Japan's Uniqlo to open SM-MOA store in June

MANILA, Philippines - The Uniqlo store in the country, one of the five fast-fashion brands owned by Japanese retail holding firm Fast Retailing Co. Ltd (FR) will open at the SM Mall of Asia in June, its executives said yesterday.

The store will occupy 1,550 square meters of floor space at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay. It will offer apparel for men, women and children.

Uniqlo was brought to the Philippines through a joint venture between Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. (FR) and SM Retail Inc. to form Fast Retailing Philippines Inc. which will oversee the operation of the first Uniqlo store in the country and others that may also be established.

Fast Retail designs, manufactures, and sells apparel under four other brands Comptoir des Cotonniers, g.u., Princesse Tam Tam and Theory.

The Uniqlo brand recorded global sales of ¥820 million ending August 2011, comprising 85 percent of the group sales.

There are 1,000 Uniqlo stores worldwide, 850 of which is in Japan and 250 scattered in 200 countries worldwide.

The first Uniqlo store was opened in Japan in 1984 and began expansion into foreign markets in 1991.

FR Philippines has a paid-up capital of P400 million, equivalent to ¥720 million.

“The Philippine market is important to Uniqlo because we want to be number one in Asia,” said FR Philippines chief executive officer Katsumi Kubota.

He said the holding firm partnered with SM Retail because of its wide customer base.

“SM reaches out to a wide range of customers in the Philippines and Uniqlo wants to reach out to a wide range of customers also,” he said.

SM Retail is part of SM Investments Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in the country which has core businesses in mall operations, banking, property, hotels and convention centers.

Fast Retail Group executive vice president Naoki Otama said the Philippines is a strategic location for expansion activities in the ASEAN region. The holding firm aims to be the number one fast fashion retailer in the world by 2020.

“Uniqlo is rapidly growing in Asia. The Philippines is one of the fastest growing regions in the world today,” he said.

Uniqlo opened its first store in Thailand following its successful expansion in Singapore and Malaysia. It now has 11 stores in Southeast Asia.

Kubota said investments in the first Uniqlo store in the Philippines would entail “a few million dollars a year.”

“We have confidence in the Philippine market. While the momentum is here, we want to take it,” he said.

Fast Retail operates under an integrated business model, which means that it has full control of all of its operations from manufacturing to marketing of its products. Because of this, the brand is not using franchising as a means to expand its operations.

“We have direct management rights in all our company operations. Although depending on the country, we are going into, we form collaborations, like we did with SM retail. But right now, we are not looking at that option (franchising),” he said.

For the Uniqlo brand, Fast Retail will employ global pricing standards but promised to make the products affordable to the Filipino consumer.

“We want to reach to as many as possible in the market. We will follow a global pricing policy but we would also try to achieve something affordable,” said Kubota.

While engaged in the manufacturing of apparel, Otama said Fast Retail is not yet ready to start a manufacturing venture in the Philippines.

“We want to focus on the retail business first but we are also looking into other businesses,” he said.

Kubota said that Fast Retail is not exclusivly bound to open Uniqlo stores only in SM malls.

“We are free to open in other properties in the Philippines,” he said.

He declined to renew if there are plans to offer the other brands offered by Fast Retail in the Philippines.

“In the future, there is a possibility, but for now, we have to succeed in Uniqlo first,” he said.