Releasing the unaudited operational data of the Chow Tai Fook Group for the three month period ended September 30, 2017 (Q2), the jeweller reported that sales in both its key markets – Mainland China and Hong Kong & Macau continued to improve year-on-year. Significantly, same store sales (SSS) of gem-set jewellery in Hong Kong & Macau recorded a positive growth after 13 consecutive quarters of decline since the first quarter of FY2015, it added.

Overall retail sales value was up by 15% in Mainland China and 12% in HK & Macau. Same store sales growth was 9% in the former and 13% in the latter territories, with same store sales value rising by 3% and 12%, Chow Tai Fook said.

In terms of product categories, while SSS for gem-set jewellery dropped by 1% in Mainland China, it was up 7% in HK & Macau on large volume sales, while performance for gold products was up 15% and 21% respectively, with increases seen in both price and volume.

The jeweller reported that same store Average Selling Price of gemset jewellery in Mainland China improved to HK$6,500 (2QFY2017: HK$6,100), though it dropped to HK$10,700 (2QFY2017: HK$12,600) in HK; for gold products it was HK$3,600 (2QFY2017: HK$3,300) in Mainland China and HK$7,100 (2QFY2017: HK$6,800) in Hong Kong & Macau. This increase in ASP was primarily attributable to the gain in the average weight per gold product sold,  since the international gold price during the quarter decline by about 4% as compared to a year earlier.

Chow Tai Fook stated that the retail sales value (RSV) for e-commerce of jewellery business in Mainland China continued to expand with a 104% year-on-year growth in Q2, accompanied by a robust volume increase of 92%.

The percentage of RSV settled by China UnionPay or RMB to the total RSV of HongKong and Macau market, a proxy for sales contribution from Mainland tourists, declined to 41% in the Quarter as compared to 42% of the same period last year, the jeweller reported.

During the quarter, the Group opened a net of 79 POS, which included a net opening of 83 POS in Mainland China, 1 POS in Macau, and a net closing of 4 POS in Hong Kong and 1 POS in Taiwan, bringing the total number of POS to 2,488 as at 30 September 2017.