Athleisure trend boosts Yue Yuen sales in 2018

Yue Yuen Industrial, the world’s largest manufacturer of athletic, athleisure, casual and outdoor footwear, boosted revenue by 6.3 per cent last year.

Yue Yuen makes shoes for a raft of brands, including Geox, Levi’s, Rockport, Carters and Pony. Its subsidiary Pou Sheng operates a network of some 5500 directly operated stores and 3000+ sub-distributor stores, predominantly on the mainland.

For the year to December, the Group recorded revenue of US$9.695 billion, with gross profit up by 4 per cent to $2.446 billion. However, profit attributable to shareholders fell 40.9 per cent to $307.1 million, mainly due to operating deleverage within the manufacturing business, a reduction of the non-recurring gain for the year, and higher finance costs.

Yue Yuen said revenue attributed to footwear manufacturing (including athletic shoes, casual/outdoor shoes and sports sandals) declined by 1.5 per cent to $5.39 billion, whereas the volume of shoes produced increased by 0.4 per cent to 326 million pairs. The average selling price decreased by 2 per cent to $16.53 per pair, compared with the previous year.

The group’s athletic footwear category outperformed all other categories as a result of the global athleisure trend, accounting for 79.2 per cent of footwear manufacturing revenue last year. Casual and outdoor shoes accounted for 19.1 per cent of footwear manufacturing revenue.

The group’s distribution sales are derived primarily from Pou Sheng, involving in retail operations for international sporting goods brands in the Greater China region. Last year, the revenue attributable to Pou Sheng grew by 23.3 per cent to $3.422 billion.