Wuxi Little Swan (000418,200418), a producer of washing machines and refrigerators, recorded a 10.57 percent year-on-year drop in 2011 net profit to 453 million yuan on a 2.02 percent drop in sales revenue to 10.98 billion yuan, reports yicai.com, citing a company filing. Earnings per share hit 0.72 yuan.

The company announced plans to distribute cash dividends of two yuan (including tax) for every 10 shares held.

Sales of home appliances generated revenue of 9.64 billion yuan, down 1.82 percent from 2010, with the gross profit margin up 0.71 percent.

The company generated revenue of 1.34 billion yuan from its other businesses, down 3.44 percent year-on-year.

The domestic market accounted for 8.74 billion yuan of the revenue, an increase of 17.55 percent year-on-year, while revenue from overseas markets fell 5.99 percent to 2.24 billion yuan.

Sales of home appliances slowed from the third quarter due to the termination of the policy encouraging rural residents to buy home appliances and from the effects of the E.U. sovereign debt crisis.

In addition, the company suffered from large fluctuations in raw material costs.

Little Swan produced 55.58 million washing machines in 2011, an increase of 10.57 percent year-on-year, while sales rose 9.52 percent to 55.75 million units.

Exports of washing machines last year rose 14.56 percent from 2010 to 19.39 million units.