Sincere Department Store

Sincere Department Store
先施百貨
public trading company
Industry Fashion retailing
Founded 1900
Founder 25 investors including Ma Ying Piu
Headquarters Hong Kong, China Taiwan, Australia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong
Area served
 Hong Kong and Mainland China
Key people
 Board Chair Walter K.W. Ma, managing director/Executive Director Philip K.H. Ma and board member King Wing Ma
Products consumer goods and services
Services retail, advertising, travel
Revenue HKD 458,410,000 (2011)
HKD 10,222,000 (2011)
Owner Ma family
Number of employees
 587
Parent Sincere Group (The Sincere Company, Limited)
Divisions 5
Subsidiaries 360 °C Advertising, Pacific Falcon Design,Sincere Living Furniture
Website Sincere

Sincere Department Store (先施百貨) is a department store under the Sincere Company Limited and one of the oldest department chains in Hong Kong. Prior to 1949, its largest operation was in Shanghai, and along with Wing On (which survives in Hong Kong), Sun Sun (新新公司 1926–1951) and Da Sun (大新公司) was one of the "four great department stores" of Shanghai, and therefore, China generally.[1]

History

A Sincere store in Central, Hong Kong, circa 1941.

Founded by Ma Ying Piu in 1900 after returning from Australia[2] and partnership with others to form the first Chinese department store in then British Hong Kong.[3] Ma was inspired by his experience with retail stores in Sydney.[4] and modelled Sincere after David Jones.[5] Now, the company is owned by the Ma family.

Prior to 1949, Sincere operated in China with stores in Shanghai, Nanning and Guangzhou. But with the founding of the People's Republic of China these locations were taken over by the Communist state, along with all other private companies in the country.

Post 1997

Sincere store in Citywalk, Tsuen Wan in 2011.

Since 1997, Sincere's retailing arm is mostly in Hong Kong with four locations in Hong Kong (Central: Li Po Chun Chambers;Causeway Bay: Percival Street) and Kowloon (Mong Kok: Grand Century Place; Mong Kok: Kingwah Centre; Sham Shui Po: Dragon Centre;Yau Tong: Domain(Yau Tong); and Tsuen Wan: Citywalk 2); there are Chinese location, including Dalian. The Ma family still has a place on the corporate board (Board Chair Walter K.W. Ma, managing director/Executive Director Philip K.H. Ma and board member King Wing Ma), but most day-to-day operations are run by non-family executives. Sincere is one of a few department stores that survived, many foreign and local firms have since disappeared.

Beyond retailing

Today Sincere has grown beyond retailing and diversified its portfolio:

property investment and property development

References

  1. ↑ Shanghai Municipal Archives (2010) Forerunners of modern Chinese department stores – collected archival materials of the four great department stores of Shanghai (《近代中国百货业的先驱——上海四大百货公司档案史料汇编》) Shanghai Bookstore Press, Shanghai
  2. ↑ http://www.shanghaiguide.org/Shanghai-Fashion-Holdings-Limited-181.html
  3. ↑ http://www.sincere.com.hk/department/lang_en
  4. ↑ http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/stories/guo_bros.htm
  5. ↑ http://guanyu9.blogspot.com/2010/03/sincere-by-name-and-philosophy-for-110.html
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