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Singapore, Nov 15 – Parkson Retail Asia Ltd, a leading Asian department store operator listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange, will continue its strategy of tapping the middle to higher income consumers through the expansion of its store network across its markets.
In a statement, Parkson said it targeted to open 10 new stores in financial year 2014 across Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia with a total gross floor area of about 144,776 sq metres.
The Group continues to strive for optimal concessionaire margin mix in each of its key markets while carefully controlling labour and marketing expenses.
Commenting on the Group’s outlook for the year, Group chief executive officer Toh Peng Koon said, “As we look ahead to the new financial year, we expect our key markets to make moderate recoveries in sales growth.
“We are adding new stores in our key markets to tap further into the growing ranks of Asia consumers.
“Our Malaysia operations will benefit from the re-opening of the stores previously closed for renovation and the start of the Visit Malaysia Year 2014, which will see increased tourist spending,” he said.
He said with the opening of the new Parkson stores in Indonesia, Parkson will firmly establish its brand and footprint in that country.
“We remain optimistic about the success of our expansion plan and look forward to future quarters of improving performance.”
Today, the group announced a net profit of S$10.3 million earned in the first quarter of the financial year ended June 30, 2014 (Q1FY14).
Gross sales proceeds (GSP) and revenue decreased 2.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent in the period under review, compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year (Q1FY13).
GSP dropped to S$276.1 million from S$283.1 million in Q1FY13.
Toh said, “Despite macroeconomic challenges to the retail industry, we have remained resilient, delivering our ninth consecutive quarter of profitability since listing.
“We have accounted for most of our start-up costs in Myanmar for this quarter and can expect to see sales improving further in the following quarters.
The weak overall same store sales growth for Malaysia and Vietnam, the temporary closure of stores in Malaysia and the currency weakness especially of the Indonesian rupiah contributed to net profit attributable to owners for Q1FY14 decreasing 11.4 per cent year-on-year to S$10.3 million from S$11.6 million in Q1FY13.
– Bernama
