Ginko’s increased online marketing in China and foreign-exchange losses.
Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$9.01 last year, down from NT$10.5 the previous year.
Consolidated revenue for last year rose 24.23 percent to NT$7.39 billion, from NT$35.95 billion a year earlier, while gross margin declined 1.28 percentage points to 52.93 percent and operating margin increased 0.09 percentage points to 19.30 percent over the period, a company financial statement showed.
Online sales have been robust in the past few years and contributed to 38 percent of the firm’s total revenue last year, up from 25 percent in 2017, due to its strong position on Chinese Web site Tmall.com (天貓).
“As Hydron is a leading brand in China and the company is planning aggressive online marketing campaigns this year, we expect Ginko’s online sales to increase by another 20 to 25 percent this year,” SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) analyst Fion Chen (陳奕均) said in a research note on Thursday.
Ginko’s revenue for the first quarter of this year increased 6.29 percent year-on-year to NT$1.74 billion.
Revenue for this year is forecast to grow 11.18 percent annually to NT$8.22 billion, with gross margin of 52.59 percent, SinoPac said, adding that net profit would increase 33.1 percent to NT$1.11 billion, with EPS of NT$12.
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