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Despite a drop in Chinese inbound travel during Covid-19, the "influencer country" remains an important entry point to the rest of Asia, as luxury brands continue to invest in direct operations and new digital channels.

South Korea's status as the trendsetter for Asia is under threat from a vast drop-off in Chinese tourists and the fading glory of K-beauty, but luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Mulberry are betting the country will recover faster than most.

Only 1.2 million inbound Chinese travellers are predicted for 2020, an 80 per cent decline, according to Fitch Solutions, the emerging market analysis firm. Any recovery will be very gradual, and won't reach 2019 levels until after 2024, Fitch Solutions forecasts. South Korea's luxury goods market is expected to climb 0.1 per cent to $12.7 million in 2020, per Euromonitor.

South Korea has long held a potent mix for luxury brands as an influential trendsetter nation thanks to an endless fascination with K-pop stars and Korean popular culture across Asia, high local and tourist demand and government backing for foreign operators. Despite being dwarfed by neighbouring Japan and China, it's become a popular destination, but a longer-term dip in Chinese tourism is putting that at risk, especially as Chinese consumers look to new countries for trips.

"The impact of Covid-19 on Chinese travel to South Korea is short-term, but Chinese tourists are less interested in travelling to South Korea, and the change of spending power of Chinese tourists to South Korea from strong to weak is long-term," says Meng Shen, the founder of boutique investment banking firm Chanson & Co in Beijing.

Chinese tourist numbers to South Korea "will definitely take a hit in 2020 due to Covid-19 directly translating into lower sales", says Suresh Sunkara, retail analyst at GlobalData.

South Korea was "a relatively unexplored market" for international brands compared to its larger Asian peers like Japan and China until recently, he says. Brands are looking to the country as a launchpad for direct operations in Asia, as "a large volume of Chinese travellers to the country and the high spending capacity of these travellers gives an additional advantage to luxury growth", he says.

Often brands use South Korea as a test bed for entering Asia because of "the rapid adoption of new brands and new trends", says Dr Henry Chin, head of research at CBRE.

In the backdrop is President Moon Jae-in's new five-year policy to shift South Korea's economy to an "income-led growth" system, which includes reducing the administrative burdens faced by foreign companies, boosting its appeal compared to countries like China, whose landscape - dominated by domestic firms operating in a tight matrix of political influence - makes it difficult for foreign companies to break in, says Brice Dunlop, a research analyst at Fitch Solutions.

President Moon Jae-in, has also taken a hard stance against chaebols since his arrival in May 2017. Chaebols, or Korean conglomerates like Lotte, Hyundai, Shinsegae, LG LF and Samsung, dominate the market due to their strong financial capability and large distribution network, says Chin. They know the local market and assist in passing import and distribution agreements, says Dunlop, of Fitch Solutions. "It's a sound entry strategy." They also help global brands secure a "nice location" for their stores, because of their power to negotiate, says Hosung Nam, Samsung C&T's manager, who manages Lemaire and Ami.

But going it alone, gives more control and profitability for brands than local partnerships. Mulberry, which entered South Korea in 2006 with local franchise partner Shinhwa Korea, now has 20 stores across the country, making it the brand's biggest retail market in Asia. Shinhwa Korea was a good fit, because "they understood and respected our DNA when building the brand in the region", says Mulberry CEO Thierry Andretta. But in July, it took back full ownership to harness the potential of its second biggest market outside of the UK. Asian sales showed double-digit growth in 2019 (it does not break out revenue by country). It was time to "employ a dedicated team to lead the next stage of growth in the market".

Seoul's position as a trendsetting country isn't going away, commentators suggest. "Its energy and creativity, particularly in film, pop music and fashion, has made it a beacon in Asia and the rest of the world," says Alvin Chan, global executive creative director for integrated retail and e-commerce at Cheil Worldwide, Samsung's marketing arm. "Even China and Japan look to Korea for inspiration. Many luxury brands also see it as a trendy 'influencer' country and that has a halo effect for the region."

French contemporary brand Ami opened a store in a luxury mall in South Korea in April, and despite the slowdown plans to open another August. Last month, British fashion label JW Anderson opened its second-ever store, a Seoul boutique, and leather-goods company Mulberry continued with its twentieth store in the country. Late last year, Louis Vuitton opened a new flagship designed by architect Frank Gehry in the Gangnam district.

Reaching a digitally savvy market

There's also huge potential in e-commerce. Even prior to Covid-19, South Korean consumers did most of their shopping online, says Sunkara. Korea is the world's fifth-largest e-commerce market and is forecast to become the third-largest after China and the US within five years, according to Euromonitor International. But global brands must invest in local social and search strategies in order to reach one of the world's most digitally savvy consumers.

SEO on local platforms like Naver, which consolidates searches and also facilitates payments, is key. Google isn't widely used. "The average South Korean will only trust your brand if it's listed on Naver," says Chan.

Kakao - South Korea's largest mobile messaging app, with almost 50 million global monthly active users - lets users create dedicated pages on its platform, similar to WeChat, and is also an important channel for brands. Brands can either add a post to their page for free, or send a direct message to their followers (the cost varies depending on the number of followers, but it can cost about $9,000 to push one message to 125,000 followers).

Chanel has amassed 759,400 followers on Kakao. Other luxury brands, like Hermès and Louis Vuitton, have held off, given doubts over the lack of exclusivity. The app's value for luxury brands is to manage the customer relationship and integrate the online and offline experience, Nam says.

"These social media platforms are key [for brands] as they act as a place for millennials and Gen Z to 'flex' their luxury purchases," adds Dunlop. However, it's difficult to entice luxury players unless there are luxury-specific services, which is why China's Alibaba and JD.com launched the Luxury Pavilion and Toplife, respectively. These platforms also provide Chinese consumers with a one-stop shop for Korean products.

While South Korea might be a long game for luxury brands investing in direct operations and new digital channels, some experts believe investment in the region will pay off. South Korea and the broader Asian market is forecast to experience a stronger recovery thanks to demand from the Chinese middle class, an increased appetite for luxury goods among millennials and Generation Z, and the digital channel's continued maturation, Dunlop says. Its reputation as a tastemaker helps.

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Is South Korea's star fading? Luxury thinks not

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Sign up to our newsletter for a truly global perspective on the fashion industry Despite a drop in Chinese inbound travel during Covid-19, the "influencer country" remains an important entry point to the rest of Asia, as luxury brands continue to invest in direct operations and new digital channels.

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Definition: A matrix organisation is a structure in which there is more than one line of reporting managers. Effectively, it means that the employees of the organisation have more than one boss!

Description: The matrix organisation structure is complex but helps in achieving the ultimate goal i.e. reaching higher productivity. It has various benefits. This type of structure is used in organisations which have diverse product lines and services.

It breaks the monotony and gives more flexibility to the organisation. Employees work with colleagues of different departments who have their expertise in different functions.

When different people from diverse departments work together, it helps solve problems in a more efficient way. It does lead to overall development of employees as each one is exposed to different functions apart from their core job.

Here employees are assigned a job or a project outside their own department for a relatively temporary period. These teams are made up of people with diverse expertise who have come together and formed a team to attain a specific goal.

However, there are some challenges as well. In matrix organisation structure, ambiguity could come in, if you (employees) are not sure which manager to report to. This also means that employees might be confused about their role and responsibility.

Apart from that, in the matrix organizational structure it becomes relatively difficult for the organisation to gauge the employee's performance on a particular project. The matrix structure turns out to be a bit more expensive to the organisation than the traditional one, because it employs more managers.

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What is Matrix Organization? Definition of Matrix Organization, Matrix Organization Meaning - The Economic Times

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Definition: A matrix organisation is a structure in which there is more than one line of reporting managers. Effectively, it means that the employees of the organisation have more than one boss! Description: The matrix organisation structure is complex but helps in achieving the ultimate goal i.e. reaching higher productivity.

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The social responsibility of business | Alex Edmans | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool

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Victoria Beckham is reducing the average selling price of her dresses by almost 40% by switching to simpler silhouettes and fewer embellished fabrics, in a move that points to how the fashion industry may adapt to the disruptions to lifestyle and budget caused by the pandemic.

Marie Leblanc, the CEO of the label, said the changes were necessary to “future-proof” the brand, which has yet to turn a profit despite being one of the most high-profile names in British fashion for the past decade.

When demand for party dresses evaporated during lockdown, sales of knitwear, sunglasses and Beckham’s “athleisure” collaboration with Reebok became a lifeline. The brand is emerging from the pandemic with a new lo-fi aesthetic, and lower prices to match.

“Right now feels a bit like that moment after you’ve had a baby, and you can’t remember what you wore before you were pregnant,” said Beckham at this week’s launch of her new collection, shown in individual appointments at her London flagship store.

She added: “When I was pregnant with [daughter] Harper I wore very different clothes, and after she was born it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to wear. Coming out of the pandemic feels a bit like that. I really embraced a more relaxed way of dressing during lockdown, and that changes what I want to wear now.”

Leblanc said: “We are going to come out of this time with a hybrid lifestyle. Maybe you don’t have to dress up so much to take a meeting.”

Beckham and Leblanc said they hoped the new pricing structure would boost the bottom line by broadening their customer base.

Last year, the British luxury brand Mulberry slashed prices in some Asian markets by 20%. The announcement was couched in terms of aligning international prices, but seen as a lever to boost sales at a challenging time.

Consumer confidence remains fragile, and the rise of resale and renting models for designer fashion is offering label-conscious shoppers a more affordable alternative to Bond Street’s punchy price tags.

“Our customer is smart, she wants value for money,” said Leblanc.

Beckham, dressed in pinstripe tailored trousers and a cashmere rollneck with white high heels, said she drew the line at the word comfort, adding: “I don’t like that word. It doesn’t feel elevated, to me. But I do like an elegant jersey dress which is soft to wear but has a beautiful silhouette.”

Highlights of the collection include spaghetti-strap slip dresses with a 1990s-supermodel-at-an-after-party glamour, and oversized knits in saturated butter yellow and bubblegum pink.

“The other day I was packing for a trip to New York, and I pulled out the pieces I would normally take – midi-length skirts and pussy-bow blouses – and they didn’t feel right at all. I wore denim and tailoring instead,” she said.

Victoria and David Beckham divide their time between London and Miami in the US. Their 18-year-old son, Romeo, moved to Florida full-time to train with Inter Miami football club, the team David co-owns, in the hope of joining it. “Selfishly, I’d love it if all my kids would stay in London, but I’m pleased that they are ambitious,” Victoria said. “Anyway, I was on a world tour when I was Romeo’s age.”

She said she remained committed to London fashion week, where she intended to hold a small-scale presentation in September.

“People are going to be very aware of social distancing for a while to come, and that’s something to be respected. I don’t think anyone wants hustle and bustle at this point.”

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Victoria Beckham cuts dress prices to ‘future-proof’ fashion brand

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Label’s new pricing structure aims at dressed-down look and broader customer base

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By James Dixon
Visa Korea country manager

In a speech at Stanford University in March 2010, Ambassador Han Duk-soo said, "South Korea today is a developed, free market, industrial economy.

South Korea today is Asia's fourth largest and the world's 15th largest economy and is the world's ninth largest trading country. South Korea has grown into a global hub of free trade with full access to two-thirds of the world's markets, representing about half the global population."

Globalization has been a huge factor in South Korea's growth and economic success. Modern South Korea is a leader in many industries, from technology and automobiles to music and entertainment.

According to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Korea's national competitiveness was ranked 22nd among 59 countries in 2011, its highest standing ever. This ranking has gone up for the past three years.

In regards to technology, South Korean corporate giant Samsung is supporting the country's globalization with its partnerships abroad. Last year, Samsung announced collaboration plans with Dreamworks Animation in the U.S. to jointly produce 3-D televisions.

Additionally, South Korea, which once looked up to the success of high technology in Silicon Valley, is now the fastest country to complete a high-speed communications network infrastructure.

Another prime area of South Korea's growth and globalization can be seen in the automobile sector, particularly in the case of Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors. Last year, Hyundai-Kia surpassed Toyota as the biggest Asian carmaker in Europe. This year, the company saw record growth and market shares in the North American market.

While these companies are proving their great success abroad, globalization in the domestic market has not yet reached its full potential. There is still a passive view that international competition would greatly hurt local businesses. Some opinions even express that Korean companies fall short of global standards and would experience difficulty competing with foreign brands.

The previous examples alone prove otherwise. Korean products and services have not only seen acceptance but also very high demand from both local and foreign consumers. In short, the Korean brand as a whole should feel more confident about what is has to offer.

Furthermore, it is not only the large conglomerates that are driving globalization. There is a huge movement in the spreading of Korean culture abroad, also known as the "Korean wave." Lucy Williamson from BBC News noted, "The success of the South Korean economy was, for decades, laid at the door of the big "chaebol" or family firms.

While conglomerates such as Samsung and Hyundai still form the backbone of the country's financial structure, many people now believe that the Korean national brand itself is changing to reflect this new passion for the Korean wave."

A recent concert held by SM Entertainment in Paris received thousands of European fans that came to cheer on their favorite Korean singers. The enormous success of Korean pop, or K-pop, has inspired the South Korean government to use it to promote Korea's pop culture as a new international growth industry.

In addition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has plans to promote academic research and experience programs for Korean pop culture.

Korean movies have also contributed to the rapid increase in the domestic film market. Since the beginning of this year, more moviegoers have been opting to watch Korean films. According to the Korean Film Council, 8.48 million people watched Korean films at cinemas in February compared to 4.98 million who watched foreign films.

Even with the option of foreign films, the numbers show that Korean films are able to more than hold their own at the box office.

Hence, South Korea's diverse portfolio and established success shows that it has what it takes to compete both abroad and here in its hometown. To quote another line from Ambassador Han's speech at Stanford, South Korea's "growth and prosperity depend on open markets and free capital flows."

This applies both externally and internally, in a complete embrace of globalization. With all of the amazing accomplishments the South Korean brand has made out "there," why wouldn't it be able to make it "here," on its own turf?

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By James Dixon Visa Korea country manager In a speech at Stanford University in March 2010, Ambassador Han Duk-soo said, "South Korea today is a developed, free market, industrial economy. South Korea today is Asia's fourth largest and the world's 15th largest economy and is the world's ninth largest trading country.

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Designer and green activist Stella McCartney has called on policymakers to implement laws which will incentivise big-name fashion brands to shift away from cradle-to-grave models and poor supply chain practices.

Speaking at Bloomberg Philanthropies' climate exchange event in London on Wednesday (12 December), McCartney was asked to explain her solutions for the global fast fashion problem, which produces around 100 billion garments and 20 billion pairs of shoes globally every year.

"We live in a disposable society and the reality is that people wear a fast fashion piece an average of three times before it's thrown away," McCartney said.

"There's a conscious consumption conversation that needs to be had and we need to educate so people are more mindful of the impact of their clothes - but I do believe it's the business leaders and politicians that really need to take control."

While McCartney founded her brand on the principles of social and environmental stewardship, she argued that high street brands would need support from policies which offer tax breaks to those producing clothing using biodegradable, compostable or sustainably sourced materials to set similar ambitions.

"We now need to work with policymakers to create measures that incentivise change because, right now, the fashion industry is getting away with murder," she explained.

"The supply chain is really where it falls down for the fashion industry. Brands don't ask questions, they don't challenge. There's zero incentive to."

Specifically, McCartney cited the fact that she pays 30% more tax to import vegan-certified handbags and shoes into the US than she would if they were made from leather. Her namesake brand is a prominent player in the sustainable-sourcing movement, having never used real leather, fur, skins or feathers in any of its products.

Amid sluggish policy changes and relentless demand from most consumers for cheap, mass-produced garments, McCartney argued that young people are leading the fashion industry's transition towards sustainable sourcing and manufacture - with the expectations of millennials already spurring brands such as H&M, Gap and Adidas to increase their ambitions.

"Every brand that stands for something will be targeting young people and they will not stand for [weak sustainability action]," she said.

"People are pricking up their ears in my industry because they're seeing that the young consumer will not stand for anything less than leadership."

McCartney's talk came off the back of several pieces of research which revealed that millennials - who will account for 75% of the UK's working population by 2030 - want to buy from companies that have a purpose beyond their products and operations.

Communications agency FleishmanHillard Fishburn (FHF), for example, found that 93% of the millennial generation want to buy from companies that have a purpose, sustainability and environmental stewardship built into their ethos.

These findings echo evidence given to the Environmental Audit Committee's (EAC) inquiry into fast fashion, with designers and academics arguing that young consumers are leading the shift towards new business models that champion reuse, resale and the sharing economy.
An investor-led transition?
McCartney's talk was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of sustainable fashion, with audience members given the chance to quiz representatives from retail giant C&A and NGO Fair Fashion Centre - the latter of which works with corporates to build the business case for circular fashion and supply chain sustainability.

During the panel, Fair Fashion Centre's founder Cara Smyth disagreed with McCartney, arguing that investors - not young consumers - are driving change within the sector.

Specifically, Smyth argued that new technologies such as blockchain, digital payments and satellite mapping are bringing about an era in which fashion brands can no longer "hide" their supply chain and manufacturing practices.

"Data is being scraped shows everything from your tweets to your biggest suppliers," she explained.

"The investment community is there pointing out that you grew a third of your cotton in a water-stressed area, or that you're producing clothing in an area of geopolitical risk. These risks interest the investors and, as such, creates a domino effect down the supply chain."

Smyth also argued that consumers have a much larger role to play in solving the global fast fashion problem than McCartney claimed. Despite the efforts of leading brands, consumers are still sending the equivalent of a bin lorry full of garments to landfill globally every second, she claimed.

"People are buying things because there is a market for them and there are a lot of very conscious young people who live their lives in photographs - the idea of not wanting to wear the same thing twice on Instagram is real," Smyth said.

Responding to this comment, C&A's chair Stephen Brenninkmeijer argued that the onus is now on high-street brands to develop sustainable products at a price parity with traditional fast fashion garments - and to pay more to do so, if necessary.

"There's a massive demand for fast fashion and, if there is a demand from customers, you have to meet it in some way," Brenninkmeijer said.

"We know sustainably-sourced materials are more expensive but they're also better for the environment and better for the consumer, which is why we sell them at the same price as traditional garments. We subsidise them and we take a lower profit margin."

C&A revealed in 2017 that it would redesign its business model to move away from cradle-to-grave methods. Since then, it has launched the world's first Gold level Cradle 2 Cradle Certified t-shirts, which are made with 100% organic materials and designed to be reused, recycled into new products or safely composted.

C&A is now looking to achieve C2C certification for more of its product lines, after meeting the certification standards for its jeans in August.
Sarah George

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Stella McCartney: Policy must encourage businesses to make fashion sustainable

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Designer and green activist Stella McCartney has called on policymakers to implement laws which will incentivise big-name fashion brands to shift away from cradle-to-grave models and poor supply chain practices.

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7 Fashion Brands that take CSR Seriously - The CSR Journal

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Following are seven Fashion brands that have CSR instiled in their DNA and who do their bit to protect the environment and embrace sustainability.

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Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

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LONDON - Victoria Beckham has built a dream space on Dover Street in London, her first store and "second home" in Mayfair, where she can express her vision on the shop floor. The 6,040-square-foot space spans three floors, and has more in common with a contemporary art gallery than a typical London luxury flagship.

Designed by the architect Farshid Moussavi, a Harvard professor whose past works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio, the first Victoria Beckham flagship was always meant to be a democratic space. "I wanted a space that was conceptual - but also warm and welcoming," said Beckham, who was filled with excitement during a recent tour of the store, which opens Thursday.

This story first appeared in the September 24, 2014 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.

"There are a lot of people - the general public - who've continued on this journey with me, and I want everybody to feel welcome, whether they're going to buy something, or whether they just want to come and check out the architecture. And I really wanted people to get a sense of me the minute they walked through the door," said Beckham.

Everything - the ready-to-wear and accessories offer, merchandising, size of the dressing rooms, "blonde gold" zigzag rails and hanger chains - bears her fingerprint. There is also a conspicuous lack of cash registers; instead all transactions will be via iPad, eliminating the need for "ugly" tills, according to the designer.

"For the first time, it's my designs, my vision. This is how I feel the clothes should be showcased, how I like them to be seen. That's been very exciting for me - to be able to buy what I believe the customer wants," said Beckham, adding it was important that the space be flexible and able to accommodate a "constant flow" of new product. "We can play with how we merchandise things, and I think that's a very modern way of shopping. So hopefully, every time somebody comes to the store it's going to be a slightly different experience," she said.

As for her buy, Beckham said she's invested "quite heavily" in show looks. "I think it's important that women can actually buy what they see on the catwalk and what they're seeing in magazines," said the designer, who is also stocking exclusive sunglass styles, small leather goods, key rings and a skate chain inspired by the one her husband David Beckham wears.

Mr. Beckham himself - all smiles - made an unscheduled appearance during the walk-through, to the surprise of his wife. "It's great, isn't it, David?" she asked him. "Have you seen how these move?" she said as she twisted the walnut hangers that are attached to golden chains suspended from tracks on the ceiling.

She also recounted how the couple's boys reacted when they first saw the space. "It was so cool when the kids saw it yesterday, David. They literally ran up the stairs, and Brooklyn ran to me and said, 'This is the coolest shop ever!' Cruz went like, 'Wow, mummy has a proper job.'"

A gigantic polished concrete staircase visible throughout the store connects the three levels. Floors are also done in polished concrete, and are offset by stainless steel counters, the shiny zigzag clothing rails and the golden chain hangers. Ceilings are clad with stainless steel mirrors, with the exception of the top floor, where that surface has been done as a diagonal concrete grid.

A big, sliding concrete door marks the entrance, and the street-facing window has no display. Instead, passersby will be able to look straight into the ground floor, which houses accessories on retractable shelves, and the VVB and Denim collections.

Midway up the staircase, on the way to the top floor, is a blank wall where Beckham plans to project runway images or her own backstage footage of models. Upstairs houses rtw and a lineup of supersize dressing rooms, their doors clad in bottle-green glass. "When I go shopping, I've always got at least one child. There's lots of room to hang clothes - and flattering lighting. I wanted the store to look beautiful, but I also wanted it to work as well," she said.

The lower ground level - visible from the upper floors - is arguably the space that holds the most potential for Beckham. "I think I will do presentations there, whether it's trunk shows, or it will be a case of me just turning up and having appointments with customers that want to see me, to place orders with me specifically. It's important that I really have a presence because I'm so hands-on with every element of my business and people can see that, people can feel that, and so I will be here a lot. This does feel like my second home."

The lower ground-floor space is so big that part of it will be used as a stockroom, both for the store and for the brand's e-commerce site.

Beckham said the Mayfair location, with neighbors including Dover Street Market, John Rocha, Chucs Bar & Grill and a lineup of galleries and restaurants, is ideal. "I looked at lots of different locations, but I do believe in fate, and this just happened to be the perfect space in the most perfect street. I did look at other streets, but this just felt right. I feel very honored to actually be in a street amongst such incredible stores. The energy is incredible."

Zach Duane, the brand's chief executive officer, said it was critical the store be a reflection of Beckham's brand. "The world is changed, people are shopping online a lot more, so what they are looking for in a store environment is an experience, a really strong sense of what the designer is about, their point of view, their world," he said.

While digital is great - and important - Duane said the other side of the coin is "personal interaction. The customer starts to expect a different experience, so brands will be forced to be a bit more original in what they're doing in their physical spaces."

He also said the choice of street was strategic. While Dover Street is in the heart of Mayfair, it is better known for restaurants and art galleries than for luxury retail - although that's rapidly changing. "There's no way we could have opened a store like this on Bond Street. For the company we are today, and the size we are, it would have been impossible. So we decided that we'd go slightly off the track," he said.

Duane declined to give a first-year sales projection. Real estate sources here said the annual rent on the building is about 550,000 pounds, or $900,000 at current exchange.

There is no question the London store is a milestone.

Duane said the U.K. is the brand's "single best-performing country," followed by North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The Dover Street unit, he added, will be a template for future standalone stores and shops-in-shop. "It allows us to start thinking about how we take the idea, the finishes and designs that have gone into this store and reflect that in other stores around the world," he said.

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Victoria Beckham Unveils First London Store

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LONDON - Victoria Beckham has built a dream space on Dover Street in London, her first store and "second home" in Mayfair, where she can express her vision on the shop floor. The 6,040-square-foot space spans three floors, and has more in common with a contemporary art gallery than a typical London luxury flagship.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
LONDON - Victoria Beckham has built a dream space on Dover Street in London, her first store and "second home" in Mayfair, where she can express her vision on the shop floor. The 6,040-square-foot space spans three floors, and has more in common with a contemporary art gallery than a typical London luxury flagship.

Designed by the architect Farshid Moussavi, a Harvard professor whose past works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio, the first Victoria Beckham flagship was always meant to be a democratic space. "I wanted a space that was conceptual - but also warm and welcoming," said Beckham, who was filled with excitement during a recent tour of the store, which opens Thursday.

This story first appeared in the September 24, 2014 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.

"There are a lot of people - the general public - who've continued on this journey with me, and I want everybody to feel welcome, whether they're going to buy something, or whether they just want to come and check out the architecture. And I really wanted people to get a sense of me the minute they walked through the door," said Beckham.

Everything - the ready-to-wear and accessories offer, merchandising, size of the dressing rooms, "blonde gold" zigzag rails and hanger chains - bears her fingerprint. There is also a conspicuous lack of cash registers; instead all transactions will be via iPad, eliminating the need for "ugly" tills, according to the designer.

"For the first time, it's my designs, my vision. This is how I feel the clothes should be showcased, how I like them to be seen. That's been very exciting for me - to be able to buy what I believe the customer wants," said Beckham, adding it was important that the space be flexible and able to accommodate a "constant flow" of new product. "We can play with how we merchandise things, and I think that's a very modern way of shopping. So hopefully, every time somebody comes to the store it's going to be a slightly different experience," she said.

As for her buy, Beckham said she's invested "quite heavily" in show looks. "I think it's important that women can actually buy what they see on the catwalk and what they're seeing in magazines," said the designer, who is also stocking exclusive sunglass styles, small leather goods, key rings and a skate chain inspired by the one her husband David Beckham wears.

Mr. Beckham himself - all smiles - made an unscheduled appearance during the walk-through, to the surprise of his wife. "It's great, isn't it, David?" she asked him. "Have you seen how these move?" she said as she twisted the walnut hangers that are attached to golden chains suspended from tracks on the ceiling.

She also recounted how the couple's boys reacted when they first saw the space. "It was so cool when the kids saw it yesterday, David. They literally ran up the stairs, and Brooklyn ran to me and said, 'This is the coolest shop ever!' Cruz went like, 'Wow, mummy has a proper job.'"

A gigantic polished concrete staircase visible throughout the store connects the three levels. Floors are also done in polished concrete, and are offset by stainless steel counters, the shiny zigzag clothing rails and the golden chain hangers. Ceilings are clad with stainless steel mirrors, with the exception of the top floor, where that surface has been done as a diagonal concrete grid.

A big, sliding concrete door marks the entrance, and the street-facing window has no display. Instead, passersby will be able to look straight into the ground floor, which houses accessories on retractable shelves, and the VVB and Denim collections.

Midway up the staircase, on the way to the top floor, is a blank wall where Beckham plans to project runway images or her own backstage footage of models. Upstairs houses rtw and a lineup of supersize dressing rooms, their doors clad in bottle-green glass. "When I go shopping, I've always got at least one child. There's lots of room to hang clothes - and flattering lighting. I wanted the store to look beautiful, but I also wanted it to work as well," she said.

The lower ground level - visible from the upper floors - is arguably the space that holds the most potential for Beckham. "I think I will do presentations there, whether it's trunk shows, or it will be a case of me just turning up and having appointments with customers that want to see me, to place orders with me specifically. It's important that I really have a presence because I'm so hands-on with every element of my business and people can see that, people can feel that, and so I will be here a lot. This does feel like my second home."

The lower ground-floor space is so big that part of it will be used as a stockroom, both for the store and for the brand's e-commerce site.

Beckham said the Mayfair location, with neighbors including Dover Street Market, John Rocha, Chucs Bar & Grill and a lineup of galleries and restaurants, is ideal. "I looked at lots of different locations, but I do believe in fate, and this just happened to be the perfect space in the most perfect street. I did look at other streets, but this just felt right. I feel very honored to actually be in a street amongst such incredible stores. The energy is incredible."

Zach Duane, the brand's chief executive officer, said it was critical the store be a reflection of Beckham's brand. "The world is changed, people are shopping online a lot more, so what they are looking for in a store environment is an experience, a really strong sense of what the designer is about, their point of view, their world," he said.

While digital is great - and important - Duane said the other side of the coin is "personal interaction. The customer starts to expect a different experience, so brands will be forced to be a bit more original in what they're doing in their physical spaces."

He also said the choice of street was strategic. While Dover Street is in the heart of Mayfair, it is better known for restaurants and art galleries than for luxury retail - although that's rapidly changing. "There's no way we could have opened a store like this on Bond Street. For the company we are today, and the size we are, it would have been impossible. So we decided that we'd go slightly off the track," he said.

Duane declined to give a first-year sales projection. Real estate sources here said the annual rent on the building is about 550,000 pounds, or $900,000 at current exchange.

There is no question the London store is a milestone.

Duane said the U.K. is the brand's "single best-performing country," followed by North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The Dover Street unit, he added, will be a template for future standalone stores and shops-in-shop. "It allows us to start thinking about how we take the idea, the finishes and designs that have gone into this store and reflect that in other stores around the world," he said.

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Victoria Beckham Unveils First London Store

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LONDON - Victoria Beckham has built a dream space on Dover Street in London, her first store and "second home" in Mayfair, where she can express her vision on the shop floor. The 6,040-square-foot space spans three floors, and has more in common with a contemporary art gallery than a typical London luxury flagship.

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Mckinsey report on globalisation in Japan

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Mckinsey report on globalisation in Japan

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For all the international success of Japan's big, well-known companies, many still lag behind their global rivals in the most important markets. Why are General Motors and Volkswagen more successful in China than Honda and Toyota? Why are LG and Samsung bigger in India than Panasonic and Sony? Why is IBM larger in Japan than Fujitsu is in the United States?

These questions are more than academic. Survival for many Japanese companies may depend on their ability to greatly increase overseas revenues and profits, given demographic and economic trends that suggest slower or stagnant growth in the home market. Even Japanese companies with established global businesses face stronger competition and must rejuvenate their overseas business models.

Building a globalized company will require many Japanese executives to think in new and unfamiliar ways about organization, marketing, and strategy. The approaches that proved successful in the past-for example, replicating practices from the Japanese market in foreign operations-have outlived their usefulness.

The good news is that the sleeping giant that is Japan Inc. has begun to awaken. There's an uptick in international mergers and acquisitions, a new sense of urgency in boardroom discussions, and a few bold moves by Japan's more progressive companies to use English as a global corporate language and to recruit talented non-Japanese executives. Still, as with most such awakenings, the pace is slow and the approach often opportunistic and confused rather than strategic.

A matter of survival

Japan's biggest companies have been losing relative market share over the past ten years: their proportion of the Fortune Global 500's total revenues decreased to 13 percent, from 35 percent, between 1995 and 2009. One of Japan's longtime strengths is electronics, for example, but its share of the world's export value of electronic goods has fallen from 30 percent in 1990 to less than 15 percent today, according to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Many Japanese companies have no alternative to globalization if they hope to continue growing.

A shrinking consumer base and lagging productivity

For the past 40 years, Japanese companies achieved global leadership by dominating their home market, but no longer. Japan's population is expected to fall from 127 million today to less than 100 million between 2040 and 2050. A declining population will almost certainly reduce the absolute level of private consumption, along with tax revenues and, potentially, overall GDP. Private consumption in Japan, at the end of 2008, stood at 220 trillion yen ($2.7 trillion), 59 percent of GDP. It is (optimistically) forecast to reach 293 trillion yen in 2040, with an underlying assumption of an absolute increase in GDP per capita of more than 50 percent-something that is difficult to fathom in the current deflationary environment.

Another economic issue is lagging productivity at home. Despite a handful of world-leading industries and companies, Japan has among the lowest labor productivity rates of any major developed country. Japanese companies are therefore generally less competitive and more vulnerable to foreign attackers at home. Japanese workers tend to be among the world's most diligent, but they are both collectively and individually inefficient-particularly those who do not toil in factories. Our conversations with senior executives suggest that Japanese managers are acutely aware that their headquarters are overstaffed, that employees focus more on work effort than on impact or outcomes, and that Japanese companies have hobbled efficiency by limiting outsourcing and offshoring to a handful of IT-related functions.

Foreign inroads

Meanwhile, foreign competitors have penetrated Japan's once-insular market, taking advantage of the Japanese consumer's enthusiasm for digital commerce and new openness to foreign products. In many ways, these consumers, long touted as unique, behave increasingly like their counterparts in Europe and the United States: what they want is value. In a Japanese context, value means products that look attractive or stylish but are nonetheless significantly less expensive than traditional offerings.

With a few exceptions, Japanese companies have been slow to offer such value, giving foreign competitors a chance to muscle in, especially those that have significant control of product distribution. Businesses have attracted consumers around the world by offering some combination of value and an exciting shopping experience (Costco, H&M, IKEA, Zara) or a simple, intuitive user experience (Amazon, Apple). Other companies, such as Wal-Mart, use their global footprint to bypass Japan's multilayered distribution system and thus to introduce products at prices significantly lower than the Japanese competition's. While the overall share of foreign competitors remains small, their growth rates often far exceed those of most larger Japanese rivals.

A tired innovation model

Japanese companies once were leaders in providing innovative products appealing to consumers in developed markets. But consumers in fast-growing emerging markets have different needs. Japan has found that trying to identify them in R&D labs at home-the typical approach-is a challenge. That issue is not relevant only to emerging markets; Japanese companies must get closer to their customers everywhere. The current, made-in-Japan model is insufficient.

In fact, the emerging corporate-innovation model is globally collaborative, with product ideas, customer insights, money, and talent coming from all over. Procter & Gamble, for instance, reports that more than 50 percent of its innovation initiatives involve collaboration with outsiders. Shiseido executives say they can't assume that all of the company's innovations, both in beauty care products and in channels, will come from Japan; hence the 2010 acquisition of US-based Bare Escentuals, for $1.7 billion. What makes traditional Japanese lab-based R&D less effective today? In short, increased competition from China, South Korea, and Taiwan; the wide availability of component parts; and an increasingly fast speed to market.

Investment in research and development is often seen as a proxy for innovation, and it is true that Japan is a leader in R&D, spending 3.8 percent of GDP on it. But this view misses a crucial point: innovation across many categories once dominated by Japan now comes from outside the country. A 2010 report by the US-based National Association of Manufacturers listed Singapore and South Korea as the world's top two countries for innovation-far ahead of Japan and even ahead of the eighth-ranked United States.

Getting to global

Many Japanese companies should be global leaders, given their manufacturing and technological prowess and overall size and scale. But they are not. We analyzed the ten largest Japanese companies in each of 16 industries to better understand their global profiles. On average, Japan's ten largest companies in 15 of these industries-automotive is a notable exception-are less global than their overseas peers, as measured by the percentage of revenues, assets, and stock ownership outside Japan. By those measures, Japanese companies made no progress toward globalization from 2006 to 2009 (exhibit).

Averages don't tell the whole story, and some Japanese companies are quite global even by these standards. For most, however, globalization is a work in progress. McKinsey's experience in Japan suggests five steps-across organization, marketing, and strategy-that its companies should take to globalize successfully.

Making the case for globalization

Many Japanese companies understand the benefits of globalization. But their executives may lack a compelling "globalization story" for employees-global goals, aspirations, and value propositions. Are these widely understood and properly communicated in a way that excites and energizes the organization while addressing the anxiety that comes with big changes in direction? Spending time and effort developing such messages may seem trivial, but a globalization effort won't get far unless employees are on board.

Shiseido illustrates some attributes of a successful case. The company's senior executives must, for example, explain the globalization story in a way that makes it meaningful to other employees. When Shiseido's Shinzo Maeda (now the company's chairman) became chief executive officer, in 2005, he made globalization a top priority. Maeda constantly reminds employees of the company's vision: to "become a global player representing Asia with its origins in Japan." This positioning clarifies the company's overall strategy-reinforced by a major acquisition and the establishment of a global rotation program-without diminishing the home market's importance.

Senior executives should understand a company's distinctive strengths and capabilities clearly and ensure that they form part of its global strategy. For Shiseido, this means training and technology. The company extensively trains thousands of beauty consultants each year and has implemented the same approach in China, Russia, and the United States. While many Shiseido products don't bear the corporate brand name abroad, most are sold as the fruits of Japanese research and technology.

Strong-and sometimes not so popular-acts by senior executives can back up the talk. Upon assuming the top job, Maeda jettisoned some smaller, long-established brands, while doubling down on global megabrands better positioned to become category leaders at home and abroad, though he left room for local brands. He also hired an experienced foreigner, Carsten Fischer, to run Shiseido's international business, which currently accounts for more than 40 percent of the company's revenues. Fischer demonstrated his desire to be part of the Japanese team by shunning a corporate office, opting for an open cubicle among the rest of the staff.

Adopting English as the company language

Making English the main company language may be controversial and difficult to execute. But its importance in a globalization effort cannot be overstated, especially for monocultural Japanese companies. Our experience suggests that the decision to conduct most of the company's business and internal interactions in English was an important success factor for the globalization efforts of multinational companies such as France's Danone and Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

The move to English is critical because it opens up a world of talent. Everything else in the globalization journey follows from gaining access to a higher-quality employee pool. It's hard to get a rich exchange of talented people across units and geographies without a lingua franca. As irritating as it may be to cultures that speak other languages, the trend toward English is unstoppable-nearly one billion people use it as their first or second language. Talented Asians with global aspirations tend to learn English, not Japanese or Russian.

How will Japanese companies adopt English? That's a big question. In 2009 Japan had the lowest score of any of the International Monetary Fund's advanced economies on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, administered to foreign students who want to study in the United States. It had the second-lowest score among Asian nations, outperforming only Laos. Still, companies like Rakuten and Uniqlo have announced that they will make English their corporate language by 2012, and Nissan and Takeda conduct many meetings in English. Should prestigious schools such as Tokyo University or a few of the leading Japanese companies make high English scores a prerequisite for acceptance, we would imagine a rapid increase in overall English ability.

Designing an aggressive talent-management strategy

Typical Japanese executives have never held an international assignment or worked outside their companies or business units. Nearly all senior executives are Japanese. Such professionals may be quite capable of managing domestic businesses but are increasingly ill-prepared to run global enterprises in fast-changing, competitive markets. Japanese companies are painfully aware of this handicap. A 2010 government survey of 263 senior executives found that the single biggest hurdle for globalization was the "securing and training of human resources in Japan."

In general, the Japanese corporate human-resources model lends itself well to domestic business but not to international. The defining characteristics of Japanese talent management are well known: tenure-based advancement, egalitarian compensation, and lifetime employment. The HR function focuses almost entirely on recruiting at the university level and on greasing the wheels of the lockstep, tenure-based promotion system.

International experience not only isn't essential to advancement but also is often seen as a negative. Japanese organizations tend to be monocultural and monolingual, making it difficult for foreigners to succeed. Also, women have trouble advancing: Japan placed 94th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index 2010. Among high-income countries, only South Korea had a lower score.

Most Japanese companies need to rethink HR's role and to adopt an employment strategy incorporating new approaches to career paths, compensation, and performance evaluation. Some, like Komatsu and Shiseido, are moving ahead, but elsewhere progress is slow. Best-practice talent-management programs apply meritocracy at all levels and emphasize diversity. They manage talent strategically to attract the best people and find places for them, not just to fill open positions. These are the basic steps Japanese companies can take to upgrade their talent management:

Embrace diversity and set aspirational targets for women, foreigners, and Japanese managers from other companies and industries. We are not recommending a quota system, but without targets there is no way to guide the HR organization or track progress.

Create a global rotation program open to the top 100 to 200 executives, enabling them to work abroad in other parts of the company. The program should guarantee their original positions and tie promotions to participation. Globalization and similar strategic projects can help improve this group's capabilities and experience.

Hold HR more accountable for talent strategy and development rather than just internal placement and recruiting. This responsibility includes establishing a broad leadership-development program and giving support to coaching for managers.

Komatsu, for example, has its own in-house management-training program. Local executives manage most of the company's major country operations, and employees know that overseas experience offers a path to rapid advancement. In fact, more than two-thirds of Komatsu's executives in Japan have had meaningful work stints abroad. Shiseido, joining the ranks of Nissan and Sony, hired a foreigner as its top executive managing the international business and installed one of Japan's first up-or-out employment policies: if managers fail to be promoted within a certain time, they will be asked to leave.

Building a global marketing function

In recent years, Japanese consumer product companies have had trouble turning their technical and manufacturing prowess into brand equity and products tailored for foreign consumers. Indeed, they have spent too little time trying to understand consumers and are often disconnected from the markets where they want to build share. Many executives of Japan's largest consumer companies privately acknowledge that they have fallen behind the likes of Apple, P&G, Samsung, and Unilever in their efforts to ensure shopper-focused rather than R&D lab-centric product development.

Some of the best-known Japanese companies lack proper marketing functions, believing that a product-development group, a sales team, and a contract with a leading Japanese advertising firm will suffice. But this approach has had its day. The ever-faster pace of product development-homogenizing products, prices, and channels-makes marketing and branding more important than ever. Samsung, for example, introduced the Galaxy Tab in November 2010, just six months after Apple launched its iPad.

World-class marketing organizations have several points in common: a meaningful role for global marketing in the innovation and product-development process, the presentation of a consistent customer experience, the ability to absorb insights from other industries or markets, and the use of cutting-edge techniques to better understand consumer needs. A few Japanese companies, such as Nintendo and Toyota, have both strong global brands and well-developed marketing capabilities, but these are exceptions.

Brands are immensely beneficial to their owners when they have unique value propositions effectively communicated to strategically selected customer segments. But the concept of brand management is alien to most Japanese consumer companies. Each business unit and geography tends to control the brand on its own turf, and that sometimes leads to an inconsistent brand identity or experience. In 2010, only five Japanese companies made the WPP BrandZ Top 100, an annual ranking of brands based on inputs from over one million consumers globally. They accounted for less than 5 percent of the total brand equity created by enterprises on the list.

In the majority of global companies that have built substantial brand equity, the most important marketing decisions are made by the chief executive officer, the equivalent head of an autonomous business unit, or someone, such as the chief marketing officer (CMO), who reports directly to the organization's most senior decision-making position. In these companies, it's the CMO who makes the final call on the balance between global and local marketing, on trade-offs among go-to-market channels, and on how much to invest in new advertising media. However, fewer than 1 percent of Japanese companies with revenue above $1 billion have a CMO, compared with more than 10 percent in US companies of equivalent size. Of the top 12 Japanese beverage manufacturers, for example, we could find only one with a separate marketing organization reporting to the CEO.

How can a Japanese company with global aspirations become truly brand-oriented?

Decide which powers accrue to the CMO position and where it should be in the organizational structure. At least until global brand-equity thinking becomes second nature in a company, the CMO must have disproportionate air time at all key decision-making forums.

Recruit marketing talent worthy of the brand-value goals. The key positions must be filled with people who are as fluent in global marketing insights as they are in Japanese culture. To bring in alternative ways of thinking, it will be necessary to recruit marketing talent from other industries or geographies.

Reallocate power to global business units and brand "owners." Matrix structures-characteristic of organizations in which both country managers and global brand and business unit owners share power-do have their challenges. Yet delegating all decision making to a specific geography is unlikely to create successful global businesses. Marketers increasingly tend to identify "tribes" of consumer archetypes that cross borders. Each archetype involves similar products and brands. Meanwhile, the Internet's increasing power has forced companies to coordinate marketing messages globally. For Japanese companies, shifting to a model that looks more like the approach of the world's leading global consumer companies is worth the short-term pain that adopting it would entail, and will probably raise their global brand equity.

Getting more from strategic corporate development

Any serious globalization attempt will inevitably lead to more M&A, joint ventures, and alliances, as well as greater use of other expansion models. It's clear that Japanese companies will have to move aggressively in this arena, since in many markets organic growth-important as it is-will not provide the scale needed for competitiveness.

Japanese companies are not shy about doing overseas deals. In fact, M&A has increased recently, in part because of a stronger yen and the increasing recognition that the domestic market is shrinking. Over the years, some individual deals have proved successful. But only a few Japanese companies have tried and perfected a serial-acquisition strategy, such as those of Cisco Systems and P&G, considered models in this area. One company that's trying is Rakuten, Japan's leading online shopping site, which completed deals in China, France, Indonesia, and the United States, all within a 12-month period.

Besides M&A, many companies have tried partnerships with trading concerns, minority joint ventures, and alliances. Generally speaking, these approaches have disappointed, in part because they neither build capabilities nor help companies share best practices; at best, they provide an international revenue stream or rudimentary access to new markets. Indeed, many Japanese multinationals act more as holding companies for international subsidiaries than as truly global organizations. When they buy companies, they do minimal integration, except to consolidate revenue-ignoring opportunities for cost-cutting, engaging talented employees of the acquired enterprise, and identifying its best products and taking them global. In some cases, Japanese acquirers have even found themselves acquiring minority interests in companies that have competing interests, leaving the target companies paralyzed on how to grow.

Senior Japanese executives express frustration to us about this kind of ineffective postmerger management, which often stems from language and other cultural barriers. More than one Japanese company we know of has made an overseas purchase and then sent a team to the acquired company's headquarters, only to return with little to show for the effort because of communication challenges and a lack of clarity about how to share best practices.

We have observed some companies trying to globalize by experimenting with business models that are pointedly unlike those at their core. In one approach, the Japanese company creates a "second home," which offers freedom from the constraints of headquarters-meaning more room for across-the-board experimentation and for decision making free of home market bias. Existing businesses run from the Japanese headquarters remain undisturbed, while managers can share with headquarters the lessons learned in the second home. Executives can create one by reorganizing the company to eliminate the distinction between domestic and foreign markets, acquiring a foreign business and using it for pilots and experimentation, and moving a business unit to a foreign country.

Panasonic is moving in this direction. In late 2010, its president, Fumio Ohtsubo, announced that the company would eliminate the distinction between domestic and global markets in its consumer products marketing operations. This decision comes two years after the company retired the Japan-only National brand and refocused its efforts on developing affordable products for emerging markets. Komatsu, the world's second-largest maker of construction equipment (after Caterpillar), conducts annual reviews of its business units' operating plans not at the Tokyo headquarters but in each of the company's eight major markets, to signal their importance.

Another way for Japanese companies to grow internationally involves joint ventures with domestic competitors. In many cases, these companies can't compete for overseas projects, because of high costs, a lack of scale, or inexperience navigating in foreign markets, so they could consider collaborating. We find more and more examples of this approach, including an agreement between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to cooperate on railway systems in overseas markets.

Globalization is a means to an end. The end is to create and sustain a self-reinforcing cycle of profit growth and value creation, access to a richer asset and talent pool, and a more compelling value proposition for employees and investors. Getting there will be difficult. Many Japanese companies must make big changes, but most will start the journey with considerable advantages: scale, relative strength in the home market, formidable quality standards and service, and experience working with an aging and digitally sophisticated population. At the time of this writing, Japanese companies also have a strong currency for doing international deals.

Nevertheless, the path forward will seem difficult for most senior Japanese executives, figuratively standing on the shore and looking across the ocean to a world whose language many of them don't speak and whose habits and successful behavior seem radically different from their own. Even if they have concluded that some things in their companies must change, it may be difficult to imagine how to move the organization in a new direction. The most expedient path, we would argue, is "getting the boat pushed out into the current" by ensuring that faster globalization becomes a leading priority over the next few years.

As part of a yearlong effort, McKinsey has been going beyond the news to prepare an in-depth report with 80 top authors on the future of Japan. For more information, see Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future That Works.

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

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For all the international success of Japan's big, well-known companies, many still lag behind their global rivals in the most important markets. Why are General Motors and Volkswagen more successful in China than Honda and Toyota? Why are LG and Samsung bigger in India than Panasonic and Sony?

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VB Annual reports and financial information year ending 2019

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VB Annual reports and financial information year ending 2019

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TOKYO, Japan - Fast Retailing's Uniqlo casualwear brand said on Friday it would expand the range of items in its kids' and babies' collection by 50 percent, aiming to bring it on par with its men's and women's lines.

Spain's Inditex, which owns the Zara chain, Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz and Gap Stores Inc already offer a full line of children's clothes. Fast Retailing is aiming to overtake them to become the world's top apparel maker by 2020.

"Until now, our offering, particularly for girls, wasn't sufficient," Shuichi Nakajima, group executive vice president at the Japanese fashion retailer, told a news conference.

Uniqlo said it aims to double revenues for the kids' and babies' lines this year but did not provide specific figures.

It will also expand the number of its Japanese stores offering kids' clothing by 60 percent to 679. It said about 600 overseas stores would carry the expanded range but did not say how many of those stores would be offering kids' clothes for the first time.

The line will be extended from the fall/winter collection, which will include outerwear incorporating lighter, warmer and more durable material newly developed with high-tech textile maker Toray Industries.

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Fast Retailing's Uniqlo plans major expansion of kids' wear line

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News distribution : Fast Retailing's Uniqlo casualwear brand said on Friday it would expand the range of items in its kids' and babies' collection by 50 percent, aiming to bring it on par with its men's and women's lines. (#430678)