Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, owned by Fast Retailing, has applied to the government for single brand retail business licence, completing the trio of global fast fashion icons in India, along with Spain’s Zara and Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz (H&M).
Fast Retailing, the Tokyo-listed $17 bn parent company, has filed for the single brand licence of Uniqlo with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion last month, which will allow the company to own and run showrooms in the country. “Fast Retailing believes India is a market with great potential, and can confirm that the company has taken the first step towards a later introduction of Uniqlo to customers in India. At the moment, we are awaiting word from the government, and we will be able to discuss potential future steps at a later date,” a spokesperson of Fast Retailing in Tokyo told.
Uniqlo continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world’s most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand. Today the company has around 1,800 stores in 18 markets worldwide including Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the US. In addition, Grameen Uniqlo, a social business established in Bangladesh in September 2010, currently operates several Grameen Uniqlo stores in Dhaka. Uniqlo manages an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel.
Uniqlo is a brand of Fast Retailing, a leading Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and Uniqlo. With global sales of around $17.31 bn for the 2016 fiscal year ending 31 August 2016, Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and Uniqlo is Japan’s leading speciality retailer.
