Yue Yen profits increase

Yue Yuen, the world's largest sports shoes maker, are to double the number of their retail stores in China, partly to take advantage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and also to diversify their business away from manufacturing. The company, whose customers include Nike and Adidas, currently have more than 1,450 outlets including their own YY Sports nameplate and want this to increase to around 3,000 in the next two years. 'We aim to be the leading manufacturer and now the leading retail operator for our partners', said managing director David Tsai. The company have reported an 18.7% jump in net profit to US$353.6 million for the year ended September 2006. Since then sales have risen 10.7% in the October-January period.