Esprit shutters Hong Kong flagship in midst of financial hardship

As Esprit continues to struggle financially and with bringing in customers, they have opted to shutter their Hong Kong flagship store. They will also close their Peking Road flagship and a Causeway Bay location this year.

The company, which is listed in Hong Kong, issued a profit warning to investors on Thursday that they will record a net loss of between 121.5 and 125 million dollars, compared to a net profit of 7.8 million dollars last year. Esprit has spent several years trying to make a turnaround, and blamed its still lackluster performance on declining brick-and-mortar sales, taxation, and impairment of its China operations.

The store first opened in 2009, and while the flagship was in a prime tourist destination that typically has strong retail traffic, it could never get the strong retail traffic needed to have the store turn a profit. Most of Esprit's business has fallen off in the Asian market, sales of which made up just 10 percent of the brand's revenue last year.