Tse Sui Luen Jewellery profit plunges 45.7pc after fall in gold sales

Tse Sui Luen Jewellery International said it would increase marketing promotions near its stores in areas such as Sha Tin and Yuen Long and distribute more staff and inventory there to combat the impact of the Occupy protests, which have caused business to drop about 10 per cent since they began in September.

"It was mainly in the first few days that business was impacted but by the third day, we saw that the protesters were mostly peaceful," TSL's deputy chief executive Lambert Chan said. "There were some occasional incidents in Mongkok that affected operating hours. Golden Week actually wasn't bad. We saw single-digit growth."

Net profit for the Hong Kong-listed company plunged 45.7 per cent to HK$25.8 million for the six months to August, mainly due to the absence this year of a "gold rush effect". Industry-wide gold sales jumped last year starting in April due to a sudden drop in the price of bullion.

Chan said the weakening of overall demand from mainland consumers also played a factor.

"We experienced a softening of sales through the year but in September it rose and it was quite a decent rise," he said. Turnover declined 14.6 per cent to HK$1.82 billion, while operating profit from operations dropped 16.7 per cent to HK$74.47 million.

Tse Sui Luen's Hong Kong business, with 25 outlets around the city, is expected to be further hurt by the protracted pro-democracy protests.