More upmarket Foreign luxury
brands are entering the booming Chinese market.
Giorgio Armani, the Italian
fashion designer's company, yesterday said it will open its first
outlet in Shanghai today, its second store in China, while Japanese
cosmetics group Shiseido said it aims to open 500 stores new
independent stores in China by 2008.
Armani will open a boutique shop
and fashion store in Shanghai's famed Bund thoroughfare. The
Milan-based company plans to open 30 stores in China by 2008, says a
press release.
It is adding stores as incomes
increase in China, particularly in the cities. Urban disposable
income climbed 9 per cent last year to 8,472 yuan (S$1,710).
Armani is seeking to increase
sales by adding stores at a time when the luxury-goods industry is
rebounding from its worst slump in three decades. The company plans
to open at least 15 outlets around the globe this year.
The company said first-quarter
sales rose 9 per cent excluding currency movements. Net income rose
14 per cent to 134 million euros (S$268 million) last year, and
sales fell 3.5 per cent, hurt by the euro's rise. - Bloomberg
AFP 17 Apr 2004
MILAN - The
king of Italian style, Giorgio Armani, plans to offer holidaymakers
the ultimate luxury break by opening a chain of hotels that will
bear his name.
He has signed a letter of intent
with Dubai-based real estate developer Emaar Properties to open 10
hotels and four luxury resorts over the next seven years in top
cities, including New York, Paris, Milan and Shanghai.
The project is expected to cost
more than US$1 billion (S$1.7 billion).
'Fashion and style has expanded
to encompass our way of life - not just how we dress, but where we
live, which restaurants we eat at, what we eat, which car we drive,
where we go on holiday and which hotels we stay at,' said Mr Armani.
He will design his hotels
and Emaar will take charge of their daily management. --
Reuters
HONG KONG -
Giorgio Armani, the latest fashion house with dreams of dressing the
growing ranks of wealthy Chinese, said on Wednesday it will open 20
to 30 stores on the mainland within three to five years.
The Italian designer will also open the
second largest outlet in its 259 store empire in Hong Kong on
Halloween as part of a multimillion-dollar expansion in Greater
China.
High-end retailers have flocked to China
in recent years as the ocuntry's growing ranks of young
entrepreneurs develop tastes for expensive brands.
Robert Triefus, corporate vice president,
said "a clear entrepreneurial streak" in the population of
China make for an attractive customer base.
He also said that Armani can learn from
the experience of its predecessors into China.
"We obviously believe that we have a
brand that is recognised globally, and therefore we have the
capacity to go into a new market like China, and have at least some
base of presence in terms of knowledge and perception," he
said.
Luxury goods makers such as Hermes, Moet
Hennesy-Louis Vuitton and Gucci have all established beachheads in
China, where sleek European-style boutiques are increasingly common
in the shopping districts of wealthier eastern cities.
Armani already has two outlets in China,
one in Beijing, the other in Shenzhen, the boomtown across the Hong
Kong border.
Giorgio Armani himself will scout for
store locations in Shanghai when he makes his first visit to China
next month.
Shenyang, Dalian, Guangzhou, Wuhan,
Chongqing, Chengdu are other mainland cities the firm is eyeing for
store sites.
Other than its flagship shop in Beijing,
Armani's mainland stores will be operated with franchise partners.
Milan-based Armani sells some of the
world's most exclusive apparel, with items that can cost thousands
of U.S. dollars.
China's per capita disposable income for
urban residents averaged just 657 yuan (US$79) a month during the
first half, although that was an increase of 17.3 percent from a
year ago.
Unlisted Armani posted an 11 percent
year-on-year rise in first half core earnings, or earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, to US$125.4 million
on Tuesday. - Yahoo!
19 Sept 2002
