L'Occitane's online sales boost profits

L'Occitane (0973) announced their annual net profit by end-March rose nearly 33 percent to 154.58 million euros (HK$1.43 billion), driven by online sales.

The beauty products maker and retailer declared a final dividend of 0.03687 euros per share, rising by 65.5 percent year-on-year and suggesting a payout ratio of 35 percent. This compared to a basic earning per share of 0.105 euros.

Net sales dropped by 6.5 percent to nearly 1.54 billion euros year-on-year. Online channels were strong and posted growth of more than 69 percent, according to an exchange filing.

This came as net sales from China jumped by 33.7 percent to 263.6 million euros, making up 17.1 percent of the total and surpassing the United States to become the largest market for the group.

The group said that its retail and travel retail channels were particularly hampered by hard-hit air traffic, intermittent lockdowns and shop closures in most of the key markets. Sales and profitability of the retail and travel retail channels dropped significantly.

The total number of retail locations dropped by 398 or 11.4 percent to 3,088 in 2021 and the number of own retail stores decreased by 85 or 5.3 percent to 1,523 in 2021.

In other news, Japanese golfing equipment company Honma (6858) posted an annual net profit that ended March of 1.86 billion yen (HK$130.12 million), compared to a loss of 732.41 million yen for the prior year. It proposed a final dividend of 1.7 yen per share, representing around 8.2 percent of its distributable profits. Together with the interim dividend of 1.5 yen per share, total dividends for the year ending 31 March 2021 will amount to 3.2 yen per share.

Full-year revenue decreased by 4.9 percent to 22.74 billion on a constant currency basis.