Beauty and daily merchandise retailer Poya International Co (寶雅國際) yesterday reported better-than-expected net income in the first quarter, as revenue and profit margins improved significantly from a year earlier.
The company posted net profit of NT$784.59 million (US$24.17 million) for the January-to-March quarter, up 11.84 percent from NT$701.52 million a year earlier, it said in a regulatory filing.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$7.48, the highest for a single quarter in the company’s history and up from NT$6.71 the previous year.
Photo courtesy of Poya International Co
Gross margin was also better than expected at 44.45 percent, up 0.19 percentage points from a year earlier, while operating margin rose 0.24 percentage points to 15.29 percent after consolidated sales climbed 7.2 percent year-on-year to a record NT$6.3 billion, company data showed.
Poya is one of the nation’s major retailers of beauty, cosmetic and skincare products. It also sells textiles, household accessories, food, groceries and hardware items.
As of the end of last month, Poya operated 419 namesake stores, including “Poya Beauty” flagship stores, standard Poya stores and “shop-in-shop” concept stores.
The “shop-in-shop” 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.
Poya plans to continue opening new stores, and accelerate beauty store and shop-in-shop store deployments this year to increase its penetration across Taiwan, it said.
During its last earnings conference in February, the company told investors that it expected to achieve double-digit growth in the number of store openings this year, with a net increase of more than 50 stores.
At the same time, Poya plans to invest more in digitalization and closely target female customers to optimize its product portfolio and offer a better consumer experience, it said.
In addition, the company plans to introduce more own-brand products this year to enhance its brand value and contribute to earnings growth, it said.
Own-brand products, which offer higher profit margins, accounted for 2.9 percent of its total sales in February, company data showed.
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