Athletic and outdoor footwear accounted for just over half of group earnings, contributing more than $3 billion, but Yue Yuen’s sales revenues for this category was down by 19.2% year on year.

In terms of volume, Yue Yuen shipped 160 million pairs of shoes between January and September 2023, a decrease of 24.5% year on year. It attributed this decline to “soft global demand and a high base effect”. However, its average selling price increased by 5.3% to $21.71 per pair.

The Hong Kong-based group’s retail division, Pou Sheng, was the only one that showed a small growth percentage, 0.7%, with revenues for the nine-month period of nearly $2.2 billion. It said this reflected “an overall recovery of the sales environment and foot traffic at retail stores across mainland China”.