Japan’s Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. opened Friday (October 9, 2020) its first Uniqlo store in Hamburg on Alter Wall adjacent to City Hall during festivities attended by Japanese Consul General Kikuko Kato and Astrid Nissen-Schmidt, Vice President of Hamburg’s Chamber of Commerce, and other guests. The new 1,750 square metre-store is spread out over four floors.
The opening of the huge store in downtown Hamburg is an expression of the “belief in retail”, the daily Hamburger Abendblatt quoted Michelle Kronbergs, Head of Marketing and PR Germany at Uniqlo, as saying. Taku Morikawa, Chief Executive Officer of Uniqlo in Europe, stressed: “Hamburg is an impressive city known worldwide for its tolerance, culture and economic importance as a main European trading centre with its port. We are delighted to have found such an exceptional location for our first store in the heart of this great city.”
The new fashion store, Uniqlo’s tenth in Germany, is located in the former premises of the Bucerius Kunst Forum. The brand highlights Japanese values of “simplicity, quality and durability”. Since moving to Germany in 2014, Uniqlo has opened six stores in Berlin and one each in Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Cologne. The company operates more than 2,200 stores in 25 countries.
Uniqlo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co. Ltd, a leading international Japanese apparel retail group that designs, manufactures and sells eight major fashion labels. Fast Retailing achieved global turnover of more than USD 21.5 billion in 2019 making it one of the world’s largest clothing companies and Japan’s biggest fashion brand.
