UNIQLO Japan saw the number of customers to its stores leap in the third quarter through May with two extra advertising campaigns during the quarter. The successive campaign program featured our PARKA, Polo Shirts, BRATOP and UT (Print T-Shirt) products. We were also able to minimize potential lost sales by increasing store inventory of core basic items such as our fraise stitch T-shirts and polo shirts. We successfully boosted sales of our popular BRATOP products by trebling last year's production levels and maintaining solid in-store inventory. At the same time, we have continued to strengthen our women's wear ranges. The launch of our soft tailored jacket at the Tokyo Girls Collection in March captured a great deal of attention, and other fashion items such as our blouses, tunics and skirts have also sold well.
Our gross margin in the three months to May 2009 fell 1.5 points year on year; the quarter's gross margin level was on plan, however. While keeping discounting under control,we strengthened our sales promotion activities in a tough consumer environment. The fall in gross profit was due to the increased number of limited sales of popular core products, and also the wider range of products incorporated within the limited sales framework given the larger number of advertising campaigns during the quarter. The SG&A ratio improved 2.7 points year on year. Efficiency across all areas from personnel costs, advertising & promotion costs to store rents improved thanks to the segment's strong sales performance.
In light of the upturn in performance during the third quarter from March to May and the continued strength in sales through June, we have revised up our full-year estimates for UNIQLO Japan through August 2009 as follows: The forecast for net sales has been increased by a further ¥ 17.0bln compared to the most recent revision announced on April 9. The net sales forecast now sits up 16.4% year on year at ¥ 538.0bln. The April estimate for operating income has been revised up a further ¥ 7.0bln to ¥ 112.0bln, a year-on-year increase of 29.6%.
UNIQLO International We were able to expand operating profit at UNIQLO International in the three months from March to May 2009 to ¥ 0.2bln (compared to ¥ 0.0bln in the previous year).
20240830145952.gif)
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "UBM China (Shanghai)")
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
