Japan's Fast Retailing is planning to expand its casual-wear brand Uniqlo in the growing Chinese market as part of its mission to make its portfolio across China stronger, RBR reported.
Through strategic alliances with top developer Wanda Group, the retailer can open outlets in Wanda Plaza department stores across China, Uniqlo Greater China CEO Pan Ning told Want China Times.
According to Pan, the expansion will also help the brand compete with domestic casual brands such as GXG, Metersbonwe and Semir.
In 70 cities in China, Uniqlo has 316 stores, more than 100 of which are in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangdong. Specifically, 50 are in Shanghai and 38 are in Beijing, which represent 27.8 percent of all the stores in China.
Also, 160 of these stores were added by Fast Retailing during the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years.
With its sales accounting for an absolute majority of the total in China, Uniqlo Greater China earned over 12 billion yuan ($1.96 billion) in sales during the 2014 fiscal year.
As compared to its competitors Gap and Metersbonwe, Uniqlo has been more determined when it comes to opening new stores, including 81 new stores opened in China during the previous fiscal year.
During this year, there were 30 to 50 employees manning each Uniqlo store, which means Fast Retailing had to train around 3,200 newly hired employees.
For the 2015 fiscal year, Fast Retailing expects 1 trillion Japanese yen ($9.28 billion) or 34-percent net profit growth from the same period in the previous year. The company has yet to add stores in more than 600 administrative districts in China.
There are currently 844 Uniqlo stores in Japan, and Fast Retailing is also planning to open 200 stores overseas during the 2015 fiscal year to add to its 618 existing stores outside Japan.