Le Saunda plans more store closures

Footwear and accessories retailer Le Saunda plans to close even more outlets of its poor-performing secondary brand CNE in the second half of the year.

The company performed well despite a difficult environment for ladies' footwear, it announced at its interim results briefing yesterday. Profit jumped 25.2 per cent year on year to HK$76.4 million but the company said it anticipated a difficult second half.

"We do not do large sales promotions. Customers buy because of our strong brand name. You can see that the good results confirm that we are on the right path," said chief executive Alice Lau.

The company was facing weak consumer demand and considerable rising frontline staff costs, it said.

Lau also anticipated it would be harder to achieve good results in the second half, disclosing "golden week" sales were disappointing but numbers for last month were looking okay.

At the end of August, the group's net cash amounted to HK$475.7 million, with no bank loans. The group had 997 outlets, a net increase of 100 from the year before, and experienced a healthy same-store sales growth of 16.1 per cent.