Reiterating the same point made in Jing Daily’s article last week on the impact of the ongoing Occupy Central protests on retail, one jewelry CEO recently told Bloomberg that a slump in Hong Kong luxury sales is part of a long-term trend that started long before the protests and is caused by a variety of factors.
In the video interview embedded above, Joanne Ooi, the CEO of jewelry company Plukka, says that “there’s no doubt that Occupy has had a devastating impact on retailing in Central, but it’s well acknowledged in the industry that sales have been depressed since the crackdown on corruption in China.”
According to her, “I think that we’re looking at a permanent downward trend anyway in the sector.” In her opinion, the slump caused by the protests is “a temporary adverse blip,” but “of greater concern” to the industry is the ongoing long-term decline caused by other factors.
Despite the sales slump, Ooi still supports the protests. “Although it’s obviously impacted our trading quite severely for this temporary period,” she says, “I’m very supportive of the protests; of members of my team and my company who have been out there.”
