Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo is looking to strengthen its presence beyond North India. The retailer plans to open two new stores in Mumbai in October.
Uniqlo’s first Mumbai store is set to open at Phoneix Marketcity, Kurla on October 6. It will open the second store in the city on October 20 at Oberoi Mall in Goregaon East.
The company, which entered India through the single brand retail route in 2019, initially focused on establishing its presence in Delhi-NCR. In the next phase, the company launched stores in Lucknow, Chandigarh and Zirakpur.
Tomohiko Sei, Chief Executive Officer, Uniqlo India told businessline, “ So far we have been focusing on building a robust retail network in Northern India. We will now strongly focus on establishing the brand’s presence in Mumbai market. Just as Delhi-NCR, we will look at adding more stores in Mumbai as part of the strategic expansion plans.” The retailer will end the year with a total of 12 stores in India.
Asked about expansion to other cities in the country, he said, “ We are definitiely scouting for good locations in other top cities. But our priority is not just to focus on expanding the store count. Our focus will be on establishing robust operations and offering quality service to our consumers.”
The company clocked a growth of about 64 per cent in FY22 over the previous financial year. “ We witnessed similar growth trends in FY23,” Sei added.
Strong growth
“We see India has a strong growth market for our business for the long term. Despite short-term challenges such as inflation, Indian economic and GDP growth remains strong. With a large base of younger consumers it offers immense opportunities for growth , “ he added.
The fashion retailer is also betting big on the online channel. “We set and achieved our target of 15 per cent (contribution to sales) when we launched our e-commerce platform in 2021. With the expansion of our brick-and-mortar stores, we are still aiming to maintain the online store portion at the same level. Online channel continues to see strong growth in post-pandemic times, “ he added.