Gelonghui January 31 | An Lifang Holdings (01388.HK) disclosed the latest sales data for the period October to December 2023 (“fourth quarter”). The Group began investing more resources in sales and marketing in the third quarter, such as hiring ambassadors and coordinating more promotions. These activities are aimed at increasing the Group's brand awareness and driving the Group's overall sales in the future.
In addition to hiring spokespersons and coordinating more promotions, as part of sales and marketing strategies, the Group has also invested more resources in store decoration since the third quarter.
Benefiting from the above activities since the third quarter, brand awareness has increased, and the Group's overall sales for the fourth quarter increased by about 12.4% year-on-year compared to 2022. During the fourth quarter, same-store sales recorded a double-digit year-on-year increase in stores that had been in operation for more than 24 months. As of the end of December 2023, the total number of retail outlets in the Group was 1,007, of which the number of sales counters and specialty stores was 840 and 167, respectively. The number of retail outlets in the Group decreased by a net of 77 compared to the end of December 2022.
Since the third quarter, the Group has implemented a series of measures to (i) increase sales, such as allocating more resources to sales and marketing activities; and (ii) strictly control and reduce costs, but the Group only benefited in the fourth quarter, improving sales performance. According to the company's current data and preliminary review of the Group's unaudited comprehensive management accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023 (“FY2023”), due to the devaluation of the RMB, the Group's overall sales volume up to FY2023 is expected to drop by about 4% compared to FY2022. At a fixed exchange rate, the Group's sales from the mainland China market are basically flat.
Furthermore, due to the above investment of more resources in sales and marketing, the Group's sales and distribution expenses increased in fiscal year 2023. As a result, despite the improvement in sales performance in the fourth quarter, the Group is expected to record losses attributable to company owners of approximately HK$72 million in fiscal year 2023, while losses attributable to company owners in fiscal year 2022 are approximately HK$51.2 million.
As the Group began to benefit from these measures in the fourth quarter, the Group plans to continue implementing the relevant measures to meet future challenges.