The revenues of the sportswear stores operated by Belle International climbed by 15.0 percent to 10,412 million renminbi (€1,246m-$1,645m) last year. The Chinese company, whose latest moves are described earlier in this issue, said that comparable store sales in that segment increased at a mid-single-digit level, but at the same time it expanded the number of its sports stores by 28.0 percent to 4,680 outlets. On the footwear side, Belle's turnover increased by 26.5 percent to RMB 18,533 million (€2,218m-$2,927m) for the year. The company's sales of its own footwear brands – from Belle to Senda, Staccato, Basto, Mirabell and several others – jumped by 24.9 percent to RMB 16,714 million (€2,000m-$2,640m). Meanwhile, sales of footwear brands for which it handles distribution, such as Bata, Geox, Clarks and Merrell, among others, inflated by 46.1 percent to RMB 1,526 million (€182.6m-$241.0m). Belle reported comparable sales growth of 15 percent for its footwear stores. It expanded their number by 23.6 percent to 10,270 outlets. The company ended the year with a sales hike of 22.1 percent to RMB 28,945 million (€3,464m-$4,572m) and it lifted its gross margin by 1.5 percentage points to 57.2 percent for the year, on the back of consistent efforts to make its supply chain and distribution structure more efficient.

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