SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo opening two stores in Toronto this fall with a full clothing lineup,
The Japanese handler for Uniqlo’s chief operating officer in Canada bows slightly, holding out her business card with two hands when we meet in a sushi restaurant on Queens Quay to discuss the launch of the apparel brand in Toronto.
Pawing through my bottomless purse to produce my own, I botch the exchange, dropping her business card to the floor. Although she does not flinch, it feels like basic business protocol has been breached.
Moments later, Yasuhiro Hayashi, Uniqlo Canada COO appears, smiling and chic in company basics: an Oxford shirt, dark jacket and pants, hemmed above the ankle in a nod to current fashion trends.
Two Uniqlo stores are slated to open in the GTA this fall, one at Toronto Eaton Centre and one at Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
Dates have not been set, but construction is well under way on the two spaces.
The stores will carry a full line of Uniqlo products, including men’s, women’s and childrenswear.
The stores were announced last winter as Target was circling the drain in Canada, after entering the market with 124 locations.
At 28,000 square feet and 24,000 square feet, respectively, the Uniqlo stores are five times the size of the Muji store that opened near Dundas Square in November 2014 to hoards of shoppers waiting patiently for the opportunity to spend their money on Japanese minimalist homewards.
But the stores are much smaller than the neighbouring competitor it hopes to one day beat, H&M, which operates across 57,000 square feet at the Eaton Centre.
Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, has declared it wants to become the world’s leading global apparel company.
According to its own data, it is in fourth place, behind Inditex (Zara), based in Spain, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) in Sweden and Limited Brands in the U.S., which operates a stable of brands, including Victoria’s Secret.
Although revenues and earnings per share were up strongly in 2015 over 2014, Uniqlo has more recently run into the same headwinds dragging down apparel sales at other retailers — odd global weather patterns, online retailers and consumers growing increasingly concerned about paying down their household debt.
In the first half of 2016, Fast Retailing reported a rise in revenue of 6.5 per cent and a drop in consolidated operating profit of 33.8 per cent.
But with a shrinking population at home, the company must find new markets abroad, analysts said this week after earnings were released.
The good news for Uniqlo is that Japanese esthetics are becoming increasingly enmeshed in the new global culture being woven by the web, by companies operating casually across continents and the relative ease of international travel.
Japanese writer Marie Kondo recently became a sensation with her compact books on how to tame the overwhelming stuff that can accumulate in a single household.
Uniqlo is tapping into the same market by offering simple, functional wardrobe basics.
These include t-shirts, pants, blous- es, slim-down jackets that can be stuffed into a small bag, clothes that breathe and wick away sweat, thin fabrics promising warmth at affordable prices and made to last for years, not one season.
“Retail is about repeat customers,” Hayashi says, working his way through a plate of sushi at Miku restaurant at the foot of Bay St. He declares it delicious. He and his family — he has two young children — are in the midst of moving to Toronto after opening Indonesia to the brand.
Almost uniquely, Uniqlo does not target a particular market.
There is no talk of millennials or gen Z or boomers or lack of them during the short luncheon meeting.
Uniqlo clothes are meant to be worn by everyone.
The company collaborates with designers and celebrities to produce limited edition collections, including Pharrell Williams, Phillip Lim, Theory and Christophe Lemaire.
Uniqlo also controls the entire clothes-making process, which allows it to control procurement costs, and rents store locations instead of buying them to keep costs down.
Toronto is the perfect launch pad for the brand in Canada, Hayashi said, citing research conducted by the company.
It is multicultural, multi-ethnic and fashion-minded, he added, citing the denizens of Queen St. W. before correcting himself to include the entire city of Toronto.
“In Toronto, everyone has their own style,” he said. “People are trying to express themselves, whereas 2030 years ago, they wanted to look like someone in a magazine.”
It’s good news for a company like Uniqlo, which wants to provide basics to build upon.
At an event the next day to introduce Uniqlo’s fall clothing line to Canadian fashion editors, the head of the Canadian firm handling public relations offers a quick guide to the basics of business introductions in Japan:
Bow and proffer your business card
Place the ones you collect on the table before you in hierarchical order and
Never, ever slip them into your back pocket.