Chinese sportswear retailer Topsports Intl., which works with 14 leading sports brands including Nike and Adidas, reported a 16.7 percent increase in H1 profit attributable to shareholders to 1,337.20 million yuan renminbi (€173.0m) for the six months ended Aug. 31. Six-month operating profit improved by 9.2 percent to RMB 1,725.9 million (€223.2m), but gross margin slipped by 90 basis points to 44.7 percent from 45.6 percent due to lower discounts offered by vendor partners. Period-end inventory was down 10.1 percent year-over-year, and the average inventory turnover fell nearly 27 percent to 140.9 days.
H1 revenues rose 7.3 percent to RMB 14,176.5 million (€1.83b) from RMB 13,218.0 million, with retail sales up by 8.8 percent year-over-year to RMB 11,987.7 million (€1.55b).
On Aug. 31, Topsports had 6,209 directly operated stores in Greater China, a decline of 10.4 percent doors year-over-year and a corresponding 3.5 percent drop in gross selling footage. The group’s employee count decreased by 8.7 percent year-over-year to 29,896 and was down 3.5 percent from the start of the six months.
