PARIS — Putting its recently announced expansion plan into action, Paule Ka has signed a trade agreement with Aoi Company Ltd. for exclusive distribution in Japan, starting with the brand’s fall collection.
The French contemporary fashion label entered Japan in the early Nineties, as its first market outside of France, and currently has 20 points of sale there, including the Isetan, Matsuya and Seibu Ikebukuro department stores.
The new partnership, said Paule Ka chairman and chief executive officer Catherine Vautrin, will reinforce distribution and presence in a country that “now more than ever….is a strategic market for the future development of [the brand].”
Vautrin last March, at the presentation of a shift in design direction under new creative director Alithia Spuri-Zampetti, shared Paule Ka’s ambitions to double in size within the next five years. The brand has entered a new phase of international expansion since London-based private equity fund Change Capital Partners bought a 70 percent stake in the firm in 2011, she said, one targeting growth in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
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Aoi Company Ltd., a leader in wholesale and distribution for luxury and high-end brands in Japan, is the exclusive importer for labels including Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Bottega Veneta and Bulgari.
With sales of around 70 million euros in 2016, or $77.5 million at average exchange rates for the period, Paule Ka counts a total of 350 doors in 56 countries,including 50 dedicated stores and corners.