Uniqlo’s $50 Billion Brand Puzzle | Intelligence. TOKYO, Japan — The view from the 33rd floor of the Tokyo Midtown tower, home to Uniqlo’s global headquarters, is almost as ‘mega’ as the ambitions of the company’s founder. By 2020, Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company, aims to turn the Japanese purveyor of colourful, well-designed basics into the world’s number one fashion giant, with revenues of $50 billion per year, surpassing both Zara and H&M, the largest and second-largest apparel chains. In fiscal year 2014, H&M Group reported sales revenues of 151 billion Swedish krona ($18 billion), while Inditex, parent company of Zara, posted sales of 18.1 billion euros ($20.4 billion). Fast Retailing, by contrast, generated 2014 sales of 1.38 trillion Japanese yen ($13.3 billion), of which Uniqlo made up 82 percent. With less than five years to go before 2020, how will Uniqlo hit its target? “This not their realistic financial target.
Growing its global presence But the real test remains. Zara just stepped up its accessories game BIG time. Forbes Welcome. High street retailers fight back against online rivals. Carine Roitfeld to Heat Tech: how Uniqlo became our favourite shop | Fashion. The Japanese for cheap is yasui. Speaking to customers at the largest branch of Uniqlo in Japan, this word pops up a lot.
“It’s cheap and the quality is good, but the style is so-so,” a fashionable young man in thick-rimmed glasses tells me. “I buy my underwear here, but Uniqlo’s main purpose is not fashion.” I am wandering around the 12 multicoloured floors of the flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo’s answer to Regent Street, to find out what shoppers really think of their home-grown clothing giant. To supplement its range of basics, Uniqlo has been cleverly tapping the talent of high-profile designers to create more fashion-led collections. Her designs are not at all what the shoppers in Ginza might expect. Like H&M, whose equally coveted Balmain collection arrives on 5 November, Uniqlo has recognised the seductive effect of French fashion powerhouses to draw people through the doors and raise its profile internationally. Fashion on the British high street: the winners and losers | Fashion. Zara: going up At the top of the game when it comes to fast fashion, Inditex – the group that owns Zara – is just as swift with its thinking.
Its expansion into international markets is serious, with more than a third of its sales this year coming from China and the US, up 29% from a year earlier. Online now accounts for an increasing amount of sales, with 1.3 million people visiting the site every day. Zara's USP is a high turnover of stock that is fashion-aware but never too out there, priced affordably but not cheap as chips. It's a formula that has contributed to Inditex's recent 17% rise in sales figures. Whistles: going up A sleepy high-street brand until Jane Shepherdson took over in 2008, bringing with her a grown-up, minimal-but-feminine aesthetic.
John Lewis: going up The grand dame of the British high street has played its traditionalism to its advantage, post the financial crisis. Asos: going up It seems there is no stopping this internet fashion powerhouse. H&M: going up. How Zara became the world's biggest fashion retailer. This flexibility and efficiency has remained at the heart of Inditex, the company built from Zara that now runs 6,500 shops in 88 different countries and includes seven other brands, including Bershka, Pull & Bear, and Massimo Dutti. The business model built by Ortega is unique. Zara stores around the world receive deliveries twice a week and products designed at the headquarters in Arteixo reach stores three weeks later. This is a staggering pace, helped by the fact that between 51pc and 55pc of clothing is manufactured in what the company describes as “proximity” markets, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco, instead of Asia.
This model is regularly described as “fast fashion”, but Pablo Isla, chief executive and chairman, insists Inditex is “much more” than that. “It is too narrow for everything that is Inditex,” he explains. “You see the stores and you can’t imagine what is behind them.” Twice a week, a store manager will send an order to HQ. The company is still expanding quickly. Primark expands on rival Zara's home turf with Spanish flagship store. MADRID Primark opened a glitzy new flagship store in Madrid on Thursday, squarely planting the budget fashion retailer in the Spanish backyard of Zara-owner Inditex (ITX.MC).
By opening its second-biggest store in the world in Spain, Primark, owned by Associated British Foods (ABF.L), signaled its confidence in its future in Spain after 10 years of quietly building up a chain of around 40 stores there. There was not much quiet about the debut, however, as the new store was mobbed by hundreds of shoppers eager to grab fashion essentials at bargain prices in a country where 22 percent unemployment has strained family finances. "Being on Gran Via and in such a large space is obviously a symbolic step for Primark. It's the icing on the cake for the new king of low-cost clothing retailing in Spain," said Carlos Hernandez, a Madrid-based retail consultant.
"I've come for the hype really. (Editing by Greg Mahlich and Adrian Croft) Welcome. Zara Leads In Fast Fashion. 2015 Top 250 Global Powers of Retailing. Global economic outlook The global economy appears to be decelerating as several large economies face increasing trouble. Of primary concern are China and the Eurozone, as well as a few key emerging markets like Brazil and Russia. China has experienced decelerating growth as it struggles to balance the need to avoid excessive credit growth with a desire to keep the economy moving. In Europe, weakness in credit markets is preventing economic growth from resuming at a normal pace. On the other hand, the brightest spots in the global panorama are the U.S. and British economies.
The United States appears to be on a self-sustaining path of faster growth combined with low inflation. Among the big issues having a global impact are: The shift in U.S. monetary policy The Federal Reserve has ended its program of asset purchases and is now assessing when to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in eight years. United States The U.S. economy has been doing very well.
Plans afoot for Superga as Topshop tests street appeal of Italian sneaker. Italian sneaker Superga steps into the Australian market at Topshop Melbourne. Photo: Eddie Jim The man who brought Topshop to Australia is betting a 100-year-old Italian sneaker is going to be this summer's must-have footwear. Hilton Seskin is testing the appetite for Italian-made Superga sneakers with a pop-up shop in the original Australian Topshop store in Chapel Street, Melbourne.
The in-store sneaker boutique is the first phase of a national roll-out of Superga stores over the next three years, including a flagship store in either Sydney or Melbourne and then at least two other stand-alone outlets. Mr Seskin founded the Rebel Sport chain before seizing on the Australian franchise for Topshop after he watched the invasion of international fashion juggernauts such as Zara and H&M crimp sales at his Glue Store retail chain. Next Athleisure sales, including Glue Store, Topshop and wholesaler Trend Imports, doubled in the past two years to about $200 million. High street chain River Island in fashion as sales and profits soar. Rihanna launches her collection for River Island at the Oxford Street store in March 2013 (Source: Getty) River Island saw profits jump by almost 70 per cent last year, boosted by the rise in mobile shopping and recent collaborations with popular celebrities such as Rihanna. The fashion chain, which is privately owned by the Lewis family, reported pre-tax profits of £149.1m in 2014 compared with £88m the previous year.
Sales increased by 10.4 per cent to £925.8m, accounts filed last week on Companies House show. River Island invested heavily in recent years in improving its IT systems and opening new stores, which has helped boost sales. The retailer also made its first foray into the childrenswear market in a bid to broaden its appeal after launching a babywear range called River Island Mini in April last year. Accounts show that the company paid a £100m dividend. Asos reports small rise in annual profits - BBC News. Image copyright Getty Images Online clothing retailer Asos has reported a 1% rise in pre-tax profit to £47.5m for the year to the end of August, compared with £46.9m a year earlier. It said UK retail sales were 27% higher in the year to £474m. Total global retail sales were 17% higher at £1.12bn. The annual results come a month after ASOS chief executive Nick Robertson stood down from the company he founded 15 years ago.
In April, Asos reported pre-tax profits of £18m for the six months to 28 February, down 10% from £20.1m a year earlier. However, the firm said it was confident of hitting its full-year profit target. Nick Robertson's successor as chief executive of Asos, Nick Beighton, said the latest set of results showed "encouraging progress". He added that the company invested £50m its warehouse capability and technology during the year and would be investing a further £80m this year. Asos said its active customers increased by 13% to just below 10 million in the year.
Market Report: Asos and Next on trend as fashion retailers climb | Business. Forget Primark, the real bargains are at Asos. Well, stock market bargains that is. The upgrade to buy from Liberum Capital’s Tom Gadsby sent shares in the former stock market darling up 71p, or 2.8%, to 2596p. He said the online clothing retailer’s shares are cheap after a 39% fall from their 2015 highs, following the departure of founder and chief executive Nick Robertson and “wider market malaise”.
Asos may still be the biggest company on London’s junior market by some distance at over £2 billion, but it is a far cry from its peak in 2014, when it was worth close to £6 billion. Liberum’s Gadbsy reckons Asos is a stronger company than it was, adding: “The difference is that Asos has invested in infrastructure ahead of growth.”
The fashion trend continued as broker Nomura tipped shares in High Street stalwart Next to return to 8000p. Next put on 120p at 7610p to mingle with the day’s top blue-chip performers. Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Daily Digest | Mon, 28 September 2015. Primark makes understated US debut as Boston flagship opens | Business. Preparing for a possible stampede, the Irish discount retailer Primark had set up row upon row of crowd control barriers in front of its flagship Boston store – its first in the US. It didn’t need them. Years of planning have gone into the opening. Ninety minutes before the doors opened on Thursday, just 11 people were queuing outside the former Filene’s department store in downtown Boston.
“I got here at 8am, and I was the first in line,” said Peri Tur, 21, a student who caught the ‘Primania’ bug when on an internship at the Palace of Westminster in London. “I certainly expected it to be much more popular. I used to live in London so I’m very much aware of it – but maybe people here aren’t – it was one of the very few things that was affordable in London.” — RupertNeate (@RupertNeate)September 10, 2015Skinny jeans for $7 (£4.50). The “amazing prices” have been drilled into the 590 staff hired to run the store. “We’re not suddenly opening the doors,” Bason said. JD Sports celebrates record 80% profit rise | Business. JD Sports’s first-half profits rose more than 80% to a record £46.6m, as sales of trainers and other sports fashion boomed on UK high streets.
In the six months to 1 August, pre-tax profit before exceptional items jumped 82%, from £25.5m a year earlier, as revenue surged 21% to £809.9m. Statutory pre-tax profit rose 88%. Sales at stores open a year or more increased by more than 10%, as shoppers bought trainers made by Nike and other leading brands. It said trading in August and September had been encouraging, suggesting JD was not badly affected by weak clothing sales on British high streets over the summer. JD shares have more than doubled in price in the past year. Brian Small, JD’s finance director, said footwear and women’s sportswear had sold especially well. “We are strong across the board. He said JD was also benefiting from people taking part in sport into middle and old age.
“Our customers tend to be young and the brands they wear are important to them. BHS chief says with 1m customers a week the future is bright | Business. The chief executive of BHS has insisted the department store chain has enough cash to survive but warned it could take two to three years to turnaround the business. Darren Topp said it would be “hard bloody work” to revitalise BHS but the controversial new owners of the high street retailer are “incredibly supportive”. Sir Philip Green, the retail tycoon, sold BHS for £1 in March to a little-known collection of financiers, lawyers and accountants.
Concerns about the future of the retailer, which employs more than 10,000 staff, have grown since then. It emerged that Dominic Chappell, who led the buyout, is a former bankrupt, that the new owners were considering closing 50 stores, and that credit insurers were refusing to support BHS’s suppliers, meaning the retailer had to pay upfront for stock. However, Topp insisted BHS still has a place on the high street. “100%,” he said. “We have one million customers a week at the moment. “We will close some, I am sure. Zara owner Inditex boosts profits by 26% | Business. The owner of high street fashion chain Zara said that strong trading across all of its markets has led profits to jump by more than a quarter.
The world’s largest fashion retailing group, Inditex, said net profit climbed 26% to£847m in the first half of the year compared with 12 months ago, as like-for-like sales grew 7% across the 88 countries in which it operates. The Spanish-based firm said the refurbishment of key Zara stores in Covent Garden, London, as well as Hamburg and Mexico City were one of several upgrades at what it considers to be “highly strategic locations”. In total the group, which also owns Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Oysho, said it opened 94 stores across 35 countries during the period, bringing it to 6,777 outlets. It added 10,000 jobs over the past year, boosting staff numbers to 141,192. The group said it opened 24 Zara stores during the period, including launches in Brussels, Amsterdam and Russia.