“Who do you think will queue for LV in Paris?…Not Westerners.”
A roundup of this weekend’s top stories from the Chinese luxury market, from Jaguar Land Rover’s ambitions to produce vehicles in China to Shanghai Tang’s ambitious expansion plans and Hong Kong’s retail expectations for Golden Week.
Citing Strong Demand, Shanghai Tang Plans To Double Mainland China Stores
Shanghai Tang’s original flagship in Hong Kong
Placing a bet on rising demand, the Richemont-owned Hong Kong brand Shanghai Tang, which currently boasts over 40 points of sale in nine countries in addition to the Greater China region, has set out plans to double its locations in mainland China. As Bloomberg notes, a growing proportion of sales coming from mainland China and stronger brand equity there (perhaps via the brand’s intensive digital marketing campaigns) has chairman Raphael le Masne de Chermont speaking in extremely bullish terms.
As Jing Daily wrote back in April, Shanghai Tang will soon vacate the flagship location it has operated in Hong Kong since its founding in 1994, making way for the American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Though Shanghai Tang has kept mum about its upcoming move, Chermont said this weekend that the new Hong Kong flagship — to be called “Shanghai Tang Mansion” — will comprise 20,000 square feet in a four-story building near the old flagship. The Shanghai Tang Mansion is expected to open in March 2012.
Jaguar Land Rover Wants To Produce Locally In China
Jaguar’s XJ debuted last year in China. Would a locally produced version sell even better?
They’ve said it before, but this week a spokesman from Jaguar Land Rover, the U.K.-based high-end unit of Tata Motors, told the Wall Street Journal that producing vehicles locally in mainland China remains the company’s “ambition.”
Hong Kong Retailers Pin Hopes On Golden Week Shoppers
High-end retailers from a range of segments have come to depend on Golden Week sales
Following a banner year in which local retail sales — buoyed by mainland Chinese tourist-shoppers — jumped 26 percent to US$34 billion in the first eight months of the year, Hong Kong retailers expect sales during “Golden Week,” which kicked off October 1, to show a 15-20 percent increase over last year. Despite rising accommodation costs, which some analysts feared could crimp total sales revenue this time around, rising costs for everything from low-end to high-end products in the Mainland appear to have worked out in Hong Kong’s favor.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Golden Week wasn’t only good for retailers in Hong Kong, however. This weekend, Jing Daily spoke to a saleswoman at the Céline counter at Printemps department store in Paris, which was holding a special holiday promotion (complete with signs in Chinese). Surrounded by Mandarin-speaking tourist-shoppers, virtually all of whom toted Louis Vuitton or Gucci shopping bags, the saleswoman told us that Chinese tourists had “wiped out” her entire inventory within less than an hour of the store’s opening.
20 yards away, a group of Chinese tourists stood ogling the new Rolex watch purchased by a member of their tour group.