Fast Retailing Group – Uniqlo International Brand

Nguyen Thi Minh Xuan (Spencer) – MGB15G73

FAST RETAILING GROUP – UNIQLO INTERNATIONAL BRAND

Fast Retailing won the fiscal 2014 Retailer of the Year Award from the World Retail Congress for exceptional, world-class performance, becoming Asia’s biggest clothing retailer with ambitious goals to make the brand the leader in retail worldwide. Originally, with the concept of “unique cloth”, UNIQLO brand of company is popular as LifeWear brand, which means everyday clothes for a better life, high-quality, fashionable, affordable and comfortable.

OVERVIEW

Since 1984, the first UNIQLO was introduced as a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer, focusing on mass-producing affordable basics in dozens of colours with Lifewear concept. Today, UNIQLO is Japan’s No.1 apparel brand. As an SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) controlling the entire clothes-making process from design through manufacture and retail, UNIQLO is able to offer high-quality casualwear at reasonable prices and unique items made from new superior functional materials such as HEATTECH and Ultra Light Down. UNIQLO currently has over 1,400 stores in 16 markets worldwide, with 0.9% of worldwide market share, one of four largest fashion retailers over the world.

UNIQLO global is the clear vision of current growth for the Fast Retailing Group. China is a key market, turning UNIQLO as the Asia’s biggest clothing retailer into the world leader in 2020. Revenue in Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) was ¥200 billion (2014). They opened 374 stores (8/2014) with a strong operating margin of 11.9%, the most by country outside Japan, ranking eighth with 0.6% of market share in China. Especially, an economic slowdown in China is expected to increase UNIQLO’s sales, particularly as shoppers increasingly look for value-for-money when purchasing clothing essentials such as t-shirts and pants.

PORTER’S DIAMOND MODEL

Factor conditions

Human resource: taking advantage of large cheap labor, but low skill in China. They applied compensation stock options for employees as a means of recognizing their contribution to Group’s profit.  Building “regional employee” system to attract talented personnel and empower them with “management mindset”.  In production line, 400 staff and textile takumi (skilled artisans) takes responsibility for supervise the quality and training for all employees.

Knowledge resource: UNIQLO applies Global One and Zenin Keiei management principles. The former encourages our people to seek the best available global approach to everything they do; the latter encourages every employee to adopt the mindset of a manager