361 Degrees, which grew less in China than in the rest of the world last year, said in a preliminary statement that its global retail sales increased at a high single-digit rate during the second quarter of 2018. Revenues from the kids' division advanced by a low-teen percentage rate, compared with the same period last year. Retail sales of One Way, the joint venture created in 2013 with the Finnish producer of ski poles recently acquired by Fischer, also improved by a high single-digit percentage rate.
Xtep International said its own sales accelerated in the quarter, growing by a mid-teen-digit rate in the second quarter. Retail discounts were reduced to a range of 20 to 25 percent, as retail inventories were kept at a level of around four months. This resulted from a clean-up of inventories undertaken last year to support a shift toward the running market. The company spent 150 million yuan renminbi (€19.0m-$22.1m) to repurchase all products made before 2015 in retail channels, and to process them centrally, in a bid to harmonize the brand assortment available in stores, and to stimulate sales of the latest product ranges.
On the other hand, China Dongxiang, the apparel company that owns the rights to the Kappa brand in China, Macau and Japan, said it had a challenging second quarter. In a business update, the management said that same-store sales for the Kappa brand - excluding the Kappa Kids business and its Japanese business, which have been in operation since the beginning of the same quarter last year - declined by a mid- to low single-digit rate during the quarter. Meanwhile, the retail performance of its regular Kappa stores in China remained stable.
However, for the whole first half of 2018, China Dongxiang registered mid- to low single-digit growth as compared to the year-ago period, also in terms of same-store sales, recovering from the decline it had suffered in 2017. Also, the retail performance of 45 stores which had undergone renovation improved significantly. China Dongxiang said it will continue to close down or renovate under-performing stores.
