Eastern promises
New Look looks to China for recovery
In China, New Look already has 110 stores in smaller cities, and its grand plan is to open up 2,000 stores in that country
Mr Price and Foschini can breathe a sigh of relief. New Look, Brait’s struggling UK discount chain, has no plans to follow H&M into the SA clothing market. CEO Anders Kristiansen cites two main reasons for this: SA’s import duties, and the fact that the different seasons in the southern hemisphere create a merchandising mismatch for the UK retailer. If New Look is pinning its revival hopes on global expansion, he’ll look to China. New Look already has 110 stores there, styled as New Look London. It’s a smaller format than Western stores: nearly half are smaller than 200m². And while many Western chains focus on Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, two-thirds of the New Look stores are in smaller, second-tier cities. More than a third of the merchandise it sells in that country is sourced exclusively for the Chinese market. It’s a savvy move, and Kristiansen points out that China has 20 times more people than the UK, which is why he has ambitions to open 2,000 stores. In Europe...
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