Golden Eagle profit down 23.2pc

Mainland department store operator Golden Eagle Retail Group said yesterday that it was in no rush to develop an e-commerce platform despite reporting a 23.2 per cent fall in first-half net profit to 483.8 million yuan (HK$609.5 million).

"We want to slowly and carefully develop the preparations and foundation plan for e-commerce," chief financial officer Patricia Tai said. "We hope the e-commerce plan will not be a loss-making business because we see a lot of e-commerce [initiatives] are still loss-making … After the foundation work is done, then we will roll it out."

Same-store sales growth declined 6.7 per cent, Golden Eagle said on Monday night. Turnover was 7.94 billion yuan, down 7.9 per cent from a year earlier.

The company, founded by billionaire Roger Wang, operates 26 department stores on the mainland, mainly in Jiangsu province and surrounding areas.

Golden Eagle plans to expand by 2017 to 38 stores, split equally between department stores and lifestyle centres, which provide a fuller complementary entertainment offering. The firm prefers to own its properties outright. It owned 60 per cent of its gross floor area last year.

Department stores overall have been hard hit by the shift to online shopping while also being squeezed by the influx of new mall supply. Fellow department store operator Intime Retail (Group) reported a 2.4 per cent fall in same-store sales growth in the first half while Parkson Retail Group reported an 8 per cent drop in same-store sales in the first quarter.