The “G” in G-Star Stands for Ginza

With over 85 doors in Japan, successful retail distribution collaboration and an office building that doubles as an event space (see Tabloid building); Dutch denim-brand G-Star has surpassed their competitors in sales and branding.
What was once another jeans brand lost in the competitive and saturated denim market of Japan, G-Star is making an aggressive push opening new flagship stores in Japan. Starting with the opening of their Osaka store on 3 April and quickly followed by the opening of their Nagoya store on 28 May, G-Star will now venture where many fast-fashion and casual brands have recently ventured – Ginza. This fall G-Star will open their latest flagship store on Ginza’s Namiki-dori with plans on opening up to 30 new additional stores in Japan over the next three years.

G-Star is positioning to duplicate their success of being the number one denim brand in Europe to become the number one denim brand in Japan.

Information WWD Japan

Uniqlo Save Japan T-Shirts

Starting next month on 25 June Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo will begin selling t-shirts with printed messages of encouragement from celebrities. There will be a total of ten different t-shirts retailing for 1500 yen with all proceeds donated to a global charity for the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.

The t-shirts, part of Fast Retailing’s “Save Japan” campaign will have messages from Victoria Beckham, Nicole Kidman, Cyndi Lauper, Karl Lagerfeld, Lady Gaga, Orlando Bloom, Blake Lively, Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow and Alber Elbez.

Along with the new “Save Japan” celebrity-printed t-shirts Fast Retailing as a company has donated 140 million yen in money, 700 million yen (retail price) in clothing, with individual employees donating 160 million yen and Yanai, Tadashi personally donating 1 billion yen.

Information Uniqlo

Shimamura Down for the Quarter, Sees Better Times Ahead

Fast-fashion retailer Shimamura expects their group operating profit will fall around 20% to 6.5 billion yen for the quarter ending May 2011. Net profit is also expected to fall for the quarter to 4.7 billion yen. Continuing the trend of falling, March same-store-sales fell 15% with same-store-sales for the quarter expected to fall 5%. On the whole sales across Shimamura’s network of 402 stores are around even at around 104 billion yen.

With all the bad news for the quarter there is a bright side as sales for the year ending February 2012 are expected to increase 4% to 457 billion.

Information Shimamura Co. & Nikkei

Will Takashimaya’s Osaka Bet Pay Off?

With the renovation of their Osaka Department Store completed this past March, Takashimaya is optimistic for the future of retail in Kansai.

The renovation which cost 45 billion yen added 40% of retail sales with Takashimaya Osaka now spread out over 78,000sqm.

The concept of the renovated retail space is unique as Takashimaya’s Department Store is located in Namba away from their competition Daimaru, Isetan-Mitsukoshi, and Hankyu which are situated further away in Umeda, as well Takashimaya increased their men’s fashion Takashimaya expanded their men’s department by adding 110 new men’s brands; a combination of foreign and Japanese brands – even as sales of men’s fashion are falling.

Osaka which fared much better after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March is also in a better position to recover as the economy does. The question is with department store sales in Japan already suffering before the earthquake in March and the luxury bubble burst in 2007 was the 45 billion yen investment in renovations worth it?

Only time and sales will tell.

Information Takashimaya Co. & Nikkei

Samantha Thavasa Korea

As many western companies continue their expansion east beyond Japan, Japanese companies are expanding west to Korea and China.  Though China has been the preferred destination for both western and Japanese companies alike, Korea is also an attractive market to many brands including Samantha Thavasa.

This week Samantha Thavasa announced it will open shops starting from this August in department stores in South Korea through a joint venture with South Korea’s Lotte Group.

This will be the second country outside Japan Samantha Thavasa will establish retail stores – the first is in New York City which opened in 2006.

Samantha Thavasa was founded in 1994 by Kazumasa Terada, the current CEO and president. There are currently 130 stores in Japan and one overseas store in New York City.

Information Samantha Thavasa and Nikkei

Mizuno Finishes 2010 Strong

Osaka-based Mizuno finished their 2010 fiscal year strong in spite of sales falling in Japan, which make up 75% of global sales.

While sales were up a strong 16% in North/Central/South America, 2% in Asia and an astounding 20% in Europe, sales dipped 1% in Japan for the fiscal year ending in March.

Total global revenue was over 150 billion yen, with footwear performing strongest and increasing 10%.

Mizuno is a Japanese sports equipment and sportswear company, founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi and Rizo Mizuno.

Information Mizuno Corp and WWD

Department Store Sales Down in April

According to the Japanese Department Stores Association, department stores in Japan saw April sales fall 1.5% to 475 billion yen. Even with sales falling in April Japanese Department Stores still recovered from their March plunge of 14.7%.

With the weather warming up department stores and other retailers are hoping for strong sales in May and the summer months ahead, though due to power outages sales still may be down – especially in August the hottest month of the year.

Tokyo-base department stores also experienced a drop in sales of 5.5% to 114.7 billion yen.

Information Japanese Department Stores Association & Nikkei

Would You Like a Suit With Your Groceries?

In their quest for urban expansion Aoyama Trading Company is doing something new in their over 40 years of business operations - opening up shop in a supermarket.

Looking to increase sales in a dwindling and competitive men’s wear market, Aoyama Trading Company will open Yofuku-no-Aoyama suit store inside Ito-Yokado supermarket at Tokyo’s Kameari station. The store will be about 350sqm in sales space and carry 20% less products than their full-stand alone stores.

If successful Aoyama Trading Company plans to open more shops inside supermarkets in urban locations throughout Japan, as well they still plan to open up to 15 new stores in other urban locations this fiscal year.

Information Aoyama Trading Company & Nikkei

Swarovski's Ginza Window Display

This morning when a colleague of mine told me about the new window display at Swarovski in Ginza, I didn’t believe him – that is until I saw the window myself, you too can see it left.

It seems in an effort to cash in and make a quick sale Swarovski ditched their previous advertising and luxury brand equity to appeal to a broader (“mass”) market and cash in on the commercial success of a certain sure to be good and do well at the box office Disney movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, no one ever thought of Swarovski as a luxury brand but they did a fine job of creating the allusion of luxury through their advertising.

Do you think the collaboration between Swarovski and Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean is a good move? For sales? For branding?

Photo courtesy of Diego Munoz

J. Front Retailing Up in April

J. Front Retailing, holding company of Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, reported a 2.2% increase in same-store-sales for the month of April, with sales driven primarily by women’s summer RTW.

Investors responded to the positive news in kind with the J. Front Retailing’s stock increasing 10 yen to 325 yen on yesterday’s trading.

J. Front Retailing was established in September 2007.

Information J. Front Retailing Co. & Nikkei

Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings to Implement Summer Hours

Newly merged Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings announced summer holidays for their Tokyo area department stores.

For one to two days this August Isetan Mitsukoshi will close Mitsukoshi and Isetan department stores. The closings will take effect in August one of the slowest retail sales months of the year and will have the intention of saving energy and operating costs.

Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings is not the only company implementing summer holidays – several CEOs in the fashion industry in Japan I have spoken with are also considering summer holidays in August to save electricity and reduce operating costs. It also helps as August is usually the hottest month of the year in Tokyo.

Will your company implement summer holidays this summer in order to conserve electricity?

Information Nikkei

What to Wear to Keep Cool and Dry this Summer

Are you ready for the hot and steamy train this summer? And after the train ride are you then ready for your hot office with the government recommendation of the “new” 30 degree cool biz?

Most likely you are not.

Retailers like Uniqlo with their Silky Dry, Mizuno with their Ice Touch and Aoki with their Premium Air Cool Suit – great name by the way – want to help you get ready and keep dry, cool and hopefully odor-free – especially for your subway ride – thank you very much.

The Japanese summer of 2011 promises to be a summer of power shortages, hot offices and steamy trains and the above companies and many more are betting for a price – and not a cheap price – both male and female office workers will spend to keep cool and dry.

All three companies have ordered tens of thousands of pieces of their signature line of unique fabric apparel for your wearing pleasure and with prices starting from 990 yen at Uniqlo for Silky Dry and going up to 63,000 yen for Aoki’s Premium Air Cool Suit and Mizuno’s Ice Touch in between at 6,800 – 7,800 yen, These companies are forecasting over 10 billion in sales for the summer.

The designs may not look good but they will have you feeling cool.

Tokyo Fashion to Launch Jill Stuart in China

Tokyo Style is joining other Japanese apparel companies and foreign apparel brands as they enter the Chinese market.

With sales declining in Japan and future expected profit margin forecasted at little to none, China is expected to be the great savior for global fashion including Japanese brands.

Through its impending merger with Sanei-International, Tokyo Fashion will launch their licensed Jill Stuart women’s wear brand and open four retail locations in Chinese department stores. If all sales are strong as forecasted at 200 million yen, Tokyo Fashion will open an additional six shops in Chinese department stores.

Information Tokyo Fashion Co. & Sanei-International

Aeon to Add Another Fashion Building in Kobe

Looking to add to their shopping centers nationwide, Aeon Co. has shown great interest in managing the building that is currently home to Kobe Hanyku department store.

The current building manager H2O Retailing will soon give up the building leaving the landlord Mitsubishi Logistics without a tenant.

Aeon was approached due to their know-how and success in operating currently 110 shopping centers in Japan.

The building currently has about 33,000sqm spread out over seven floors.

While sales for H2O Retailing at Kobe Hankyu fared poorly, Mitsubishi is hoping Aeon will have better luck.

Information Nikkei

Uniqlo misses the global target?

Please check out the article I wrote on Uniqlo, edited by Catherine Makino and published on Majirox News this morning. 

Thank you, Tokyo Fashion Daily

Softbank is Feeling Generous and Confident

In a show of great confidence and investment for the future Japanese company Softbank announced it invested $62.5 million USD into Internet company Gilt Groupe. As part of the investment Softbank has also decided to purchase a fifty percent share in Gilt Groupe Japan’s operation.

Contrary to the movie The Graduate the future is not plastics but Gilt Groupe.

Information WWD

Uniqlo Back Up in April But For How Long?

For the first time in three months Fast Retailing’s franchise brand Uniqlo reported an increase in same-store-sales for April for Japan stores.  The increase of 4.6% was a small but significant increase after Fast Retailing reported a 10.5% decrease in sales for March. 

One number that did not increase in April and has not increased in quite some time is the same-store-customers, which decreased 1.2% on the year, again a small but significant increase from March where same-store-customer numbers dropped 13%.

Is it me or our less people visiting and shopping at Uniqlo stores? Or are there not enough customers to sustain the ever-growing number of Uniqlo stores in Japan.

Information Fast Retailing Co.

3 out of 4 Japan Department Stores up in April

Japan Department Stores which have been posting lackluster sales results for years as a result of their unspectacular decline have shown a penchant for turning up a sales increase every odd month or so with April 2011 being no exception.

Mitsukoshi-Isetan (formerly reporting results separately) was up a half percent, while Hankyu-Hanshin increased almost 14%.  Daimaru-Matsuzakaya was also up a little less than 3% while once again Takashimaya reported a decrease in sales of almost 1%.

*Information Japan Department Stores Association

Faster-Fashion Expanding

With the news GAP Inc. plans on launching Old Navy in Japan by the end of 2012, Inditex, parent company of Zara, also announced it will expand their Bershka line by opening their third store in Funabashi, Chiba after the opening of their Shibuya and Saitama stores in April. Not to be out done Fast Retailing has announced plans to expand g.u. the lowest of their low-priced brands by naming g.u. their number two franchise brand after Uniqlo.

With global intentions Fast Retailing plans on opening 50 new g.u. stores in large urban areas as well as suburban areas, forecasting 200 g.u. locations by August 2012.

This Friday 6 May Fast Retailing will open a 1,000 sqm g.u. stores in Ikebukuro. This will be the second largest g.u. store to date following the opening of the Shinsaibashi, Osaka store in October 2010.

Information Fast Retailing Co.