Skip to main content
BoF Logo

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Uniqlo Opens Biggest Southeast Asia Store, Looks Abroad for Growth

Uniqlo-owner Fast Retailing is busy opening stores in the US, London and across Asia to help reduce its dependency on a home market where Japanese household spending is falling.
Uniqlo | Source: Uniqlo Australia
By
  • Bloomberg

TOKYO, Japan — Casual clothing chain Uniqlo is taking its biggest chance in Southeast Asia.

The unit of Fast Retailing Co. is opening a store on Singapore's iconic Orchard Road that will have 2,700 square meters (29,000 square feet) of shopping space on three floors. The store will be Uniqlo's largest in the region as the brand looks for growth outside Japan to revive flagging profits at its parent.

Fast Retailing is busy opening stores in the US, London and across Asia to help reduce its dependency on a home market where Japanese household spending is falling. Billionaire chairman Tadashi Yanai wants to generate 5 trillion yen ($48 billion) in sales by 2020 to keep Fast Retailing competitive with Hennes & Mauritz AB and Zara-owner Inditex SA.

“Southeast Asia expansion will help Yanai achieve his 5 trillion-yen sales target,” said Dairo Murata, an analyst at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. “But to achieve that goal in three years will be difficult.”

ADVERTISEMENT

This will be the 25th store in Singapore for Asia’s largest clothing retailer, bringing its Southeast Asian presence to about 130 outlets. Yanai, Japan’s richest man with a net worth of $18.4 billion, will host a briefing in the city-state Thursday, a day before the store opens.

Uniqlo last September opened a six-story China flagship store in central Shanghai, and Yanai reiterated plans to open 100 stores a year in China on its way to a potential 3,000. The brand’s Southeast Asia presence includes about 30 stores each in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

That overseas expansion has made Fast Retailing more vulnerable to a strengthening yen, which prompted a cut to its full-year net income forecast in July. Yet recent signs of recovery in the Uniqlo business lifted Fast Retailing’s shares 8.7 percent in August, paring the year-to-date slump in the stock to 15 percent.

Fast Retailing’s operating income for the third quarter that ended in May rose 19 percent from a year ago as sales in Japan and overseas improved. After the retailer in April posted a 60 percent decline in second quarter operating income, Yanai pledged to “maintain the lowest possible prices at all times” to win back customers.

By Daryl Loo, Grace Huang and Stephanie Wong; editors: K. Oanh Ha and Michael Tighe.

Related Articles:

Uniqlo’s $50 Billion Brand PuzzleOpens in new window ]

Uniqlo Wants to Become World's Biggest Apparel MakerOpens in new window ]

Christophe Lemaire Joins UniqloOpens in new window ]

In This Article

© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Financial Markets
A financial lens on the fast-changing fashion sector, including markets, investors and deals.

The Best of BoF 2023: Diversity’s Litmus Test

In 2020, like many companies, the $50 billion yoga apparel brand created a new department to improve internal diversity and inclusion, and to create a more equitable playing field for minorities. In interviews with BoF, 14 current and former employees said things only got worse.


The Year Ahead: The Future of Fashion Deal-Making

For fashion’s private market investors, deal-making may provide less-than-ideal returns and raise questions about the long-term value creation opportunities across parts of the fashion industry, reports The State of Fashion 2024.


The Investment Giant Behind Some of Fashion’s Biggest Deals

L Catterton, the private-equity firm with close ties to LVMH and Bernard Arnault that’s preparing to take Birkenstock public, has become an investment giant in the consumer-goods space, with stakes in companies selling everything from fashion to pet food to tacos.


view more

Subscribe to the BoF Daily Digest

The essential daily round-up of fashion news, analysis, and breaking news alerts.

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections
© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections