Mainland China proves key growth driver for fashion retailer SMCP

French-headquartered, Chinese-owned affordable luxury fashion retailer SMCP has reported a healthy boost in Asia-Pacific sales, largely on the back of Mainland China during the third quarter.

Mainland sales surged 29.6 percent, a combination of having more stores in the territory than last year and double-digit like-for-like store sales growth.

That drove Asia-Pacific regional sales up 13.8 percent, although that was not enough to prevent a global year-on-year decline of 10.6 percent on an organic basis.

SMCP sells under the brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot.

Sales were particularly buoyant in South Korea and Taiwan, however, there was only a small improvement due to “challenging” market conditions in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

The company said sales were strong on Tmall and generally online across the region.

“Our third-quarter performance is very encouraging,” said SMCP CEO Daniel Lalonde.

“I am particularly satisfied with our figures in Mainland China, which is undoubtedly a key driver of our future growth. However, as visibility remains limited due to the intensification of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, we remain cautious about the coming quarters.”

Consolidated worldwide group sales for the quarter were €248.4 million (US$293.7 million). E-commerce sales surged 27.6 percent globally.

During the last year it has expanded its network by a net 38 stores, 20 of those in Asia Pacific, 17 in Europe, Middle East and Africa, (where it closed 10 in France in an ongoing store rationalization program) and 11 in the Americas.