UNIQLO

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UNIQLO Co., Ltd.
UNIQLO logo
Type of co. 100% consolidated subsidiary
Founded Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture 1949
Headquarters Japan Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Key people Tadashi Yanai, Chairman, President & CEO
Takahiro Wakabayashi, Senior Vice President
Industry Fashion
Retail
Products Clothing
Employees 1,733 (2005)
Parent Fast Retailing Co., Ltd.
Website www.uniqlo.co.jp

UNIQLO Co., Ltd. (株式会社ユニクロ kabushiki gaisha yunikuro?) is a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer.

Originally a division of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. (FR), on Nov. 1, 2005, UNIQLO Co., Ltd. was born of corporate restructuring, and now exists as a 100% consolidated subsidiary of Fast Retailing, which is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

UNIQLO is Japan’s leading clothing retail chain in terms of both sales and profits. The company also operates in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Contents

[edit] Corporate History

Since March of 1949, Yamaguchi-based company, Ogori Shōji (which, until then, had been operating men's clothing shops called "Men's Shop OS") in Ube, Yamaguchi.

In June of 1984, they opened a unisex casual wear store in Fukuro-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima under the name "Unique Clothing Warehouse". It was at this time that the name "UNIQLO" was born, as a portmanteau of the words "unique" and "clothing". In September of 1991, the name of the company was changed from "Ogori Shōji" to "Fast Retailing", and by April of 1994, there were over 100 UNIQLO stores operating throughout Japan.

In 1997, they adopted a set of strategies from American retailing giant The Gap, known as "SPA" (Speciality-store/retailer of Private-label Apparel), meaning that they would produce their own clothing and sell it exclusively. UNIQLO had begun outsourcing their clothing manufacturing to factories in China early on, where labour was cheap, a well-established practice in the business world. Japan was in the depths of a recession at the time, and the low cost, high-quality goods proved popular. Their advertising campaigns also proved fruitful.

In November 1998, they opened their first urban UNIQLO store in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku district, and outlets soon spread to major cities throughout Japan. In 2001, sales turnover and gross profit reached a new peak, and with over 500 retail stores in Japan, UNIQLO decided to expand overseas, establishing Fast Retailing (Jiangsu) Apparel Co., Ltd. in China (and in 2002, opening their first Chinese UNIQLO outlet in Shanghai) and opening their first four overseas outlets in London, England.

But sales did not go well in England, and stocks in Japanese warehouses were overflowing. In 2002 and 2003, UNIQLO profits dropped sharply. In 2004, the company began joint ventures with Japanese fashion magazines, and hired such celebrities as Norika Fujiwara to appear in commercials. They teamed up with new designers, and profits rose in this year. (Their London outlets also finally entered the black.) The acquisition of other fashion companies by FR also helped the struggling company to get back on its feet.

2005 saw more overseas expansion, with stores opening in America (New Jersey), Hong Kong (Tsim Sha Tsui) and South Korea (Seoul), their South Korean expansion being part of a joint venture with Lotte.At 2006 Autumn, Uniqlo is looking into expantion outside UK in Europe after re-launch in UK stabilized. As of year-end 2005, in addition to its overseas holdings, UNIQLO boasted around 700 stores within Japan.

UNIQLO also furnished the uniforms for Japan's Olympic athletes in the 1998, 2002, and 2004 Olympic Games, as well as the uniforms for J.League's The SPA Kusatsu team.

In November 2006, UNIQLO's opened its first flagship store in Manhattan, (New York City), the largest UNIQLO store in the world. New fashion designers have joined the store's team to boost and rebirth fashion concepts catered to the American market. [1]

[edit] Japanese Celebrities Appearing in UNIQLO Commercials

[edit] References

Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese-language Wikipedia article (retrieved April 2, 2006).

[edit] External links

[edit] Retail

[edit] Corporate

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