Singapore’s Secretlab posts slower profit, rising inventories in FY 2022

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Hi there,

I’ve been watching too much Omegle recently, and my eyes are constantly feasting on those comfy products occupied by my favorite gamers. Now I’m considering getting myself a gaming chair.

As a close friend and I were browsing an online catalog the other day, I suddenly asked: “Have you ever wondered how much it actually costs to make one chair?” “Ah, so now you’re pretending to care about this because you write about business?” my friend joked.

Jokes aside, I finally got some clues in this week’s Big Story from my colleague Simon, who analyzed the financials of Secretlab, a Singapore-based maker of gaming chairs.

The company revealed that its profit per chair was “historically” around 17%. But that figure went down to “nearly zero” in the financial year ending February 2022 and for most of calendar year 2022, thanks to increases in freight costs and in the prices of aluminum and steel.

This, combined with slow revenue growth during that period, has reduced Secretlab’s profit in FY2022. The firm admits that it may face a loss in FY 2023 (for the financial year ending this month), but it says the situation has been improving over the past few months. Check out the Big Story for details.

Meanwhile, for this week’s Hot Take, I look into the planned exit of JD.com from Indonesia and Thailand. The Chinese company has a fearsome reputation in the ecommerce scene, so what went wrong? Read on to find out.

– Budi

THE BIG STORY

Secretlab’s profit declines in FY 2022 as revenue growth slows

Image credit: Timmy Loen

The Singapore-based maker of gaming chairs will likely make its first loss in calendar year 2022.

THE HOT TAKE

Making sense of JD.com’s exit from Indonesia and Thailand

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