Ecco Thailand predicts slower sales in 2001
The producer of the Ecco footwear in Thailand warned last week that because of the global economic slowdown, the business was unlikely to reach its already downward-revised sales target for 2001.
Speaking to a Bangkok newspaper, Kitti Chaiwattanatorn, deputy managing director of Ecco (Thailand), said that in normal years – and in common with the wider Ecco Group - the company sets an annual growth target of 10%. Though this figure had been reduced to 8% for 2001, sales had in fact only expanded by 2% in the first eight months of the year.
Chaiwattanatorn blamed the situation on the global economic slowdown – especially in the company’s second-largest export market of the United States. Nevertheless, he was confident it would be able to regain most of the lost ground before the year was out, as sales had already begun to gain momentum in the second quarter.
Chaiwattanatorn attributed this to consumers regaining their confidence after initially panicking over the economic outlook. Combined with its decision not to pass on higher leather costs to the customer, as most of the competition had done, this would lead to the business returning to double-digit growth in 2002, Chaiwattanatorn predicted.
