Hong Kong's largest eye-wear company Moulin International finds itself trying to consolidate new acquisitions and develop a fairly fresh line of business in the middle of a global recession.
Moulin is the most exposed of Hong Kong's eye-wear companies to the ebbs and flows of the global economy, with its commitment to retail and distribution as well as the more traditional manufacturing side.
The challenges the company faces were hinted at by the last set of interim results showing a 36 per cent fall in net profits.
Louis Wong Wai-kit, research head at Phillip Securities, said the original design manufacturing (ODM) eye-wear business was no place to be in a downturn.
Although geared towards the middle rather than the high end of a market, sunglasses hardly top the list of consumer necessities.
The drop in interim net profits was not only due to aggressive expansion in Europe but more a result of a fall in the company's ODM business, which was affected by the global economic downturn, Mr Wong said, adding that the expansion had not helped matters.