TOPBI International Holdings Ltd (淘帝國際控股), a leading children’s clothing brand in China, on Friday provided an upbeat outlook for the second half of the year as the company seeks to take advantage of e-commerce sales channels.
“Our sales from e-commerce are expected to climb from 7 percent last year to 10 percent this year, as we plan to start selling apparel for one-to-three-year-olds through these channels later this year,” TOPBI chairman Zhou Xun-cai (周訓財) told the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei.
Zhou said e-commerce sales may rise to 15 percent next year and to 20 percent in 2021.
“E-commerce platforms and physical stores have their own customers and do not overlap,” Zhou said. “The main goal is to diversify our sales channels and provide customers with convenience.”
TOPBI sells its apparel through its mobile app, corporate Web site, and Chinese Internet platforms such as Taobao.com (淘寶), Tmall.com (天貓) and JD.com (京東).
However, physical stores remain the company’s major sales channels, accounting for more than 90 percent of revenue in recent years, the company said.
“We have been closing units with narrower margins at department stores and opening new outlets on main streets, where more clothing can be displayed and there are more fitting rooms for customers,” company chief financial officer and spokesperson Wang Kuan-hua (王冠華) said.
Wang said the company plans to maintain 1,600 to 1,700 stores this year, raise single-store sales and renovate existing stores.
It is constructing a new automated storage and logistics center in Suqian in China’s Jiangsu Province and expects to start operations there in 2021, he said.
TOPBI reported revenue of NT$635 million for last month, up 3.98 percent year-on-year. Cumulative revenue in the first five months climbed 6.62 percent from a year earlier to NT$2.61 billion.
The second and fourth quarters are usually the high seasons for children’s apparel makers, the company said, adding that the Singles’ Day shopping blowout and the promotional activities ahead of the Lunar New Year are major sales drivers in the fourth quarter.
Despite the company’s positive outlook and strong earnings performance, shareholders voiced displeasure over the low dividend payout this year and the company’s declining share prices, which averaged NT$85 this year, from highs around NT$170 in 2014.
The company declined to comment on its share price, but promised to improve its corporate image and visibility.
Shareholders approved a cash dividend of NT$3.15 per share, for a payout ratio of 27.25 percent based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$11.56 and a dividend yield of 3.66 percent based on the stock’s closing price of NT$86.1 on Friday.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS