HONG KONG: Li Ning Company Ltd, the mainland's top sportswear retailer and sports equipment producer, said the volume of orders that it has booked for the fourth quarter this year was 14.5 percent higher compared to the same period last year.

"The volume of our fourth-quarter orders is better than that in the third quarter," chief financial officer and executive direction Nicholas Chong told reporters in Hong Kong Friday.

"Both our apparel and footwear divisions posted significant growth in the fourth quarter," he said.

Orders in the apparel division jumped 24.2 percent in the fourth quarter, with both the unit price and sales amount advancing 12.6 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.

"As for our footwear unit, overall sales order rose 5 percent, accompanied by a 1.9 percent growth in unit price and 3 percent increase in amount," he added.

Between January to April this year, the execution rate for the company's orders reached 98 percent, while the retail discount rate amounted to 80 percent. Statistics show that most of the company's customers have ascertained their orders and sold them at a reasonable prices, Chong noted.

President and chief executive officer Zhang Zhiyong said the group has sunk large investments into its apparel division over the past two years.

The move helped boost the volume of orders that the apparel division generated in the fourth quarter.

Commenting on the retail industry on the mainland, Zhang said the market showed some decline in February, but downtrend has started to stabilize in March and April.

"We believe the economic indexes on the mainland will rise in the third and fourth quarters, and this will have a positive impact on the retail sector in the first two quarters next year," Zhang said.

The sportswear maker, named after its founder, Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Li Ning, had warned in March that rising raw materials and labor costs would narrow down its margins.

"We do not expect a significant rebound in the retail market the rest of this year, but we hope to see gradual improvement in the days ahead," Zhang said.

At the end of last year, Li Ning has around 1,000 stores on the mainland and it plans to add 755 more stores by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Belle International Holdings, the largest retailer of women's shoes on the mainland, said sales in March was worse than the same period last year, due to an unexpected prolonged winter, especially in North China.

"The retail sector is likely to stay gloomy since consumer confidence has not really picked up," chief executive officer Sheng Baijiao said on Friday.

Moving in line with the 1.51 percent jump in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, shares in Li Ning surged 10.07 percent, or HK$1.68, to close at HK$18.36 on Friday. Shares in Belle ended at HK$5.89, up 4.43 percent, or HK$0.25.

(HK Edition 05/16/2009 page2)