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Tag: Jack & Jones

  • Luxury brands open stores in Ambience Mall India

    Luxury brands open stores in Ambience Mall India

    Ambience Mall, Gurgaon, with some of the biggest food and fashion brands such as H&M, Gap, Zara, Marks & Spencers, Kiko Milano, Luxe Bridge, Iconic, Da Milano, Jack & Jones, Cover Story, Ritu Kumar etc, is the perfect destination for shoppers of all age groups. To augment its standing as the numero uno, two more luxury brands Ted Baker and Hackett London have opened their stores in the mall recently.

    British clothing and accessories brand Ted Baker known for designer apparel and signature tailoring opened its latest store at the Ambience Mall, Gurgaon. The store is equipped with glamorous interiors and tons of charm. The brightly-lit store will house their wide range of both menswear and womenswear. Ted Baker is a mainstay for every stylish wardrobe with a collection of bright dresses, tops, menswear, luxe accessories and add-ons.

    Located adjacent to the Ted Baker store, Hackett London is a multi-channel British menswear retailer, specialising in vintage clothing for men. As the official couturier for the British Army Polo team, the Henley Royal Regatta, the BAFTA awards and Aston Martin Racing, Hackett London is steeped in Britain’s rich sartorial heritage. With a wide repertoire of fine casual and formal clothing the store is a niche addition to the malls offering.

    Speaking on the store launch, Arjun Gehlot, Director, Ambience Malls, said, “We are delighted to have some of the best international fashion luxury brands Ted Baker and Hackett London in our mall. This is part of our commitment to offer International and Domestic premium quality brands to our customers under one roof. We will continue to bring best quality brands in the future as well.”

    The Ambience mall with the best offers in shopping, entertainment and culinary offering under its roof is the definitive favorite of shoppers looking for premium international and domestic brands. With an eclectic mix of top international and Indian clothing brands to cater to all age groups, wide array of entertainment options and unique decorative concepts that is constantly refreshed in-tune with changing seasons and festivities, the Ambience Mall, Gurgaon has indeed cemented its place as the perfect destination for shopping enthusiasts and thrill seekers in Delhi-NCR.

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  • Stephen Marks mulls French Connection sale

    Stephen Marks mulls French Connection sale

    French Connection founder and CEO Stephen Marks plans to sell his remaining cornerstone stake in the fashion label.

    Sky News UK has reported Marks has engaged Numis Securities to approach prospective buyers for the 42 per cent stake in French Connection which he still holds. He founded the brand back in 1969.

    UK media is reporting that should a buyer be found for the stake, it would almost certainly trigger a takeover bid for the entire company. A formal stock exchange announcement is pending.

    French Connection is emerging from a challenging period in its history after its hugely successful FCUK era brand positioning fell from favour in the late 2000s. In recent months, it has built strong sales online via Asos and it raised £23.3 million from the sale of 75 per cent of its Toast label in April to Danish retailer Bestseller United, parent of Selected, Vera Moda and Jack & Jones, among others.

    But the parent brand, now down to a store network of only about 30, recorded a like-for-like sales decline of 7 per cent in the half year to July 31 and a loss of £5.5 million. Marks, however, anticipates the business will be profitable by January with licensing income on the rise, reaching £2.6 million for the period, and wholesale revenues up 6.2 per cent.

    Any deal for Marks’ stake will be heavily influenced by the second largest shareholder in French Connection, Mike Ashley, who holds 27 per cent of the stock. Ashley recently bought out troubled House of Fraser and is CEO of Sports Direct.

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  • Dalziel & Pow creates immersive retail space for Pieces

    Dalziel & Pow creates immersive retail space for Pieces

    Design firm Dalziel & Pow – which designed Dubai-based Lifestyle’s revamped store in The Dubai Mall – also created an immersive concept store, ‘Her Social Studio’, for Danish fashion brand Pieces. Located within the office headquarters of parent company Bestseller in Aarhus, Denmark, the concept store immerses customers in a multi-faceted hub for co-creation and brand storytelling.

    Fusing classic retailing with a working studio, the space is multi-purpose and houses a myriad of brand activations and engagements, from staff training to trialling products and merchandising to customer workshops and styling sessions. The aim, to give any visitor, be it franchisee, partner, supplier or staff member an opportunity to ‘buy into the brand’ through a totally Immersive experience.

    The flexible showroom is broadly divided into two zones – ‘Her Wardrobe’ and ‘Her Studio’.

    The retail space ‘Her Wardrobe’ exudes a contemporary Scandinavian aesthetic, reflecting the world of Pieces’ customers – celebrating and empowering them to look good and share their looks in a warm welcoming setting. It’s designed to be a flexible shoppable space, featuring a “coming soon” panel for sneak peeks at future product collections and collaborations. As well as showcasing the store concept it can be used to trial merchandisng and visual merchandising ideas and accommodate a constantly changing programme of events and classes.

    ‘Her Studio’ is designed as a co-working space, giving insight into the brand and its creative processes. Customers and partners can relax on informal lounge seating, or access complimentary drinks and gift-wrapping from a concealed ‘Hosting Cupboard’. Perimeter walls throughout act as a vibrant canvas for expressing brand inspiration and charting the creative process – such as a pin board showcasing ‘works in progress’, an upcoming events calendar, a lifestyle mood board and a bold brand manifesto.

    The showroom is 100% self-service – it’s cashless, card-less and most of the time unstaffed. Visitors and staff can make purchases through via their own mobile device. The whole space allows the brand story and retail concept to be told in a truly immersive and seamless way.

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  • Bestseller’s smart stores to arrive in China

    Bestseller’s smart stores to arrive in China

    Danish fashion retailer Bestseller has opened smart stores in Shenzhen and Guangzhou for its Jack & Jones and Vero Moda brands.

    Facial-recognition technology from Tencent’s Youtu Lab is used to register shoppers in store, enrolling them in WeChat Pay’s AI Club. This means they can pay without the need for wallets or phones.

    And the automated systems are not only replacing cashiers – sales assistants are also redundant as store visitors receive customised recommendations for Bestseller clothes and accessories they might want to try on virtually.

    Bestseller says the first day the tech was used, the gross revenue from customers who paid via facial recognition accounted for more than 80 per cent of turnover. The total store income that day improved by 40 per cent.

    It is a new approach for the fashion industry, which is following in steps of smart supermarkets and other stores from companies such as Alibaba, Amazon and JD.com.

    Tencent also has its eye on other retail segments. At its global partner conference in November, COO Ren Yuxin said the company aims to provide smart retail services like big data, cloud computing and AI to brands and offline retailers to help brick-and-mortar stores transform into smart, digital ones that can “really think”.

    Bestseller head of digital sales Liu Dongyue says customers expect a “more personalised, more entertaining and more convenient” experience when buying in the store, which is why fashion brands need help from big data.” So it is not so much about automated payment as about user data.

    Vqudo, a WeChat marketing software provider, says facial recognition enables stores to match customers with their WeChat ID, which contains information about their buying habits as well as social data.

  • New Disney park in China to bolster sales, Uniqlo chief says

    New Disney park in China to bolster sales, Uniqlo chief says

    Fast Retailing Co. Chairman Tadashi Yanai said Walt Disney Co.’s new park in Shanghai will help his Uniqlo casual clothing brand expand in China, shrugging off concerns over an economic slowdown in the Japanese retailer’s largest overseas market.

    “The opening of the Shanghai Disneyland gives both of us, Uniqlo and Disney, a business opportunity,” Chairman Tadashi Yanai told reporters in Shanghai, where Uniqlo will open a new Disney-inspired concept store. “Our business is getting absolutely no impact” from China’s slowdown, he said.

    Starting Sunday, Uniqlo will devote an entire floor at its six-story China flagship store in central Shanghai to products jointly designed with Disney. A human-sized Mickey Mouse statue greets visitors to the store, where T-shirts and toys depicting characters such as Tinker Bell, Woody of Disney Pixar’s “Toy Story” animated films, and Darth Vader from the Star Wars movies are on display.

    Japan’s richest person, Yanai plans to open 100 stores a year in China as Uniqlo competes with Hennes & Mauritz AB’s H&M and Inditex SA’s Zara to win over consumers in the world’s most populous country. The retailer’s design tie-up comes as Disney prepares to open its $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park next year, its biggest foreign investment and a bet on the country’s booming middle class.

    The Disney collaboration should help Uniqlo boost sales in China “as buzz builds around the opening of Shanghai Disneyland,” said Bloomberg Intelligence retail analyst Thomas Jastrzab. “Expanding store-specific limited edition merchandise offerings should help Uniqlo increase regular foot traffic and improve customer loyalty.”

    Fast Retailing rose 3.3 percent to ¥46,800 ($388.09) at the close of trading in Tokyo on Friday. The shares are up by 6.3 percent so far this year, compared with the 3.3 percent gain in the benchmark Topix index.

    Uniqlo has about 360 stores in mainland China, the most in any country outside Japan, where it has almost 850 shops. The company plans to expand its Greater China network, including mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, to 1,000 outlets.

    China is a key market for Fast Retailing as Yanai attempts to turn Asia’s biggest clothing retailer into the world leader, with a target of ¥5 trillion in sales by 2020 from its forecast of ¥1.65 trillion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31.

    Yanai said demand for Uniqlo products will increase amid an economic slowdown in China. Everyday clothes with basic designs and advanced materials that Uniqlo sells at affordable prices fit well as China shifts its focus to consumer purchasing from manufacturing, he said.

    “An economic slowdown in China could boost Uniqlo’s sales, particularly as shoppers increasingly look for value-for-money when purchasing clothing essentials such as T-shirts and pants,” Jastrzab said.

    China’s apparel and footwear market is highly fragmented, with market leader Bestseller AS, owner of brands such as Jack & Jones and Vera Moda, holding a 1.7 percent market share by value in 2014, according to Euromonitor International. Uniqlo ranks eighth with 0.6 percent, while Inditex is ninth with 0.5 percent and H&M is out of the top 10 with 0.4 percent.

    “Our concept of manufacturing is fundamentally different and unique,” said Yanai. “We don’t chase trends, but we would rather want to incorporate fashion into our basic clothes.”