Fast Retailing Co., Japan's top casual-wear retailer known for its Uniqlo brand, reported record unconsolidated sales and pretax profits Wednesday for the year that ended Aug. 31.
The company attributed the brisk earnings results to a series of media campaigns that helped boost the number of visitors to its retail shops and advance its sales figures.
Pretax profits surged 70.7 percent to 103.22 billion yen on an 82.8 percent gain in sales to 418.56 billion yen.
Net profits soared 71.5 percent to 59.19 billion yen, or 1,116.06 yen per share, against 1,301.98 yen the previous year.
Sales on a same-store basis rose 41.7 percent, while the number of visitors to shops soared 41.3 percent.
"We are on par with leading world retailers and trail only Seven-Eleven Japan Co. in the domestic market," Fast Retailing President Tadashi Yanai said. "We are set to achieve sales of 1 trillion yen in the near future."
With regard to the four stores that Fast Retailing opened in Britain in September, he added, "We have been accepted and will advance into other major world markets over the next 10 years."
The company said it plans to pay a yearend dividend of 60 yen per share, bringing its dividend for the year to 120 yen. The company had paid 150 yen the previous year.
For the current year to next Aug. 31, Fast Retailing said it expects its unconsolidated pretax profits and net profits to gain 16.3 percent and 14.9 percent to 120 billion yen and 68 billion yen, respectively, on a 14.7 percent rise in sales to 480 billion yen.