SINGAPORE — Now that Tod’s Group has firmly established its namesake brand in Asia, the company is focused on expanding Hogan luxury sportswear here as well.
The brand opened an 885-square-foot boutique in Singapore’s Paragon mall on Nov. 16, which brought its total number of Asian stores to seven. The shop is the latest in a string of new launches for the brand in Asia’s main markets. Earlier this year, Hogan opened two stores in Seoul, and next month it will launch its first store in Taipei. The brand also plans to soon open a second Hong Kong store, a boutique at the Venetian resort in Macau and another Taipei store.
The Singapore launch came after Tod’s Group reported double-digit sales growth so far this year. Net profits for the company rose 20.2 percent to $67.3 million in the first nine months of the year.
Much of that growth has been propelled by the company’s recent rapid expansion, especially in Asia, where the Tod’s brand has doubled its number of outposts in the past two years to more than 60 stores across Asia.
“We have invested a lot and we have grown a lot in the last few years, and now we want to consolidate and focus on developing our potential in these markets,” said Tod’s chief executive officer Stefano Sincini, who was in Singapore for the store opening. “We are completing the first stage of our development, which was to open in the main cities around Asia. Now we are focused on the second stage of our plan, which involves looking at secondary cities with high potential and developing stronger sales in more categories.”
That strategy applies both to the Tod’s and Hogan brands, though Sincini admits that some markets, particularly Mainland China, may not quite be ready for a lesser-known label like Hogan. Instead, Hogan’s initial efforts will focus on stronger markets with a mature consumer base — such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan — while testing the Mainland China market through a multibrand luxury retailer in Shanghai later next year.
The region’s wide range of market development and consumer needs is one of the main difficulties that brands are facing, Sincini noted.
“One of the biggest challenges in Asia right now is understanding the lifestyle and consumer changes happening in each individual market,” he said. “Every country, from Japan to China, is at a different stage. Five to 10 years ago, the Japanese and the Koreans were very brand-oriented, but now those markets are becoming much more sophisticated. They really value something that is unique. China, on the other hand, is still more brand-conscious, although that may start to change. We have to be able to anticipate such shifts in each market and give our approach a local touch, or we’ll quickly be out of favor.”
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One strategy to counter the different demands is to vary products in color and material for each market, which allows the company to cater to specific consumer needs without altering the core of the brand, Sincini said.
Despite the company’s focus on established markets, it still has an eye on some of the region’s untapped areas. From Singapore, Sincini traveled to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, where the company has one Tod’s store, and went on to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, a country that is considered by many experts to be a luxury market in the near future.
He has also made two trips to India this year to investigate options for Tod’s stores but said that the brand was being cautious about expanding there too quickly. After all, Tod’s didn’t focus on its development in Mainland China until two years ago, a relatively late time frame compared with many other luxury brands, he said. Nonetheless, the company has been able to develop quickly and now maintains eight stores in the country.
“Sometimes, being first in a market is not an advantage,” Sincini said. “We have been successful with waiting and watching what happens. In the meantime, there is still a lot we can do in the cities where we already are.”