SHANGHAI – Despite concerns worldwide about China’s economy, Tadashi Yanai, president and chief executive officer of Fast Retailing chairman, is not even slightly worried.
“Not at all, in fact,” Japan’s richest man told media in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon.
“[China’s economic situation] is structural, it’s facing a structural change from a production economy to a consumption economy. Many of the country’s 1.3 billion people are coming into the middle class,” he said.
Fast Retailing’s best known brand, Uniqlo, has been making its presence felt through an expanding number of stores worldwide, with the current count sitting around 1,600.
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Nowhere has this expansion been more ambitious than in Greater China, where Yanai has said Uniqlo plans to open a total of 1,000 stores over the next five years, eventually building to 3,000 stores – a total far greater than in its home country of Japan.
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On the Mainland, the brand has 387 stores, with the addition of 83 of those stores in 2014 alone.
According to Yanai, despite 2015 seeing a large number of high-end and luxury brands closing stores, or scaling back expansion plans in China, the economic conditions limiting spending by Chinese consumers on luxury products is not having an impact on the sector inhabited by Fast Retailing’s brands.
“The luxury sector isn’t enjoying this change, but we are coming from the lifewear concept, these are clothes for everyone, in China that means we have 1.3 billion potential customers,” he said.
Yanai was in Shanghai for the launch of the Magic For All concept store, a collaboration with Disney that takes up the entire top floor of Uniqlo’s largest global flagship, in Shanghai’s famed shopping street, Huaihai Road.
The first store of its kind in the world, the Magic For All concept features traditional Disney characters, as well as favorites from Pixar, Star Wars and Frozen, on Uniqlo staples, including down jackets, fleece and t-shirts.
For Yanai, the decision to open the Magic For All concept store in China was a natural one, given the strength of the Uniqlo and Disney brands with Chinese consumers, and the expected opening of Mainland China’s first Disney Resort in the city in 2016.
“From my perspective, Disney is the number one brand in the world, it’s loved by all,” Yanai said.
“When you come to Shanghai, it’s the commercial city in China, Disney can be enjoyed everywhere, but the fact that Disney will have a resort here means an even greater opportunity for business,” he added.