Fast Retailing to triple large Uniqlo Stores to 200 in Japan+

TOKYO, Feb. 24 Kyodo -
Fast Retailing Co. President Tadashi Yanai says the company aims to more than
triple the number of large Uniqlo casual wear stores in Japan to about 200 as
soon as possible to achieve a wide-ranging product mix in a fiercely
competitive marketplace.
''We'd like to pursue a product mix that would allow us to survive global
competition,'' he said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.
Fast Retailing now has about 770 Uniqlo stores, including 60 with sales floor
space of 1,650 square meters or more. Most stores range from 600 square meters
to 825 square meters.
Yanai also said Fast Retailing will seek to develop Uniqlo into ''Asia's No. 1
clothing retail chain'' by opening around 100 new stores annually in China.
''We're confident we'll have more than 1,000 stores in China, far beyond the
number in Japan,'' he said. The company now has about 15 Uniqlo stores in
China.
Fast Retailing has taken advantage of its integration of casual clothing
production and retail operations to expand sales and the Uniqlo chain while
other Japanese retailers have been downsizing their operations due to a slump
in consumption.
Yanai said Fast Retailing may expand its group through mergers and acquisitions
given falling share prices for acquisition targets.
The company has set a group sales target of 1 trillion yen for the year ending
in August next year, against 627 billion yen projected for the year to this
coming August.
''We could attain the goal (of achieving 1 trillion yen in sales) by acquiring
one company with annual sales of 200 billion to 300 billion yen,'' he said.
''The global recession has led to a rising number of M&A proposals.''
==Kyodo
2009-02-24 23:50:07