Japan’s Fast Retailing – owner of Uniqlo – issues second profit warning this year
Japan's Fast Retailing has issued another profit warning, and expects income in the year to 31 August to dip by 60 per cent compared to last year, despite an uptick in sales.
The Uniqlo owner expects to report profit of ¥ 45bn (£322m) – a 25 per cent reduction on the previously projected ¥ 60bn.
In the nine months to 31 May, profit dropped to ¥ 76.7bn from ¥ 140bn in the same period last year, while revenue was up to ¥ 1.43 trillion from ¥ 1.35 trillion
The company's sales forecast of ¥ 1.8 trillion, a seven per cent increase on last year, is unchanged.
Fast Retailing previously warned on profits in April, when it cut its operating profit outlook from ¥ 180bn to ¥ 120bn – this has also been left unchanged.
In April the company said Uniqlo profits had declined in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea and reported expanding losses in the US. The group said the poorly performing operations were "adversely affected by warm winter weather" and that sales were hit especially hard in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea due to “sluggish economic conditions”.