UNIQLO

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UNIQLO Co., Ltd.
Type 100% consolidated subsidiary
Founded Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture 1949
Headquarters Flag of Japan Tokyo, Japan
Key people Tadashi Yanai, Chairman, President & CEO
Takahiro Wakabayashi, Senior Vice President
Industry Fashion
Retail
Products Clothing
Employees 30,000 (2008)
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.

UNIQLO is categorized as a specialty chain store within the Japanese retail industry. The remaining segments of the Japanese retail industry includes the following: small or single proprietor stores ("Mom & Pop" stores), Department stores, General stores, Supermarkets, Discounters, and Shopping Buildings in contrast to shopping malls or plazas.

Originally a division of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., on November 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, France, the United States, and Singapore.

Contents

[edit] Corporate History

[edit] 1949-1994: rise in Japan

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

In June 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 1991, the name of the company was changed from "Ogori Shōji" to "Fast Retailing", and by April 1994, there were over 100 UNIQLO stores operating throughout Japan.

[edit] 1997: "SPA" strategy

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 where labour was cheap, a well-established corporate practice. 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.

[edit] 1998-2002: First Tokyo store and overseas expansion

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 (their London outlets also finally entered the black). The acquisition of other fashion companies by Fast Retailing also helped the struggling company get back on its feet.

[edit] 2005-present: further expansion and Olympic team uniforms

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

[edit] 2009

Fashion designer Jil Sander to join UNIQLO as creative director

[edit] Olympic and J. League uniforms

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 Thespa Kusatsu team.

[edit] Manhattan flagship store

In November 2006, UNIQLO's opened its first flagship store in the SoHo fashion district of Manhattan, (New York City). New fashion designers have joined the store's team to boost and rebirth fashion concepts catered to the American market.[1] The opening of the Manhattan store was followed in September 2007 by the closing of UNIQLO's three New Jersey locations, leaving the count of North American stores at one.[2] With the establishment in the US, UNIQLO has hopes to be the number one clothing retailer globally, by 2010.

[edit] France

In December 2007, UNIQLO's opened its first store in France in La Défense. A flagship store will open in 2009 in Paris close to the Opéra.

[edit] Singapore

UNIQLO has announced it will open stores in Singapore in 2009 with Wing Tai Holdings.

  • Tampines One [3]
  • Ion Orchard (July 2009)

[edit] Store Count

Location Store number
Japan 703 (99 in Tokyo)
South Korea 11
United Kingdom 14 [4]
China 19
Hong Kong 11
United States 1[5]
France 1
Singapore (2009) 1

[edit] Projects

[edit] Designers Invitation Project

The Uniqlo Designers Invitation Project saw the invitation of womenswear designers Phillip Lim, Alice Roi, Tina Lutz and Marcia Patmos of Lutz & Patmos, Kino, and GVGV; and men’s wear designers Halb, Satoru Tanaka, and Alexandre Plokhov of Cloak to each design capsule collections of eight looks for Spring/Summer 2007.

4 additional designers/labels were asked for the 2009 Designers Invitation Project. Women's wear saw boutique owner Steven Alan and Shipley & Halmos, while men's wear include Opening Ceremony and Gilded Age.

[edit] UT Project

The UT Project was launched on April 28th 2007 in Harajuku, Tokyo with the launch of a new innovative store concept designed by UNIQLO creative director Kashiwa Sato of a futuristic convenience store for t-shirts. Each t-shirt style is displayed on forms in stainless steel display cases, with individual t-shirts packaged in clear plastic canisters resembling tennis ball cans. The t-shirts are stored on open shelves, making the shopping experience virtually self-service.

In celebration of the opening of the UT store, UNIQLO launched the UT Project, a limited-edition collection of t-shirts designed by renowned artists, designers, photographers and musicians including Terry Richardson, Nobuyoshi Araki, Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice, Kim Jones, Peter Saville, Gareth Pugh and many more. There are approximately 1,000 unique t-shirt styles being delivered each year as part of the UT Project from these artists as well as other collaborative efforts such as ECM Records and the Evolution Store in SoHo, NY. The t-shirts will be available at the UT store and UNIQLO stores worldwide, with nearly 100 new styles being introduced to the New York Global Flagship Store each month.

[edit] Uniqlock Project

Uniqlock, a web-based Flash widget as well as downloadable screensaver combination of Music-Dance-Clock, was launched in June 15th 2007. Season 1[6] features four girls auditioned from youtube wearing Uniqlo's 20 color dry polo shirt, dancing freestyles similar to ballet , with background music composed by Fantastic Plastic Machine. Blog-parts were Flash components provided so that Uniqlock can be inserted into individual blog pages. Uniqlock soon gained popularity, as shown in its World Uniqlock page. Until November 2008 there were up to 191 million clicks from over 200 countries, with up to 40,000 blog-parts in 88 countries. Uniqlock Season 2,[7] launched in November 2007, featured Cashemere Knits, with the same dancers, dance style, as well background. The movie quality was improved, and dancers would appear to be asleep if the time in the specified region is nighttime. Also in each hour special clips would be shown instead; Season 2 features 2 men playing music, doing clean up chores. In season 3[8] 20 color t-shirt promotion, 4 new dancers were introduced in addition to the original 4, switched by hour.

This section requires expansion.

[edit] References

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

  1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/business/worldbusiness/10retail.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
  2. ^ http://www.uniqlo.com/us/news/2007/10/uniqlo_closes_new_jersey_store.html
  3. ^ http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/420532/1/.html
  4. ^ - Uniqlo's UK website refers to 14 stores in April 2009.
  5. ^ STORES - Uniqlo.com(three New Jersey stores were closed on or around September 102007 UNIQLO press release
  6. ^ http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/season1/
  7. ^ http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/season2/
  8. ^ http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/season3/

[edit] External links

[edit] Retail

[edit] Corporate

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