Bonjour profits dive 17 pct in 2014

Cosmetic retailer Bonjour Holdings Ltd. saw its profits in 2014 plunge by 17 per cent year-on-year, amounting to HK$226 million (US$28.2 million), due to slower sales growth and changing consumer spending patterns.
The retailer told Hong Kong Stock Exchange last Friday evening after trading hours that its retail and wholesale turnover reached HK$2.79 billion in 2014, a slight increase of 2.6 per cent year-on-year.
‘The performance resulted from a 6.2 per cent increase in the number of transactions and a 2.4 per cent drop in total average sales value per transaction, illustrating the fact that the customer base is still growing while there is an increasing demand for lower-priced products,’ the company wrote.
Meanwhile, the group’s business in Macau generated a total of HK$231 million in revenues in 2014, which is actually a year-on-year increase of 6.7 per cent, while its Hong Kong business also slightly increased by 3.2 per cent year-on-year in terms of revenues, amounting to HK$2.52 billion.
However, the Mainland market of the retailer experienced revenues slumping by 33.5 per cent, dropping from HK$59 million to HK$39 million last year.
‘Given the current social unrest expelling the PRC tourist inflow to Hong Kong and the change in tourist mix with less spending pattern, Bonjour is inevitably facing a challenging environment… [However,] we are trying to turn the challenges into opportunities’ the retailer stated, believing the future implementation of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will bring it more Mainland tourists from lower tier cities in China.
K.L.