Retail News CRM

Tag: Hong Kong

  • Li-Ning growth strengthens

    Li-Ning growth strengthens

    Hong Kong-listed Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning has released the vaguest operational update of the year – but nevertheless, it’s clear the brand is still growing.

    A year after seemingly being down for the count, Li-Ning revealed a first half year profit in August, proving its massive transformational program was have a positive effect.

    Now the company has released information on orders from its franchised distributors at its September trade fair, where it unveiled its range for distribution in the second quarter of 2016. For the eighth consecutive quarter, orders increased.

    “The orders from the latest trade fair… registered high-teens growth on a year-on-year basis. This growth is driven by mid-teens increase in footwear as well as low-twenties increase in apparel.”

    Meanwhile, same-store sales for Li-Ning-branded stores in the quarter to September 30

    increased by “mid-single-digits” year on year.

    “In terms of channels, growth rates of retail (direct operation) and wholesale (franchised distributors) were mid-single-digit and low-single-digit on a year-on-year basis respectively. Comparable growth on our eCommerce virtual stores more than doubled on a year-on-year basis. We have started reporting the eCommerce revenue growth as it is an increasingly important channel.”

    At the end of last month there were 5953 Li-Ning branded points of sale in China, a net increase of 327 since January 1, and 208 more than at the end of the previous quarter.

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  • Daphne International sales slump

    Daphne International sales slump

    Hong Kong-listed shoe retailer Daphne International has reported a third quarter same store sales slump of 19.7 per cent as it continues to cull its store network.

    As earlier reported, Daphne issued a profit warning in July after reporting a fall in same store sales of 16.9 per cent in the first half of 2015, and by 17.7 per cent in the second quarter.

    In the first six months of the year, Daphne closed 181 stores – 117 directly-managed and 64 franchised stores, the majority in the second quarter. But it still has 6221 points of sale.

    Daphne operates the Daphne and Shoebox retail brands in Mainland China.

    During the third quarter, same-store sales of the group’s core brands business recorded a decline of 19.7 per cent year on year, but the company explained that was from a high base effect of 6.3 per cent growth during the same period last year.

    Overall, the same store sales decline of its core brands for the first three quarters of 2015 was 17.9 per cent.

    “The same-store sales decline was more driven by the lower average selling price, although both ASP and sales volume recorded a decrease,” the company disclosed.

    “The group continued the consolidation of the sales network, with a net closure of 219 points of sale during the third quarter (a reduction of 191 directly-managed stores and 28 franchised stores), and therefore had a total of 6002 POS under its core brands business as at September 30.”

    The one bright spot was an undefined growth in sales in its eCommerce sales during the third quarter.

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  • How should retailers prepare for this holiday season?

    How should retailers prepare for this holiday season?

    E-commerce presents enormous opportunity for retailers. Hong Kong’s 2014 sales value of Internet retailing, excluding tax, was HK$1.5 billion (Hong Kong Trade Development Council), and it is estimated to increase to HK$2.1 billion in 2019.

    As Singles’ Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner, it is time to start preparing for the holiday season as traffic spikes will affect web performance or even result in downtime.

    Retailers need to prepare to serve the needs of their customers through two primary activities that lead to revenue – the shopping phase and the buying phase, to capture additional spending during holiday seasons.

    Shopping
    As customers begin the process of searching for a product or service, there are a number of potential channels available to them, including emails from retailers, websites and online search.

    Retailers should focus their efforts on improving the personalisation of their emails to increase the likelihood of opens, click-through and eventually purchases.

    This will also push more consumers into the “shopped from this website before” group, helping to create a growing, loyal customer base.

    Success here is tied to customers’ abilities to access the content they need to move from awareness to consideration in a simple, fast and reliable way – regardless of content type, device being used, or location.

    Buying
    A cohesive purchasing experience across physical and digital channels (regardless of location, device type or size) is no longer the exception for advanced retailers. It is fast becoming the norm – table stakes for success.

    “Customers increasingly expect that all parts of their relationship with a retailer – loyalty programs, past purchase history, customer service and other interactions – will be connected, regardless of how and when they interact with the retailer,” according to 2015 Retail Holiday Planning Playbook, July 2015, National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics.

    According to The Nielsen Global Survey of E-commerce conducted in 2014, Hong Kong consumers tend to be researchers when engaging in e-commerce.

    More than three out of five respondents will check out products in the store before purchasing them online (61%), or they will often look at products online before purchasing them in the store (60%).

    Hence, retailers need to ensure their digital experiences are optimized across devices, screen sizes, operating systems, browsers and locations so customers have a consistent, reliable experience wherever they are.

    Akamai’s Performance Matters report reveals that consumers participate in e-commerce research activity more frequently on mobile devices and tablets than on desktops in three key categories: searching for products, comparing prices, and reading reviews.

    The report shows that 56% of mobile users and 57% of tablet users search for products once a week or more, compared to 37% of desktop users.

    Additionally, 15% of mobile and tablet users search daily, compared to 5% of desktop users. In terms of price comparison, 52% of mobile users and 53% of tablet users compared prices once a week or more, while 34% used their desktops to do so.

    On the reviews front, 46% of mobile users and 50% of tablet users read reviews online once a week or more, compared to 28% of desktop users.

    The ability to quickly transition from reviewing product content, images, and reviews then into a buying decision phase increases the conversion rate. Cloud-based, globally distributed technologies are a key component to success in delivering an omni-channel experience that is content rich, fast and reliable.

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  • Hong Kong’s PopScout wants to reverse the O2O model

    Hong Kong’s PopScout wants to reverse the O2O model

    Given the burden of rent in Hong Kong, most local retailers take their business online to skirt the financial and logistical hassle.

    But Hong Kong startup PopScout is taking away the headache that comes with brick-and-mortar locations.

    This online marketplace lets users book a pop-up shop online, choosing options for space, length of time and prices. The perks to having a temporary storefront are obvious: Foot traffic to generate brand awareness and customers physically interacting with products.

    CEO and Founder Romain Aubert got the idea to start this model in Hong Kong while working as a research analyst in the UK.

    “The short-term retail economy in the UK is a GBP2 billion [US$3.09 billion] industry and is much more developed. I did research into Asia and realized that it is a fairly new concept, there’s not that much information out. So I decided to come to Hong Kong and do more research [from the ground],” says Aubert.

    Despite never having set foot in the city, French native Aubert moved to Hong Kong early this year. Aubert then applied and was accepted into Hong Kong’s blueprint, an accelerator and co-working space backed by Swire Properties.

    This allowed him to fast-track his idea into a marketplace and build up the PopScout team to three.

    “Hong Kong made sense because I knew could set up my business easily. It’s a big city for retail and real estate,” said Aubert, when asked about moving to a city he had never visited.

    His goal now is to make looking for an offline store location as easy as booking a hotel room, or to “become the Airbnb of retail in Hong Kong.”

    popscout

    popscout

    The pop-up model in Hong Kong

    A few stores in Hong Kong have already used the pop-up shop model to gain traction.

    Perhaps most notable is Hong Kong-based apparel brand Grana, which started out as an online-only concept store. The e-commerce startup raised an additional US$1.5 million from investors in July of this year and talked to e27 about running a strictly e-commerce business in Hong Kong.

    After successfully testing out a few pop-up shop locations including PMQ, an area in Central that caters to local retail shops, Grana opened its permanent ‘fitting room’ in Sheung Wan district. The fitting room does not stock actual merchandise but instead allows shoppers to try on clothing before placing the order online.

    Rocket Internet-backed Zalora, also an e-commerce site, opened a pop-up store in Hong Kong’s Windsor Place in June, where customers could download the Zalora app and try items on, prior to ordering online.

    Unused space and foot traffic, a win-win combo

    Aubert initially scouted for locations in Hong Kong by walking around buildings, visiting shops that had previously done a pop-up model and had the chance of signing on a few.

    “The landlords win as they can increase foot traffic through the pop-up stores and can max out occupancy levels, while pop-up shops can revive a space,” says Aubert.

    Though PopScout is focussing its endeavours on just retail, Aubert says that there could be potential to expand into other industries such as F&B.

    “Some people like the word disrupt. I don’t think we are disrupting anything because short-term retail spaces is not a new market. Our business model is very simple, just in Hong Kong there are less statistics in this industry,” says Aubert.

    In the US, startups like Storefront and Liquidspace rent out work and retail space.

    Within Asia, there are existing players around the corner, launching similar marketplaces with the same concept.

    SpacesGenie, founded by Pushpendra Sharma is a Hong Kong startup that connects retail landlords with companies that want to set up temporary pop-up events. SpacesGenie lists event spaces available, including coffee shops and coworking spaces, in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

    Other startups are also toying with the short lease idea, albeit in different sectors. FlySpaces focusses on short-term office space rentals and services cities Cebu and Manila and will start expanding internationally in December to all the ASEAN countries.

    It is currently free to list on PopScout. The business runs on a transaction model, meaning that PopScout will charge a percentage for each deal.

  • Hong Kong retail rents weaken further

    Hong Kong retail rents weaken further

    Hong Kong retail rents weakened further in the third quarter – and worse is to come, according to CBRE’s quarterly review.

    Against a backdrop of a seven per cent fall in watch and jewellery sales in July and August combined, there was an increase in lease surrenders by luxury brands and high-value retailers on tier one streets, the review said.

    “Overall rents in core locations slumped 9.1 per cent quarter on quarter, the largest quarterly decline recorded since 1998.”

    Among the four core submarkets, rents in Causeway Bay fell the most severely – by 11 per cent quarter on quarter – taking the total year to date decline to 22 per cent.

    “Rents in Central, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok declined by 9.2 per cent, 7.0 per cent and 7.6 per cent quarter on quarter, respectively.

    “Mid-range retailers are attempting to regain their foothold in prime locations. Cosmetics retailers, sportswear brands and fitness centers were the most active sectors in Q3.”

    Joe Lin, executive director, retail services, CBRE Hong Kong​ said the top tier retail market led the deterioration.

    “The shift in mainland Chinese tourist spending patterns coupled with slower tourist arrivals continued to erode confidence among luxury retailers. This resulted in more cases of lease surrender and rental cuts for tier one street shops by jewellery and luxury retailers. We expect the rental downcycle to continue in Q4.”

    Lin predicts average rents for space in core retail locations will continue to decline in Q4, with the full year rental downward adjustment for 2015 projected at between 20 and 25 per cent.

    “Non-luxury retailers are set to be the main driver of retail leasing demand in Hong Kong.

    “Leasing transactions signed over the past two quarters at lower rents in tier one streets will set new benchmarks for lease negotiations in the coming months.”

  • Grana Hong Kong, a store with no stock

    Grana Hong Kong, a store with no stock

    In this world of the digitally empowered consumer, is inventory a threatened species?

    Are classic retailer metrics such as stock hold, stock turn, stock intensity per square metre and working capital ratios yesterday’s news?

    After all what is a classic retailer’s largest cost of business? Well one could argue it’s inventory, certainly such that range, width of range, and its management is a strong determinant of both cash flow and profitability.

    Now a growing number of retailers are enhancing their offer by investing far less in inventory and far more in their digital interface, customer databases and social communities.

    Their advocates and fans are being increasingly conditioned and motivated to the customised offer that brings all channels to the fore. Not seeking to purchase on the spot, far more motivated by the various caches that a true digital-inspired omnichannel retail business offers. Aware that a physical store is crucial to the overall offer yet doing so in a way that maximises both the customer experience and resultant experience.

    Is this the store template of the future?

    Disrupting the standard retail format certainly seems to be on the agenda for many of today’s innovative fashion start-ups. Online retailer Kent & Lime have created a successful retail model out of providing online style advisors to hand select items in the right size and sent directly to your door. Your home becomes your personal fitting room where you have three days to try on your items, show your friends and then return those you don’t wish to keep, only paying for what you keep.

    Another success story in this area and a personal favourite of ours is Australian innovator Sneakerboy, as mentioned in previous posts. This week we visited another disrupter in this field, Grana.

    Aiming to combine the world’s best fabrics at disruptive prices, Grana is all about high quality garments at a lower price point. Founded in 2013, Australian-born Luke Grana, realised that achieving this goal meant re-thinking the traditional fashion business model, and focusing on ‘outstanding logistics’ rather than design, to give the fashion retailer an edge on the competition.

    Being based out of Hong Kong, the world’s largest logistics hub, allows the brand to ship internationally at almost the same cost of shipping locally in Australia with Australia Post. Working directly with fabric mills, all products are shipped direct to the warehouse and then straight onto the customer, cutting out the middle man, once again saving costs to provide ultimate savings to customers.

    Last year the core team members of the company, including founders Luke Grana and Pieter Paul Wittgen set up a shipping container pop up shop in and around Sydney, which reportedly was well received due to the quality of the products. They have now returned to Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building with a ‘zero-stock’ concept pop up store set to last until January 2016. When speaking of their first concept store in their channel in Hong Kong which followed a similar concept allowing customers to try on apparel and have their orders shipped to their door, founder Luke Grana said, “our customers can receive the tailored customer service and interaction that only a brick and mortar location can provide, but with the ease of online purchasing.”

    The Sydney store this weekend was buzzing, with consumers naturally adopting the new way of shopping. While some were a little confused at first, while we were in the store, once the concept was explained by an approachable and enthusiastic team member, all customers were taking items to the fitting rooms, and exploring the full range on the instore computers. The garments were attractively displayed within their styles, with place cards detailing where the fabrics had been sourced. From Peruvian Pima t-shirts priced at $22, to Chinese Silk Dresses from $99, it is refreshing to have such a transparent view of the supply chain communicated through the store experience.

    We are interested to see what the future holds for Grana, and whether we may begin to see more Australian retailers start to adopt this model of retailing in the future.

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  • Bauhaus sales slide

    Bauhaus sales slide

    Denim retailer Bauhaus International says its same-store sales in Hong Kong and Macau fell seven per cent in its second half year to September 30.

    The Hong Kong-listed street fashion retailer had 211 self-managed stores at the end of the first half year – 96 in Taiwan, 86 in Hong Kong and Macau and 29 in the mainland.

    Bauhaus International told the told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its same-store sales generally had slipped eight per cent overall.

    It has not released same store sales data.

    The company sells a range of imported denim and t-shirt brands including Desigual, Evisu, Superdry, True Religion and Red Pepper.

  • Parkson Retail restructure knocked back

    Parkson Retail restructure knocked back

    A plan to simplify the complex ownership structure of Parkson Retail Asia operations has been rejected by independent shareholders.

    The proposal, defeated by a 63.44 per cent vote against at a shareholders meeting on Monday, would have seen the Singapore-listed Parkson Retail Asia parked under Hong Kong listed Parkson Retail Group, which in turn is a subsidiary of Malaysian-listed Parkson Holdings.

    The side effect of the vote is that Malaysian shareholders have missed a proposed cash distribution arising from the internal reorganisation.

    Parkson Retail Asia has 67 stores in Southeast Asia which were to be merged with the Parkson Retail Group network of stores in Greater China.

    Parkson Holdings says the companies will now continue to operate under the status quo.

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  • Victoria Beckham Hong Kong confirmed

    Victoria Beckham Hong Kong confirmed

    Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has confirmed her second fashion store will open in Hong Kong early next year.

    Beckham, wife of the famous footballer and fashion celebrity David Beckham, is now a fashion designer. She opened her first flagship store in London and is so pleased with its trading has committed to a second in Hong Kong.

    “Our next store will be in Hong Kong in the first half of next year, which I am incredibly excited about,” she said in an interview published in the UK over the weekend.

    Beckham, 41,  says her store will cater for every level of shopper – it will not be an exclusive designer boutique.

    “I’ve always wanted people to be able to come to the store, whether it was just to browse, look at the architecture, buy a key ring or a full runway look. I have the most phenomenal shop staff.”

    Beckham has two ranges: The original Victoria Beckham collection and VVB, a a newer sister range she is now expanding.

    “The VVB collection actually merged with denim this season for the first time as a result of really listening to my customer and understanding that the two categories belong together.”

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  • Waterfront township in Mandaue

    Waterfront township in Mandaue

    HONGKONG Land and Taft Properties formally unveiled yesterday the 20-hectare Mandani Bay, the first waterfront township project along Zuellig Ave. in Mandaue City.

    Under HT Land, the company formed out of the joint venture between Hongkong Land and Taft Properties, an initial investment of P4.5 billion will kick off the first phase development of the new project.

    The first phase will cover the construction of two condominium towers that will have a total of 1,200 units in a 1.1-hectare area starting next year.

    10-year period

    In a press interview yesterday, Theodore Gilbert Ang, project director of Mandani Bay, said the project will be constructed in eight phases and expected to be completed in 10 years’ time starting 2016.

    At present, HT Land is developing its sales gallery, which is slated for completion in January next year.

    The integrated development, according to Ang, will be primarily residential.

    It will have 25 towers with a total of 18,000 condominium units intended for the middle to high-end market. On top of the residential component, the project, which is located in a waterfront site, will also have retail, office, recreational and marina components.

    Integrated

    Ang said the vision of the company is to shift Mandaue City’s perception as an industrial and manufacturing hub into a desirable mixed-use and a premier lifestyle hub.

    “We will integrate culture, commerce and community in one area,” said Ang. “There is plenty of potential in Cebu because this is a place where people from Luzon and Mindanao converge.”

    “The key attractions of this master-planned project are its unique design features, the site’s strategic location and its extensive water frontage. The project will also be built around several distinctive characteristics aimed at creating an attractive community, in line with international standards,”said Jack Gaisano, chairman of Taft Properties in a statement.

    ‘Benchmark’

    In June this year, Hongkong Land and Taft Properties announced they have teamed up to create a new landmark that will change the landscape of Metro Cebu. Mandani Bay is expected to leverage the combination of Taft’s intimate knowledge of the Cebu market with Hongkong Land’s international experience to provide a new benchmark for residential communities in Cebu.

    Experience

    Taft Properties is part of the Vicsal Development Corp., known for its Metro Retail Stores (Metro Gaisano).

    Hongkong Land is one of Asia’s property investment, management and development groups.

    The group owns and manages almost 800,000 square meters of prime office and luxury retail property in key Asian cities, principally in Hong Kong and Singapore.

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  • Burberry second-quarter sales hit by China slowdown

    Burberry second-quarter sales hit by China slowdown

    Burberry has reported a slowdown in sales as it felt the impact of a challenging global luxury market, particularly in China and Hong Kong.

    • Retail sales growth slows to 2% in first half
    • Luxury retailer points to “weakening consumer sentiment” in China
    • Share price slips 12% to lowest point since April 2013
    • Analyst brands full-year profit forecast “ominous”

    Retail sales on an underlying basis rose 2% to £774m in the six months to the end of September after 8% growth in the first quarter, the fashion retailer and brand said. Group sales were flat at £1.1bn.

    “In the second quarter, demand from luxury consumers, particularly Chinese customers was affected by a more challenging external environment,” Burberry said.

    Across the Asia-Pacific region Burberry recorded a “mid-single-digit” drop in sales because of “deceleration” in Hong Kong, while in China sales fell “slightly” due to “weakening consumer sentiment” in the second quarter.

    Burberry’s chief executive and chief creative officer Christopher Bailey said: “The external environment became more challenging during the half, affecting luxury consumer demand in some of our key markets.

    “In response, we have intensified our focus on driving sales and productivity, while taking swift action on discretionary costs.”

    Looking ahead, Burberry, which owns 218 stores worldwide, said full-year pre-tax profits will be “broadly in line with the average of those analysts who have recently updated forecasts”.

    It added: “Our assumptions include a return to mid-single-digit percentage growth in comparable sales in the second half, ongoing cost efficiencies, a reduction in performance-related pay and a benefit of about £10m to reported profit if exchange rates remain at current levels.”

    However, independent analyst Nick Bubb branded the profit forecast provoked alarm bells. “The worry beforehand was that group performance would be hit by the slowdown in China and the comment that ‘for FY 2016, we expect that adjusted PBT will be broadly in line with the average of those analysts who have recently downgraded forecasts’ is ominous,” he said.

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  • Solomon Lew’s plan to take Hong Kong’s shopping centres with Smiggle

    Solomon Lew’s plan to take Hong Kong’s shopping centres with Smiggle

    Solomon Lew is renowned for driving a hard bargain and that’s exactly what he has been doing in Hong Kong this week.

    Australia’s most strategic billionaire and the man running his fast-growing stationery empire – John Cheston – spent Friday in a van visiting dozens of shopping malls in the former British colony. They will do the same again on Saturday.

    It is not Hong Kong’s glitzy designer stores that interest Lew. He and Cheston are personally inspecting the sites identified by Premier Investments’ property team as locations for a chain of Smiggle stores due to open in the territory early next year.

    “We walk every centre. We walk every store. We are there in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and we go back in the evening. We want to see different times of the day. We go early in the morning and then it revs up. The kids finish school and then … bingo!” Lew says in an interview with AFR Weekend.

    “This is a business that caters to six to 14 years of age, 75 per cent female. You are getting a new crop growing every year. As they fall out at the older end, the younger ones are coming in. When you see them walking in and they bring their piggy bank and turn it upside down and say what can I get for this, it’s just amazing. ”

    We are sitting in Lew’s hotel room in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel overlooking Hong Kong’s busy harbour. It is a sight Lew is familiar with.

    He has been travelling to Hong Kong since the 1960s, up to 11 times a year. But instead of importing goods made in China to Australia, he now plans to sell stationery to the Chinese – and a lot of it.

    After a reconnaissance trip to Hong Kong in June, Lew and his team are getting serious this week. Premier chief Mark McInnes is joining them in the van before flying to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday for the next leg of the tour.

    Smiggle, the stationery chain which has become the fastest-growing business in Lew’s Premier Investments apparel empire, is planning to open 50 stores in Hong Kong and Malaysia over the next five years. It is the next phase in his plans to take the brand global after breaking into the United Kingdom, where 200 stores are planned.

    Lew wants Cheston to do most of the talking. He is the Asia expert after all after running Marks & Spencer’s Hong Kong operations and listed Singapore retailer Robinson & Co before moving to Australia to run Smiggle.

    The perfect market

    Cheston says densely-populated Hong Kong is perfect for Smiggle, which is making millions selling brightly-coloured lunch boxes, backpacks, water bottles, and pencil cases to six to 14-year olds in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

    “There is a predominance of shopping centres here and that is our fertile ground, limited competition. From what we do there is not a lot of competition. We have well established contacts through Sol,” he says.

    “In Hong Kong if you are hot they want you and if you are cold they don’t. We are in demand from the landlords over here. We need to leverage that business with the agents who represent us and get good locations and get good deals. The biggest challenge is getting the space and the rents,” Cheston says.

    That is something Lew has plenty of experience at. Rather than being deterred by China’s slowing economy, which is hitting high-end luxury retail sales in places like Hong Kong, Lew says it is an opportunity to negotiate better deals from landlords. He also sees it as a gateway to China, a country he has had plenty of experience with over the decades building his apparel empire, because 41 million mainland tourists visit Hong Kong each year.

    The plan now is to take Smiggle global. Cheston says he has had inquiries from literally every country on the planet to franchise the brand but, for now, Premier plans to keep the stores wholly-owned. Lew says it’s better than the McDonald’s model.

    “The international business in a very short period of time will be much larger than the Australian business and there are not too many Australian retailers who have been successful offshore,” Lew says.

    “This is going to be world-class operation and there is no reason it shouldn’t work in any country in the world where there is moderate income.”

    Lew’s focus on overseas expansion stands in stark contrast to some of the other big names in Australian retail.

    Myer, for example, is embarking on a $600 million revival plan under new chief executive Richard Umbers. The company has been described as a possible takeover target for Premier Investments, but Lew would not comment on the seemingly perennial speculation about such a tilt.

    Nor would he comment on the progress of David Jones. Last year, Lew grabbed a windfall of about $400 million when South African retailer Woolworths Holdings bought David Jones and Country Road; Lew had stakes in both. David Jones looked to be riding high until recent weeks when chief executive Ian Nairn stepped down suddenly.

    Singapore experience being applied

    Cheston says the success of Smiggle’s Orchid Road operations in Singapore are now being used as leverage to negotiate good deals with landlords in Hong Kong because it drives traffic to shopping malls.

    Like the UK operations, he expects Hong Kong to be profitable in the first year.  The plan is to open 50 stores across Hong Kong and Malaysia which will make $55 million in revenue. In Hong Kong, Lew would like to firm up 10 stores initially but says he will probably start with five or six.

    Australia has almost peaked with around 10 additional stores on top of the existing 124 planned. The Hong Kong target is around 25 to 35 stores and 20 in Malaysia, mainly in Kuala Lumpur.

    As well as lower taxes, Cheston says Asia is attractive for the “kidult” market, where older people who live in small apartments with their families like to adorn their office workstations with stationery.

    Premier Investments posted record full-year results last month and is expected to hit sales of more than $1 billion this year. Double-digit growth at Smiggle and its designer pyjama business, Peter Alexander, are outstripping the company’s core apparel brands such as Just Jeans and Dotti.

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  • Atelier Cologne Hong Kong opens

    Atelier Cologne Hong Kong opens

    Parisian perfumery Atelier Cologne has opened a new store at IFC Mall.

    The Atelier Cologne Hong Kong store is the first for the brand in the city. The brand was founded in 2009 by Sylvie Ganter and Christopher Cervasel, who decided to pursue their passion for cologne and opened a boutique.

    Atelier Cologne HK

    Later, they created Colognes Absolues, a perfume line with 25 types of fragrances where each fragrance is blended with citrus base to create a longer lasting effect. The store also sells soaps, shower gels, body lotions and candles.

    The bold blue storefront really stands out among IFC Mall tenants, while inside the store features a more minimalist design using simple wooden furniture and furnishings and a sort of ‘modern laboratory’ feel.

    Perfumes are displayed in bottles with distinctive leather caps. After making a purchase, customers can have the bottles personally engraved.

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  • H&M Hong Kong flagship to be Asia’s largest

    H&M Hong Kong flagship to be Asia’s largest

    The new H&M Hong Kong flagship store set to open on October 30 will be the Swedish fashion brand’s largest yet in Asia.

    Hennes & Mauritz will open at the end of the month in Hong Kong, marking the fast fashion brand’s return to what is one of the city’s premiere downtown shopping district.

    The 47,000 sqm store will open at Fashion Walk in Causeway Bay.

    It will include an H&M Home section, marking the homewares spin-off’s first presence in Hong Kong. A highlight will be a global exclusive collection by Ximon Lee, winner of H&M’s Design Award 2015.

    H&M is steadily expanding its store network in Asia. On October 1 it opened a new store in Singapore’s Tampines shopping centre, a two storey shop with a floorspace of about 19,500 sqft.

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  • Foodora Hong Kong launches with 100 restaurants

    Foodora Hong Kong launches with 100 restaurants

    Foodora Hong Kong – the expensive little sister of Foodpanda – claims it already has 100 restaurants and cafes on its books as it formally launches its service.

    Foodora – whose imminent launch was reported by Inside Retail Hong Kong on September 29 – has today formally announced its creation after a trial in two suburbs: Central and Sheung Wan.

    A key plank of its marketing message is “Hong Kong’s first 30-minute food delivery service” which Hong Kong locals may well greet with a degree of skepticism.

    But Foodora, which was founded in Germany last October, says its proprietary logistics system “determines the optimal route between restaurants and customers to help drivers navigate the dense traffic of Hong Kong”.

    “The company’s dedicated, uniformed and friendly delivery team ensures maximum food quality and transportation standards by not stacking orders and knowing their terrain extremely well,” it says in a statement.

    The Foodora app sends updates along the order process, allowing customers to monitor progress of their food’s preparation and despatch.

    Meanwhile, Foodora says it has more than 100 local restaurants on board for its Hong Kong launch.

    “The company has set itself apart from traditional delivery services by working with big names in the restaurant scene, including the likes of Dragon-i, Iberico, Check-In Taipei,The Boss and Social Place. Restaurants such as Little Bao will for the first time offer hungry Hong Kongers an alternative to waiting in a queue for superior eats.”

    “Few realise Dragon-I has very talented chefs serving some of Hong Kong’s best Chinese and Japanese food,” said Raymond Young, GM of Dragon-I.

    “With Foodora we can now extend the Dragon-I experience into homes and offices.”

    Foodora Hong Kong CEO Mat Podesta says Hong Kong is one of the world’s great global cities and as such should have access to world-class food delivery services.

    “Foodora wants to introduce a new benchmark of reliability, speed, and quality, bringing Hong Kongers what other markets already enjoy.”

    While the brand is still restricting delivery to just Central and Sheung Wan, Podesta says Tsim Sha Tsui, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay will be added, along with an expanded list of 400 restaurants, by the end of the year.

    New customers can receive HK$50 off their first order with code: HELLOHONGKONG.

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