Last year, Belle International recorded revenue of 4 247.39 million euros, achieving growth rate of 10.3% from 3861.9 million euros. The revenue of the footwear business had a steady growth of 5.9% from 2465.9 million euros now reaching 2610.26 million euros. The gross profit margin of the footwear business was higher than the same period in the previous year (68.7% in 2013 compares to 67.5% in 2012), reflecting the moderate cost environment and improvements on business processes and on the organizational structure.

On the statement issued last month by CEO and Executive Director Sheng Baijiao, the group also underlined the impact of the macroeconomic environment on their business development: slowdown in China’s economic growth, uncertainty around the economic prospects and very sluggish consumer sentiment, all contributing to cautious optimism of the Chinese group. "Traditional retail channels, including the street shops and department stores are under continued pressure due to weak foot traffic" is read on a statement issued last month. The retail channels continue to evolve and change: with the completion of shopping malls and rapid growth in e-commerce, the foot traffic in the department store channel is getting diluted; however the group states they have been proactive in the investment in such new areas.

Belle International directly managed a network of 19 077 stores in mainland China as at the end of 2013, an increase of 9% from a year ago. It is the group’s intention to maintain a similar pace of network expansion in the next two to three years.

The Group’s business is broadly divided into two main segments – the footwear business and the sportswear business. Within the footwear business two different types of business models are applied: for company-owned brands the group adopts a business model which covers product research and development, procurement, manufacturing, distribution and retailing. For distribution footwear brands the group operates the business in two different models, brand licensing and retail distribution. The majority of the sportswear business is in the form of distribution business and includes brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse.  As per information on their website, Belle claims to have six of its brands among top ten in China, with brand Belle (women’s footwear) and Senda (men’s footwear) both ranked number 1 for the 17th consecutive year.

Belle has changed its financial year-end date to end of February, and in May they will announce its earnings for the 14 month’s period ending in February.

Exchange rate used - Chinese yuan renmimbi: 8.5344
(as per official exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank on the 12th March 2014)