Beauty and daily merchandise retailer Poya International Co (寶雅國際) yesterday reported better-than-expected profit for the second quarter, as high-margin cosmetics and efficient cost controls further lifted the firm’s gross margin.
Poya posted NT$589.08 million (US$17.92 million) in net profit for the April-to-June quarter, up 23.98 percent from NT$475.13 million a year earlier.
That translated into earnings per share (EPS) of NT$5.61, up from NT$4.55 the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
Gross margin was also better than expected at 43.87 percent in the second quarter, up 2.48 percentage points from a year earlier, while operating margin rose 1.06 percentage points to 12.35 percent after consolidated sales increased 6.57 percent year-on-year to NT$5.63 billion, company data showed.
Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) earlier said it had expected Poya to post second-quarter earnings of NT$5.4 per share, gross margin of 43.5 percent and operating margin of 12.4 percent.
In the first half of the year, Poya’s net profit grew 13.9 percent year-on-year to NT$1.29 billion, with EPS of NT$12.31, as revenue increased 8.8 percent to NT$11.5 billion.
Gross margin and operating margin improved to 44.07 percent and 13.73 percent respectively from 43.07 percent and 13.52 percent, company data showed.
“Benefiting from accelerated store expansion and improved beauty store and store-in-store deployments, the company’s same-store sales are expected to maintain positive growth, which would further lift its operating margin and achieve double-digit percentage growth in profit,” Fubon Securities said in a note.
The “store-in-store” concept refers to a separate shopping area within a larger store that features products from a specific brand, with Poya and the brands benefiting from cost and product arrangements.
The retailer is one of the nation’s major distributors of cosmetic and skincare products. As of the end of last month, it operated 380 namesake stores, including 50 “Poya Beauty” flagship stores and 22 “store-in-store” concept shops, as well as 10 Poya Home hardware outlets.
The company launched 15 new stores in the first half of this year and is expected to open another 40 new stores in the second half, aiming to expand its operating scale to more than 400 cosmetics outlets by the end of this year. It hopes a larger operating scale could help it expand total sales and maintain its leading position among Taiwan’s cosmetics distribution channels.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS