Etam's poor performance in China in the first half of the year

The first-half performance of Etam Ignatiques, a women's and lingerie retailer in France, was announced. The European market was highly competitive and was affected by price cuts. The situation was not good.

In contrast, the performance of China's core markets is very different. With the reorganization of businesses and the introduction of new products, the company's rapid development in China in the first half of the year saw both sales and profits grow.

Etam announced total sales of 500 million euros in the first half of the year, a decrease of 1.5% from the same period last year, and operating profit decreased by 29.6% to 7 million euros.

In the European market, pre-tax profit fell from 17.8 million euros in one year to 2.5 million euros in the first half of the year, and the total sales of 1155 stores in Europe fell by 8%. However, the group said it plans to strengthen the region's development by selling cheaper clothing to the European market.

In the Chinese market, operating profit for the first half of the year was 4.6 million euros, which was a loss of 7.8 million euros last year. Sales increased by 60% and jumped to 125 million euros. The company expanded rapidly in the Chinese market in 2009 and opened 271 new stores. At present, the total number of Etam stores in China reaches 2,400.