Its net profit reached 85 billion yen over the period (600 million euros, or -9.1% over one year) and its operating profit fell by 2% to 117 billion yen, according to a press release published Thursday.

Uniqlo's profits in China 'decline sharply due to Covid-19 restrictions' and also fell in Japan due to a warmer than usual November, which temporarily affected its product sales winter in the country, explained Fast Retailing.

Uniqlo's results in Japan also suffered from the rapid depreciation of the yen, which increased its supply costs.

But Uniqlo generated strong quarterly results in Southeast Asia and Oceania, North America and Europe (excluding Russia where the brand has suspended operations since March due to the war in Ukraine).

Thus the turnover of Fast Retailing increased by 14.2% to 716.3 billion yen (5 billion euros) in its first quarter.

The group maintained its annual forecast of a net profit of 230 billion yen (-15.9% over one year), for an operating profit of 350 billion yen (+ 17.7%) and a turnover of 2,650 billion yen (+15.2%).

Fast Retailing is still counting on the dynamism of its other markets to compensate for the slump in its activities in China, where the group hopes to see Uniqlo return to the path of growth from its second half (March-August).

Beijing recently abandoned its "zero Covid" policy which was stifling the country's economic activity and the local population should gradually get used to "living with Covid", according to the group.

"Our sales in China were temporarily boosted" in early December by the end of health restrictions, "but they fell again" in the second half of the month with the subsequent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, before to "return quickly in January", commented the financial director of Fast Retailing Takeshi Okazaki during a press conference Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Japanese company announced that it would significantly increase the salaries of its permanent employees in Japan from March, with increases sometimes reaching 40%, to bring them more in line with international levels.

This should inflate its personnel costs in Japan by around 15%, which the group nevertheless wants to offset with productivity gains, a spokeswoman for the group, which also owns other brands such as GU, Theory, told AFP. , Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam.

© 2023 AFP