Japanese casual wear designer and retailer, Uniqlo, plans to open up 50 stores in the Philippines over the next three years. Rising income means a projected increasing demand for casual clothes, Fast Retailing Co., owners of the mid-price-range high street retailer, told The Nikkei.
The fourth Uniqlo marketplace Southeast Asia – there are already stores in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand – will open in the Philippines’ SM Mall of Asia this Friday, June 15. One of the world’s largest shopping centers, it caters to the expanding market of the Manila metropolitan region.
Shops in Malaysia and Thailand have proved successful due to “income levels being lower than Japan, but sales per customer being higher,” Fast Retailing chairman and president, Tadashi Yanai, told The Nikkei. Yanai said he expects high demand in the Philippines, and he hopes the latest expansion will drive overseas profit towards surpassing domestic sales by fiscal 2015.
Fast Retailing will maintain 80% of its production in China. Yanai said they will also consider producing its apparel in Myanmar and increase output to other Asian countries.
