Etam Iger, the French women's and lingerie retailer, posted its first-half results. The European market is fiercely competitive and subject to price cuts. In contrast, China's core market performance is quite different. With the reorganization of business and introduction of new products, the rapid growth of the Company in the PRC in the first half of the year saw both sales and profit growth. Etam announced total sales in the first half of 500 million euros, down 1.5% from last year, operating profit fell 29.6% to 7 million euros. In Europe, pretax profit for the first half fell to EUR 2.5 million from EUR 17.8 million a year earlier, while total sales of 1155 stores in Europe decreased 8%. However, the group said it plans to strengthen the region by selling cheaper apparel to the European market. The Chinese market saw operating profit of 4.6 million euros in the first half of the year and a loss of 7.8 million euros from a year earlier. Sales increased 60%, jumped to 125 million euros, the company in 2009 rapid expansion in the Chinese market, opened a new store 271, the current total number of Etam stores in China reached 2,400.