Japan's Aoki Holdings H1 Witnessed an 8.8 Per Cent Rise in Sales at 73,381 Million Yen

Driven by robust performance of its fashion business, Japan’s Aoki Holdings notched up a healthy sales performance in the first half of the current financial year 2013-14.

The company, which operates famous brands such as AOKI and ORIHICA, witnessed an 8.8 per cent rise in sales at 73,381 million yen in the six months ended 30 September 2013 from 67,425 million yen in the same period a year ago.

Sales in the company’s major business, the Fashion business witnessed a rise of 8.2 per cent to 43,508 million yen in H1 FY 2013-14 from the same period a year ago driven by new store openings, robust sales of jackets, slacks, dress shirts, business suits and ladies’ products.

The company was very aggressive in new store launches as it opened 24 new AOKI stores in H1 FY 2013-14, taking its total AOKI store network to 480 at the end of Q2 2013.

As far as its ORIHICA brand was concerned, the company launched 11 new stores in major shopping centers, taking the total number of ORHICA stores to 116 at the end of 30 September 2013.

Rise in expenses on account of new store openings and personnel weighed heavily on profitability as the company’s fashion business witnessed a dip of 40.7 per cent in operating profit at 626 million yen in the six months ended 30 September 2013 from the same period a year ago.

The company expects that its fashion business may see sales of 114,600 million yen in the year ending March 31, 2014.