Uniqlo owner to accelerate e-commerce transition
09:00, 14 October 2021
Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing on Thursday reported an 88% jump in full-year profit and laid down plans to focus on e-commerce operations in the coming year.
Fast Retailing said that it will focus on accelerating its transformation into a “digital consumer retailing company.”
On Thursday, the fast-fashion company posted a profit of JPY169.85bn ($1.49bn) for the full year ended 31 August 2021 compared with a profit of JPY90.36bn a year ago.
E-commerce focus
Full-year revenue rose 6.2% to JPY2.13trn from a year ago helped by a rise in e-commerce sales and foreign exchange gains.
The Japanese apparel firm said it intends to diversify its earnings by increasing profit outside its core market of Japan.
The company added that it will work on breaking free from relying on discounting and will reduce the number of product items to pursue a lean business with no unnecessary use of resources.
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Uniqlo Japan
Fast Retailing said Uniqlo same-store sales including online sales in Japan, its biggest market contributing about 40% of total revenue, rose 3.6% year-on-year.
Full-year e-commerce sales rose 17.9% year-on-year for Uniqlo Japan and constituted 15.1% proportion of total revenue, the company said.
Fast Retailing said it expects Uniqlo Japan to report lower revenue and profit in full-year 2022 on the back of a temporary decline in business performance while structural reforms such as normalising inventory and restricting discounting are being carried out.
Outlook
The company said it expects to achieve a consolidated revenue of JPY2.2trn representing an increase of 3.1% year-on-year for full-year 2022.
Full-year 2022 profit is expected to be JPY175bn representing an increase of 3% year-on-year.
“We predict revenue and profit will decline in the first half from 1 September 2021 to 28 February 2022 based primarily on assumptions that COVID-19 restrictions and temporary store closures will continue to a certain extent and our decision to incorporate some negative impact from production or transportation delays,” said the company.
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