Luk Fook Holdings Reports Plunging Sales in Macau and Hong Kong

(IDEX Online) – Hong Kong-listed Luk Fook Holdings (International) Ltd reported that same-store sales in Macau and Hong Kong dropped 12 percent on the year in the first quarter of 2014.

Luk Fook Holdings also said that sales in Mainland China inched up one percent, while sales overall dropped by 10 percent.

Sales of gold items in Macau and Hong Kong fell 18 percent in the first three months of this year, while sales of gem-set jewelry declined by a more moderate 3 percent.

Overall, the firm's same-store sales of gold jewelry dropped by 15 percent during the quarter, but in Mainland China sales declined by just three percent. In overall gem-set jewelry sales, there was a decline of two percent, but a rise of 23 percent in Mainland China.

The jewelry giant attributed the fall in sales in Macau and Hong Kong to a “relatively high base effect” compared with the same quarter last year when sales in Macau and Hong Kong jumped as a result of falling gold prices.

Last week, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd, the largest jeweler in the world, also cited the high base effect of sales as being behind a nine-percent fall in same-store sales in Macau and Hong Kong in the first quarter of this year.