Uniqlo owner posts record quarterly profit, lifts annual forecast
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Quick Retailing, the proprietor of clothes model Uniqlo, posted file quarterly revenue on Thursday, because the weaker yen and robust gross sales in the US made up for a hunch in a pandemic-hit Chinese language market.
Working revenue for the three-month interval to the tip of Might jumped 37% from a 12 months earlier to 81.8 billion yen ($587.4 million), an all-time excessive, the corporate mentioned in an announcement, because it lifted forecasts for gross sales and earnings for the complete fiscal 12 months.
The consensus forecast was for working revenue of 66.72 billion yen, in keeping with the common of forecasts from seven analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Gross sales and revenue slid dramatically within the Chinese language market, the place the corporate has nearly 900 shops, because of prolonged COVID-19 restrictions within the first half of this 12 months.
“Nevertheless, gross sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan recovered from June onward because of the easing of restrictions on enterprise actions,” Chief Monetary Officer Takeshi Okazaki mentioned at an earnings presentation.
Quick Retailing is a uncommon bellwether for each world retailers in China, its largest international market, and client demand in Japan, the place it has carved out a dominant place by providing informal clothes to price-conscious buyers.
The yen’s fast drop, touching 139 to the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the primary time since 1998, is including to manufacturing prices and inflation. Quick Retailing Chief Govt Tadashi Yanai has mentioned there’s “completely no benefit” to a weak yen.
The corporate mentioned final month it might improve costs in Japan on its widespread fleeces this autumn and warned that extra hikes may very well be on the horizon.
Whereas leads to North America and Europe had been robust, the corporate is factoring within the potential for inflation to weigh on demand in these markets going ahead, Okazaki informed reporters.
The weakening yen is unhealthy for enterprise in Japan, nevertheless it does improve the repatriated worth of abroad gross sales, Okazaki mentioned.
The corporate lifted its full-year working revenue forecast by 17% to 290 billion yen.
($1 = 139.2500 yen)
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Enhancing by Christian Schmollinger and Tom Hogue)
