Beijing Department Store Wangfujing Opens In Hainan In Time To Cash In On Chinese New Year

Department store retailer Wangfujing has opened its first store in Hainan, the duty-free shopping haven in China where sales boomed during the pandemic when Chinese consumers could not travel abroad. The Shanghai-listed company held a lavish opening ceremony on January 18, just ahead of the Chinese New Year rush. Under the fascia, WFJ Duty Free, the parent department store group calls the new operation "a starting point" for the company's dual tax + tax-free business. Wangfujing says it will rely on Wanning's "Unique coastal culture and tourism features" to help drive traffic, as well as its name which is an iconic national brand in the world of Chinese retailing. Over the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year period, Wangfujing can also rely on pent-up travel demand to generate traffic, now that China has dropped its zero-Covid policy. Sanya was at 102% of 2019 levels, and Haikou at 88%. "Forward bookings for Chinese New Year are currently 47% behind pre-pandemic levels but 30% ahead of last year," said ForwardKeys China market analyst Nan Dai DAI -0.1%. Wangfujing said that the WFJ Duty Free store was designed by "a well-known Italian team" combining the cultural and tourism characteristics of the international coastal city it is in. The official opening of the Hainan store last week did not have much impact on investors, with Wangfujing's share price trending downwards slightly. In the nine months ending September 30, 2022, Wangfujing Group reported sales of $1.15 billion, compared to $1.3 billion in the same period a year earlier, while basic earnings per share from continuing operations were cut in half.