Gucci <GUC.N> China stores beating expectations
HONG KONG, April 1 (Reuter) - Only weeks after opening its
first shops in China, Gucci Group NV <GCCI.AS> said on Tuesday
both its Beijing and Shanghai stores were producing better than
expected results and it was looking to expand further in China.
"Our results in China are very encouraging -- well, well
beyond our expectations, particularly the performance of the
Shanghai store," chief executive officer Domenico De Sole said.
"The first 15 days of the month of March ... we did more
than US$100,000 in Shanghai alone," he told reporters.
De Sole was in Hong Kong after formally opening the two
Chinese stores last week. The stores opened for business in
February.
"I think that clearly we view China as a very important
market," said De Sole, adding that the Italian luxury goods
company was looking to expand in China, possibly opening a store
in Guangzhou or another store in Shanghai.
Asia is the fastest growing region for Gucci in terms of
sales, with net revenue of US$374.0 million coming from the
region in the year to January 31 compared with US$178.7 million
the previous year. Gucci's total net sales rose to US$880.7
million in fiscal 1996 compared with US$500.1 million.
Gucci has 20 directly operated stores in Japan and five in
Hong Kong.
"We are considering a lot of things now in Asia," said De
Sole. He said Gucci was looking to open another shop in Hong
Kong and looking at opening two major freestanding shops in
Japan.
Gucci is also planning to soon open two stores in Thailand
including one in downtown Bangkok this Friday.
Gucci's profits more than doubled in fiscal 1996, with the
company registering net income of US$168.4 million compared with
US$82.9 million in the previous year.
De Sole said he was comfortable with Wall Street analysts'
estimates of earnings per share of US$3.30 for fiscal 1997, up
from US$2.76 in the 12 months to January 31.
He said he was also comfortable with forecasts of about 25
percent revenue growth.
Rtr 06:47 04-01-97 |
