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Wing On

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Wing on Department Store
永安百貨
Industryretailing ( cosmetics, fashion, home appliances, luxury stationary, ivory craft, kitchen wares and appliances, etc)
Founded1907
FounderKwok Lok (郭樂) and Kwok Chuen (郭泉)
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Area served
Hong Kong
Key people
Kwok Lok, Kwok Chuen
OwnerKarl Kwok Chi Leung
ParentWing on Company International Limited (Wing on Company)
DivisionsWing on Bank
Websitehttp://www.wingonet.com

Wing On (Chinese: 永安) is a department store company in Hong Kong.

The company is owned by a Hong Kong listed company Wing on Company International Limited (SEHK: 289), incorporated in Bermuda. The holding company of the listed company itself is Wing on International Holdings Limited, which is owned by Karl Kwok Chi Leung (郭志樑)[1] and the Kwok family.

History

The World Cinema (right) and Wing on Company (centre) on 179, Des Voeux Road, Central, c1920s–30s

Brothers Kwok Lok (郭樂) and Kwok Chuen (郭泉) started the Wing on fruit store in Australia in 1897. In 1907 they returned to Hong Kong with accumulated savings and founded the Wing on Company, the second Chinese-owned department store in Hong Kong.

They later went on to found Wing On Bank.[2]

Stores in Hong Kong

Wing on Manulife Provident Funds Place in 2013
Wing On department store in 2007, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island
Wing On department store in Cityplaza, closed in August 2015

It has four outlets in Hong Kong, after the closure of Taikoo Shing Store in 2015, with 310,000 square feet (33,400 square metres) of shopping space:[3]

The branch at the Wing on Centre was prominently featured in the climactic sequence to the 1985 Jackie Chan film Police Story.

Wing On in Shanghai

Wing On also had a branch in Shanghai, opened in 1918 on Nanking (Nanjing) Road, and was one of the "big four" department stores of Shanghai. The store occupied two prominent buildings. The distinctive original building stood opposite from the (then) Sincere Department Store. An extension was built next to it in the 1930s, one of the first modern "skyscrapers" of Shanghai. After the Communist revolution in China (1949), the store was nationalised, traded under various names and was no longer connected to Wing On in Hong Kong. The 1930s extension building houses a separate "Overseas Chinese Store", which, for many years, was one of the few places in Shanghai where people with overseas connections could spend their foreign exchange certificates to buy goods not available to ordinary Chinese consumers.

In 2005, the department store in the original 1918 building resumed the Chinese version of the Wing On name (Chinese: 永安; pinyin: Yǒng'ān). However, the store is owned by a separate company from Wing On, called "Yongan Department Store Co Ltd", a state-owned company. This company does not use the "Wing On" name in its English translations.[4] The exterior of the original store was restored to its appearance during the Wing On period. However, the interior has been drastically refurbished. The store has also changed its market orientation, focusing almost exclusively on domestic Chinese branded clothing targeted at visitors from other parts of China, with a small department in watches and other accessories.

  • Wing On's Shanghai branch in the 1940s, on Nanking Road.
    Wing On's Shanghai branch in the 1940s, on Nanking Road.
  • Shop window of Wing On's Shanghai branch in the 1940s.
    Shop window of Wing On's Shanghai branch in the 1940s.
  • In this 1930s postcard, Wing On (left) is advertising its "Great Sale" on banners stretched across Nanking Road (to Sincere Department Store (right)).
    In this 1930s postcard, Wing On (left) is advertising its "Great Sale" on banners stretched across Nanking Road (to Sincere Department Store (right)).

See also

References

  1. ^ "Kwok Chi Leung". webb-site.com. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  2. ^ "Encyclopedia of Modern China, Vol 4, part 1". Scribd.com. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2013. [unreliable source?]
  3. ^ "Wing on website: Wing On Store Locations". 17 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  4. ^ http://www.yongan.sh.cn/about1.asp
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