International expansion
Germany is the third step in Uniqlo’s international expansion plans. In 2001, a first store opened in London, followed by an Parisian store in 2007, leading to this newest flagship store in Berlin for the Japanese fashion label. The store will be located in the Tauentzienstraße, in close vicinity of the popular shopping street Kurfürstendamm.
Bernd Hauptkorn, responsible for Uniqlo’s European expansion, believes that Berlin offers the perfect platform to launch more German stores. He believes Berlin to be a trendy, fashionable city with plenty of culture and lots of tourists.
Turnover of nearly 10 billion euro
Uniqlo, property of Fast Retailing, already has more than 1,200 stores in fourteen countries and focuses on affordable basics, like t-shirts, underwear, dresses, pants and coats. It also frequently collaborates with household foreign names.
That strategy obviously works as Fast Retailing has a turnover close to 10 billion euro (13,16 billion dollars), an operational margin of 14 % and a net profit of 824 million euro (1.085 billion dollars).
The Japanese group is starting to provide serious competition for Inditex (Zara) and H&M. These companies have managed to double their sales over the past five years, while Fast Retailing has tripled its turnover, mostly thanks to new stores. With nearly 10 billion euro in turnover, the Japanese are inching closer to what its American competitor Gap achieves, namely 12 billion euro (15.7 billion dollars) in turnover.
