Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion giant, ran €7.6 billion in revenue through its Irish arm in 2023, new accounts show, up from €4.5 billion the year before.
The vast majority of that revenue was generated in Europe, the accounts show, with just €17.9 million coming from the rest of the world.
The company, Infinite Styles ecommerce Co Limited, had a pretax profit of €117.8 million, an increase on the previous year’s profit of €51.5 million. Its accumulated profits stood at €171.9 million.
The accounts show that Infinite Styles ecommerce had 24 employees in Ireland, 21 in distribution and three in administration, and it had a wage bill of €5.4 million.
It paid corporation tax of €21.9 million in 2023, up from €5.79 million the year before. It also recorded an “underprovision of prior year” of €782,419.
The accounts show that the company’s immediate controlling party is called Roadget Business Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, while its ultimate controlling party is Elite Depot Limited, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The directors did not recommend the payment of a dividend, proposing instead that the profit for the year be retained.
Shein, which has been on a major expansion drive worldwide in recent years, was valued earlier this year at $66 billion after a $2 billion funding round, according to reports.
It has stated its aim to float on the London stock exchange, but the plan has wobbled in recent months amid declines in its reported earnings.
Media reports have suggested that its year-on-year sales growth dropped during the first six months of 2024 by about 23 per cent. Those reports stated that its earnings for that period were down 70 per cent to $400 million, with revenues of $18 billion.
The company has also been severely and repeatedly criticised over its use of labour by Uyghur Muslims in China, many of whom are detained in forced labour camps.
In a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in May of last year, several US members of congress criticised the company over its business practices, including a business model that “harvests vast amounts of consumer data” and for “utilising underpaid labor in its supplier factories and violating human rights”.
This year the UK law firm Leigh Day wrote to the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK’s financial regulator, asking them to block Shein’s application for a listing in London, arguing that the “use of forced labour in supply chains would be unlawful under the Modern Slavery Act and would mean that Shein would have to explain company profits in light of proceeds of crime laws”. Leigh Day was representing a charity called Stop Uyghur Genocide.
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