Prada Continues To Plan Global Expansion To Value Chinese Market

< p > Italy luxury group Prada announced that its profits remained stable in 2013, but it was affected by the strong euro.

The group is still confident of its future development and believes that this will continue to depend on the Chinese market.

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P Patrizio, chief executive of Prada group, Patrizio Bertelli, pointed out in an interview published in the echo paper of France that it is wrong to think that the early warning of a sharp slowdown in China's luxury market is wrong.

He said, "I don't believe that the Chinese market has really matured". He also believes that "China is now making the second change towards free capitalism".

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< p > Prada announced on Wednesday that net profit reached 2013 euros in the year January 31st to 627 million 800 thousand, up 0.3% compared with 2012.

This growth is almost stagnant, and the group says it is due to "loss of exchange rate and increased cost of taxes and fees".

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< p > turnover increased to 3 billion 580 million euros, an increase of 8.8%.

The largest part comes from retail business (84.5%).

Retail sales rose by 12.5% to nearly 3 billion euros per annum.

On the contrary, wholesale sales fell by 6.9% to 551 million 600 thousand euros.

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Despite the low economic environment, the European market is still doing well, and its turnover has increased by 4.8%. P

But the biggest increase was in the Middle East, where sales almost doubled to 91 million 100 thousand euros per annum.

The US market remained strong, with a year-round growth of 10.9%.

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< p > operating gross revenue (EBITDA profit before depreciation and amortization) increased by 8.6% to 1 billion 143 million euros, while operating profit increased by 5.6% to 939 million 200 thousand euros.

Prada was founded in Milan in 1913.

It was listed on the Hongkong stock exchange three years ago.

Mainland China contributed a lot to the company's turnover last year (at a fixed rate of growth of 20%), whereas the growth in the European market slowed down (an increase of 5%).

Patrizio Bertelli said, "our goal is to achieve a turnover of 5 billion euros in three to four years".

He also said he had no intention of acquiring other companies, nor did he plan to go public in Europe at the same time.

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After signing an agreement with Italy tax bureau to pay a tax of nearly 500 million euros, Prada group said in January that it had decided to relocate its corporate headquarters to Milan in P.

Prada expects sales to grow by 9% in 2014, and plans to increase the number of new stores in the world in the next three years to 120.

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