Sa Sa International (0178) announced that in the fourth fiscal quarter ended March this year, the overall retail and wholesale business turnover was 834 million yuan, an increase of 1.9% year-on-year.
Among them, the turnover in Hong Kong and Macau was 509 million yuan, down 4.7% year-on-year; compared with the same period in 2018-2019, it decreased by 70.6%; same-store sales increased by 3% year-on-year, the average value of each transaction increased by 1.4%, and the number of transactions fell by 4.5% %.
The announcement stated that in the Hong Kong SAR, due to the short-term closure of many of the Group’s branches during the quarter due to the confirmed COVID-19 among employees, the total number of business days of the stores was lost about 480 days (accounting for about 7% of the total in the fourth quarter, and the flow of people was also significantly reduced due to social distancing measures). Therefore, the year-on-year growth of retail sales in the fourth quarter slowed to 9.4% from 14.3% in the third quarter. As the Group streamlined its store network in the Hong Kong SAR according to business needs to reduce redundant stores and costs, Stores continued to serve customers, coupled with a low base effect, same-store sales in the fourth quarter rose 22.6% year-on-year.
As of the end of March this year, the number of Sa Sa retail stores was 234, a decrease of 4 from the 238 at the end of last year.
In addition, the sales of the Group's online business in the fourth quarter increased by 27.2% year-on-year, mainly benefiting from the shopping site in the Hong Kong SAR.