371 Square Meter Location At Taikoo Hui Brand’s Second Location In Guangzhou
Photos from opening of new Hermes boutique, via Grand Hyatt Guangzhou’s Sina Weibo
This week, Hermès opened the doors of its largest store in China at Guangzhou’s Taikoo Hui, a two-story, 371 square meter location that is the first in mainland China to carry the brand’s furniture collection. The opening of the all-new Taikoo Hui location comes about three months after the company re-launched its first Guangzhou store at the city’s La Perle shopping mall, originally opened in 2004. At the re-opening of the La Perle location, Hermès managing director for North Asia, Florian Craen, said, “In the seven years since Hermès entered Guangzhou, we’ve found it an increasingly good fit for us, so we’re much more confident in the Guangzhou market.”
Hermès has good reason to be confident in Guangzhou — a market that has developed a reputation as a minefield for other major brands like Gucci, owing to its high prices relative to duty-free Hong Kong. According to NetEase (Chinese), the Hermès La Perle boutique sells more watches, including astronomically priced limited-editions, than any other Hermès store in mainland China. Keeping a steady inventory of extremely limited-edition items has been instrumental in the success Hermès has seen in the notoriously difficult Guangzhou market, and as such the brand invested heavily in its refurbished La Perle boutique, which features a plush watch display area, spotlighting an Arceau watch worth 1.5 million yuan (US$234,476), and which stocks a pink alligator skin Lindy bag worth more than 240,000 yuan (US$37,000).
Following the lead of its Guangzhou sister store, the new Hermès store at Taikoo Hui stocks several one-of-a-kind and special-edition items, including a diamond-studded watch priced at 2.8 million yuan (US$438,612) and a customized feather Kelly handbag priced at over 160,000 yuan (US$25,064).
The new Taikoo Hui location (seen during its construction) is double the size of its sister store at La Perle shopping mall