A first: Europe is the prime market
Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of the A.S. Watson group above Kruidvat and Ici Paris XL, has managed a 24 billion Hong Kong dollars (2.25 billion euro) operational profit for its European branch in 2013, which is 37 % of the company’s total profit. It signals Europe’s first ever profit lead in the company, ahead of Hong Kong and China.
The European investments are paying off, as the region barely managed 12 % of the group’s profit in 2008, while Hong Kong and China represented 45 %. The worldwide operational profit in retail grew 14 % to 11.77 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.11 billion euro).
Europe’s retail branch consists of, among others, Ici Paris XL, Trekpleister, Kruidvat and The Perfume Shop, and all of them together created a 60.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (5.7 billion euro) turnover. This meant turnover has increased 8 % compared to 2012 and on a like-for-like basis, the growth is still 2.8 %.
There were no separate Kruidvat numbers from Hutchison Whampoa, even though it did reveal that the 2013 sales in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had all improved. Apparently, more than 70 % of all Dutch households bought something at Kruidvat in 2013.
