Market Analysis of UNIQLO

The Market Analysis of UNIQLO
History and evolution: Tadashi Yanai, CEO and founder of Uniqlo, grew up in the retail
clothing industry. He was born in 1949 to a suit shop owner in Yamaguchi, Japan, and
eventually his father is having a chain of 22 stores where he became president in 1984. When
he took over the presidency, he opened a store called “Unique Clothing Warehouse,” which
was later summarized to "Uniqlo," in Hiroshima. In the beginning Uniqlo was a typical multi-
brand shop having Nike, Adidas, and other foreign brands. Uniqlo Co., Ltd. is a well known
Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer. This company operates especially
in Japan and many other countries and it has been wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing
Co. Ltd. From the research we have found out the whole process about how it begins and
make its journey the most successful one.
In order to guide the company through the realization of this strategy they engaged the retail
brand consultancy, The Brand Architect Group, including consultation on merchandise,
visual merchandising and demonstration, store design and a new logo designed by Richard
Seireeni and Sy Chen of The Brand Architect Group's Los Angeles office. China has
availability of cheap labourers, so Uniqlo had begun outsourcing their clothing manufacturing
to factories in China and it proved a well-established corporate practice.
In the beginning Japan was in the depths of recession, but because of low-cost its goods
became popular. Apart from that the clothing quality, new retail layouts and their advertising
campaigns also proved fruitful. In November 1998, their first urban Uniqlo store was opened
in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district, and its outlets quickly spread to major cities all over
Japan. In 2001, both sales turnover and gross profit reached a new peak, with over 500 retail
stores in Japan. Uniqlo separates from the parent company when it has decided to expand
overseas, and established Fast Retailing (Jiangsu) Apparel Co., Ltd. in China. In 2002 their
first Chinese Uniqlo outlet was opened in Shanghai alongside four overseas outlets in
London, England.
In creating its clothing lines, Uniqlo embraces shun and kino-bi both. Shun means 'timing,
best timing, but also at the same time it’s about trend, something that should be updated and
just in time, neither early nor late. Kino-bi means utility and beauty, which if joined together
means that the clothing should be presented in an organized and rational manner, and that
incredibly organization and rationality creates an artistic prototype and rhythm. These virtues
reflects the features of modern Japanese traditions, modern 'Japaneseness.' In 2005 overseas
expansion takes place, with stores opening in the United States (New York City), Hong Kong
(Tsim Sha Tsui) and South Korea (Seoul), their South Korean expansion being part of a joint
venture with Lotte. As year 2005 comes to an end, Uniqlo had around 700 stores within Japan
along with its overseas holdings. A design consulting contract for Uniqlo products is signed
by Fast Retailing with fashion designer Jil Sander in March 2009.
On September 2, 2009, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. pre-tax profit from operations of 1 trillion
yen and announced that the company would target annual group sales of 5 trillion yen by
2020. This indicates that the company is aiming to become the world's biggest Specialty
retailer of Private label Apparel with a nonstop growth rate of 20% per year. The number
breaks down as one trillion yen from Uniqlo's Japan business, three trillion yen from its