Last week, when writing about the
upcoming Alibaba IPO (www.retailiation.com
They came from the east), I predicted a new wave of retail investment washing
into Western retail. And, as if by magic, Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo
announced three moves in the last week: store expansions into Paris and Berlin
and the potential acquisition of the UKs Cath Kidston.
But who are
Uniqlo and what are their ambitions?
Picking up on
an article on Reuters by Dominique Vidalon,
Pascale Denis and Emma Thomasson (April 12th 2014), Uniqlo has over 1,300 stores worldwide
including 856 in Japan, Uniqlo has focused its overseas expansion so far on
China and South Korea, but is now accelerating a push into the United States
and Europe. In the USA, Uniqlo has 17 stores today, they want around 100.
And Uniqlo is one of a stable of brands owned by Japan's Fast
Retailing Co Ltd.
Already the fourth-largest apparel company in the world, whose brands also include Theory, J
Brand, GU, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam stores, Fast
Retailing have big ambitions and plan to quintuple revenue to 5 trillion
yen ($49 billion), becoming the world's top fashion retailer by
2020.
"We have big goals in Europe - we would like to have the same business in Europe as in the U.S.” Yukihiro Katsuta, head of research and development for Uniqlo, told Reuters in an interview in Paris last week
No comments:
Post a Comment