Fast Retailing cuts outlook as Japan Uniqlo sales sag
News On Japan via Reuters -- Jul 06
Fast Retailing Co, Asia's largest apparel retailer, posted a 22 percent rise in quarterly profit but cut its full-year forecast below market expectations due to weaker-than-estimated sales at its Uniqlo chain in Japan.
The company, which competes with Spain's Inditex, Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz and U.S.-based Gap, reduced its operating profit forecast to 131.50 billion yen ($1.6 billion) for the year to August from 138 billion yen. That is lower than the average estimate of 136.1 billion yen in a poll of 25 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For its March-May third quarter, the Japanese speciality retailer booked an operating profit of 27.5 billion yen, up from 22.5 billion yen a year earlier. But same-store sales at its Uniqlo outlets in Japan, its main profit driver, fell 5.4 percent over the same period as cool spring temperatures hit sales of summer clothing.
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