Chow Tai Fook to shutter up to eight stores in prime locations
Latest shock to jewellery sector, as company chief warns he expects industry to suffer a further double-digit fall in sales over the next three months
Hong Kong’s biggest jewellery chain is to shutter as many as eight of its key stores in the city, as earnings continue to be battered by dwindling mainland visitors, and lukewarm retail sentiment.
Speaking on local radio, Kent Wong Siu-kee, managing director of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, warned he expected the sector to suffer a further double-digit fall in sales over the next three months.
He also said he thought Hong Kong was losing its shine as an overseas travel destination because of loosened visa policies in the other countries, and the strengthening Hong Kong dollar.
“Seven to eight of our stores, in tourist areas, are set to close in the 2017 financial year, and those that have renewed their tenancy contracts, even in these populous areas, we have seen their landlords on average slash rents by 40 to 50 per cent this year,” he said.
The low base effect created by last year’s figures, and the onset of the “peak season for weddings”, however, could help narrow Chow Tai Fook’s revenue decline in the coming half, Wong said. The company is also considered the world’s largest publicly-traded jeweller.
