Hong Kong-based jewellery retail giant Chow Tai Fook, publishing its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, announced that a sustained slide that was witnessed over several past quarters had ended and that business was on the upswing again.

While revenue of HK$51.2 billion (US $6.6 billion) for the year was down 9.4 percent compared with the HK$56.6 billion (US $7.3 billion) in FY2016, what was significant was that revenue had grown by 4.4 percent in the second half of the year, as against the 23.5 percent year-on-year decline seen in the same period last year.

Profit of HK$3.2 billion (US $404 million) for the year was 5.8 percent above the HK$3 billion (US $382 million) in the previous year. Revenue contribution from mainland China, which has increased steadily over the past few years, contributed to over 60 percent of the group’s revenue in fiscal 2017.

The company said in a statement, “In response to changing customer preferences and market uncertainties, we remained focused in seizing business opportunities and enhancing store productivity through optimising our network portfolio. Striving to enrich customer experience, we strengthened our product offerings and implemented store differentiation and multi-brand strategy.”

It added, “Leveraging the strength of our business model and employing state-of-the-art technology, we spearheaded innovation to deliver extraordinary products, services and experience to our customers. Our Smart+ initiatives had also supported us in fostering online-to-offline (O2O) interactions, further enhancing our operational efficiency and staying responsive to the ever- changing retail landscape.”

https://www.gemkonnect.com/news/chow-tai-fook-arrests-slide-annual-profit-grows-58-404m