Advertisement
China’s biggest down jacket maker evades pandemic blues with record sales by riding consumption upgrade trend
- Company records a 22.6 per cent increase in earnings to highest level since 2012 by selling more higher-priced products
- Bosideng wants to keep shifting into the mid-to-high-end market and follow the consumption upgrading trend, CFO says
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Bosideng International, China’s largest manufacturer of down jackets, has recorded its best performance since 2012, bucking pessimism in markets ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Advertisement
Earnings rose 22.6 per cent to 1.2 billion yuan (US$169.7 million) for the year ended March 31, the Shanghai-based group said in an exchange filing. Sales increased 17.4 per cent to 12.2 billion yuan, an all-time high since it went public in 2007.
While the Covid-19 disease has traumatised small and medium-sized enterprises, “the phenomenon of ‘the stronger the winner’ will be increasingly apparent in the growth momentum of industry leaders,” Bosideng said in its exchange filing on Wednesday. Brand awareness will help unlock values, it added.
Many industries were upended by the pandemic with China’s economy shrinking last quarter for the first time since 1992. Fashion retailers in Hong Kong have also suffered as consumers held back spending, forcing top names like Prada and Louis Vuitton to downsize. Even the weather was unhelpful, Bosideng said, as the last winter turned out warmer than usual.
Advertisement
“In case the second wave of pandemic comes, I am confident that we will have steady growth for the second half of 2020” by digitising its operations and sales, said Gao Dekang, chairman and chief executive officer of Bosideng.
Mi Hanjie, an analyst at GF Securities said the group’s decision to upgrade its designs and scaling the upmarket sector have helped reduce sales fluctuations over the past five years. Its higher pricing has not compromised sales, he added.
Advertisement