Uniqlo shines out among stricken retailers
A sudden cold snap, a cartoon robot, T-shirts sold in tubes, and a stylish range of high tech thermal underwear have provided a rare glint of success on Japan’s increasingly dreadful retail scene, and sharpened Uniqlo’s bid for global domination of low-price fashion.
Investors in the company now believe that Uniqlo management is looking seriously at acquisitions in the UK, where it already has a foothold, and in the US, where asset prices have fallen heavily in recent weeks. A massively strengthened yen rate against sterling and the US dollar are expected to accelerate plans, which are expected to focus on brands with a strong name for design, rather than low price.
With all signs now pointing to Japan being in its sharpest recessionary plunge since the Second World War, the Uniqlo chain of low-priced clothing has scored a spectacular hit: Fast Retailing, the parent company of the brand, said yesterday that same store sales soared over 32 per cent in November, smashing through to a record high.
In the same period, footfall across its store network surged nearly 26 per cent as millions of Japanese consumers tightened their purse strings and simultaneously ditched their hunger for more famous - and more expensive - brands.
The company remains in aggressive expansion mode. It now has a worldwide network of 54 stores outside Japan. Britain, France and the US are all counted among countries that Uniqlo considers converts to the brand. The company has pushed into other Asian markets and is poised to take on Russia: a country that has its own strong views on how to dress fashionably in sub-zero temperatures. Tadashi Yanai, the president of Fast Retailing who has set himself a Y1 trillion annual sales target by the end of 2010, admitted in a recent interview that the company needed to go on the merger trail in the US and Europe to achieve those numbers. www.examda.com
Market analysts at Nomura said that the company was positioned to behave as a contrarian indicator for dwindling activity elsewhere on the Japanese high street. The surprisingly strong performance at Uniqlo, they said, was “hard evidence” that the global recession is biting the Japanese retail scene more fiercely and more rapidly than the market had expected.
In a research note published yesterday, Seiji Shiraishi, an economist at HSBC, warned markets to abandon hopes that the Japanese consumer would ride to the world’s rescue as a force for growth or stability. In a stark warning to clients, he said that Japanese personal consumption has only declined once since the end of the American occupation in 1955, but that markets should expect it to do so again in 2009.
But the November surge in sales was not repeated across other Japanese discount clothing chains. Uniqlo, said analysts, has managed to hit a “winning formula” of using high performance material in unique pieces of clothing: although the products are famously low price, it has effectively managed to kill any snobbery that would mark it out as “cheap”. These factors, said KBC’s Japan retail analyst, were combined with a very slick and effective marketing campaign and “shot the lights out” of the market now that people need to stay warm on a budget.
Even before the winter chills set in, Uniqlo had experimented with other retail tricks – one of the more successful involved devoting entire stores to T-shirts with designs based on nostalgic cartoons and comics and sold in plastic tubes.
Uniqlo, as a brand, forged its reputation in Japan in the late 1990s when it released a range of cheap winter fleeces and down-stuffed jackets. Interest in the fleeces fizzled badly as the Asian Financial Crisis crawled into memory and people felt wealthier. As more bullish times returned, Japanese drifted from Uniqlo and pitched their ambitions higher up the price scale: but now, in a country suddenly faced with mass layoffs among temporary workers, frozen wages and dropping winter temperatures, Uniqlo has succeeded in raising the average spend among shoppers entering its stores.
詞匯：
cold snapn. 寒流a spell of cold weather
thermal [ 'θə:məl ] a. 熱的,熱量的n. 上升的熱氣流rising current of warm air relating to or associated with heat of or relating to a hot spring
stylish [ 'stailiʃ ] a. 現(xiàn)代風(fēng)格的,流行的,瀟灑的having elegance or taste or refinement in manners or dress being or in accordance with current social fashions
glint [ glint ] n. 閃爍v. 閃耀,閃閃發(fā)光,反映a momentary flash of light
a spatially localized brightness be shiny, as if wet throw a glance at
dreadful [ 'dredful ] a. 可怕的causing fear or dread or terror exceptionally bad or displeasing
sterling [ 'stə:liŋ ] a. 英幣的(純粹的,貨真價(jià)實(shí)的) n. 英國(guó)貨幣(英鎊) British money
highest in quality
spectacular [ spek'tækjulə ] a. 公開展示的,驚人的a lavishly produced performance
sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect characteristic of spectacles or drama
smashing [ 'smæʃiŋ ] a. 猛烈的,興旺的,了不起的the act of breaking something into small pieces very good
purse stringsn. 控制財(cái)權(quán)(管錢)
simultaneously [ saiməl'teiniəsli ] . ad. 同時(shí)地(聯(lián)立地) at the same instant
ditch [ ditʃ ] n. 溝渠v. 墜溝中a long narrow excavation in the earth any small natural waterway forsake throw away
contrarian . an investor who deliberately decides to go against the prevailing wisdom of other investors
dwindle [ 'dwindl ] v. 減少,縮小. a becoming gradually less gradually decreasing until little remains
stark [ stɑ:k ] . a. 變硬了的,完全的ad. 實(shí)在,簡(jiǎn)直,全然devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment severely simple completely
snobbery [ 'snɔbəri ] n. 充紳士氣派,俗不可耐的性格the trait of condescending to those of lower social status
nostalgic [ nɔ'stældʒik, nə- ] a. 鄉(xiāng)愁的,懷舊的unhappy at being away and longing for familiar things or persons
fleece [ fli:s ] . n. 羊毛,羊毛狀之物the wool of a sheep or similar animal tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on rip off shear the wool from
fizzle [ 'fizl ] . n. 嘶嘶聲,失敗v. 發(fā)嘶嘶聲,失敗a fricative sound (especially as an expression of disapproval) a complete failure end weakly
crawler [ 'krɔ:lə ] . . n. 履帶牽引裝置(履帶,履帶式拖拉機(jī),爬行物) a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage a person who crawls or creeps along the ground
pitch [ pitʃ ] . n. 程度,投擲,音高v. 投,向前傾跌,扎牢,定調(diào),用瀝青覆蓋
the property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration
(baseball) the act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a batter
throw or toss with a light motionmove abruptly
A sudden cold snap, a cartoon robot, T-shirts sold in tubes, and a stylish range of high tech thermal underwear have provided a rare glint of success on Japan’s increasingly dreadful retail scene, and sharpened Uniqlo’s bid for global domination of low-price fashion.
Investors in the company now believe that Uniqlo management is looking seriously at acquisitions in the UK, where it already has a foothold, and in the US, where asset prices have fallen heavily in recent weeks. A massively strengthened yen rate against sterling and the US dollar are expected to accelerate plans, which are expected to focus on brands with a strong name for design, rather than low price.
With all signs now pointing to Japan being in its sharpest recessionary plunge since the Second World War, the Uniqlo chain of low-priced clothing has scored a spectacular hit: Fast Retailing, the parent company of the brand, said yesterday that same store sales soared over 32 per cent in November, smashing through to a record high.
In the same period, footfall across its store network surged nearly 26 per cent as millions of Japanese consumers tightened their purse strings and simultaneously ditched their hunger for more famous - and more expensive - brands.
The company remains in aggressive expansion mode. It now has a worldwide network of 54 stores outside Japan. Britain, France and the US are all counted among countries that Uniqlo considers converts to the brand. The company has pushed into other Asian markets and is poised to take on Russia: a country that has its own strong views on how to dress fashionably in sub-zero temperatures. Tadashi Yanai, the president of Fast Retailing who has set himself a Y1 trillion annual sales target by the end of 2010, admitted in a recent interview that the company needed to go on the merger trail in the US and Europe to achieve those numbers. www.examda.com
Market analysts at Nomura said that the company was positioned to behave as a contrarian indicator for dwindling activity elsewhere on the Japanese high street. The surprisingly strong performance at Uniqlo, they said, was “hard evidence” that the global recession is biting the Japanese retail scene more fiercely and more rapidly than the market had expected.
In a research note published yesterday, Seiji Shiraishi, an economist at HSBC, warned markets to abandon hopes that the Japanese consumer would ride to the world’s rescue as a force for growth or stability. In a stark warning to clients, he said that Japanese personal consumption has only declined once since the end of the American occupation in 1955, but that markets should expect it to do so again in 2009.
But the November surge in sales was not repeated across other Japanese discount clothing chains. Uniqlo, said analysts, has managed to hit a “winning formula” of using high performance material in unique pieces of clothing: although the products are famously low price, it has effectively managed to kill any snobbery that would mark it out as “cheap”. These factors, said KBC’s Japan retail analyst, were combined with a very slick and effective marketing campaign and “shot the lights out” of the market now that people need to stay warm on a budget.
Even before the winter chills set in, Uniqlo had experimented with other retail tricks – one of the more successful involved devoting entire stores to T-shirts with designs based on nostalgic cartoons and comics and sold in plastic tubes.
Uniqlo, as a brand, forged its reputation in Japan in the late 1990s when it released a range of cheap winter fleeces and down-stuffed jackets. Interest in the fleeces fizzled badly as the Asian Financial Crisis crawled into memory and people felt wealthier. As more bullish times returned, Japanese drifted from Uniqlo and pitched their ambitions higher up the price scale: but now, in a country suddenly faced with mass layoffs among temporary workers, frozen wages and dropping winter temperatures, Uniqlo has succeeded in raising the average spend among shoppers entering its stores.
詞匯：
cold snapn. 寒流a spell of cold weather
thermal [ 'θə:məl ] a. 熱的,熱量的n. 上升的熱氣流rising current of warm air relating to or associated with heat of or relating to a hot spring
stylish [ 'stailiʃ ] a. 現(xiàn)代風(fēng)格的,流行的,瀟灑的having elegance or taste or refinement in manners or dress being or in accordance with current social fashions
glint [ glint ] n. 閃爍v. 閃耀,閃閃發(fā)光,反映a momentary flash of light
a spatially localized brightness be shiny, as if wet throw a glance at
dreadful [ 'dredful ] a. 可怕的causing fear or dread or terror exceptionally bad or displeasing
sterling [ 'stə:liŋ ] a. 英幣的(純粹的,貨真價(jià)實(shí)的) n. 英國(guó)貨幣(英鎊) British money
highest in quality
spectacular [ spek'tækjulə ] a. 公開展示的,驚人的a lavishly produced performance
sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect characteristic of spectacles or drama
smashing [ 'smæʃiŋ ] a. 猛烈的,興旺的,了不起的the act of breaking something into small pieces very good
purse stringsn. 控制財(cái)權(quán)(管錢)
simultaneously [ saiməl'teiniəsli ] . ad. 同時(shí)地(聯(lián)立地) at the same instant
ditch [ ditʃ ] n. 溝渠v. 墜溝中a long narrow excavation in the earth any small natural waterway forsake throw away
contrarian . an investor who deliberately decides to go against the prevailing wisdom of other investors
dwindle [ 'dwindl ] v. 減少,縮小. a becoming gradually less gradually decreasing until little remains
stark [ stɑ:k ] . a. 變硬了的,完全的ad. 實(shí)在,簡(jiǎn)直,全然devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment severely simple completely
snobbery [ 'snɔbəri ] n. 充紳士氣派,俗不可耐的性格the trait of condescending to those of lower social status
nostalgic [ nɔ'stældʒik, nə- ] a. 鄉(xiāng)愁的,懷舊的unhappy at being away and longing for familiar things or persons
fleece [ fli:s ] . n. 羊毛,羊毛狀之物the wool of a sheep or similar animal tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on rip off shear the wool from
fizzle [ 'fizl ] . n. 嘶嘶聲,失敗v. 發(fā)嘶嘶聲,失敗a fricative sound (especially as an expression of disapproval) a complete failure end weakly
crawler [ 'krɔ:lə ] . . n. 履帶牽引裝置(履帶,履帶式拖拉機(jī),爬行物) a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage a person who crawls or creeps along the ground
pitch [ pitʃ ] . n. 程度,投擲,音高v. 投,向前傾跌,扎牢,定調(diào),用瀝青覆蓋
the property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration
(baseball) the act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a batter
throw or toss with a light motionmove abruptly