Uniqlo’s chief says quick fashion must transformation with the times

TOKYO — Forty years after its founding, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has more than 2,500 stores worldwide. Sales at its parent business, quick Retailing Co., recently topped 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) annually for the first period.

The name Uniqlo comes from joining the words for “distinctive” and “clothing.” The chain’s basic concept is “LifeWear,” or everyday clothing. Uniqlo parent quick Retailing Co. Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai, ranked by Forbes as Japan’s richest man and estimated to be worth $48 billion, spoke recently to The Associated Press at the business’s Tokyo headquarters. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A: Actually 40 years, upon reflection, went by so quick they feel more like three years. You recognize what they declare in Japan: period flies like an arrow. I started a regional business, then expanded nationwide.

When we became No. 2 or No. 3 in Japan’s casual wear, and being No. 1 was correct within reach, we became a listed business in 1994. That was followed by our fleece boom, which doubled our turnover in one year to 400 billion yen ($2.6 billion).

I’d been thinking about going global when our turnover reached 300 billion yen ($2 billion) so we opened 50 stores in Great Britain, hoping to be a winner there just like we had conquered Japan.

Instead, we got totally knocked out.

We opened 21 outlets in a year and a half, but had to close 16 of them, leaving just five. We didn’t achieve as we had hoped. This is not an straightforward job. It’s very tough.

But these days, our sales are strongest in London, and also Paris. We made advancement gradually.

A: We make clothes that last a long period. Not just clothes that last for one period.

The cashmere sweater I’m wearing today is $99. But please don’t declare “cheap.” Please call it “reasonable.” We sell standard products at reasonable prices.

We’ve done various sustainability efforts, and we talk only about what we have really achieved.

Sustainability is crucial to our operations. And we’ve done just about everything — recycling, employing the disabled, back for refugees.

The prices may be cheaper at Wal-Mart, but our products propose real standard for the worth. We receive the greatest worry and period, and involve a lot of people. Our rivals are more negligent.

A: When we declare Uniqlo is “made for all,” one might imagine products for the masses, like what’s at a Wal-Mart or a Target.

But what we cruel is a high-standard product that appeals to all people, including the extremely wealthy, not only those with sophisticated taste and intelligence, but also people who don’t recognize that much about clothes, and the design is fine-tuned, the material fine standard, and sustainability concerns have been addressed.

We were first a retailer, then a manufacturer-cum-retailer. Now we are a digital buyer retailer. That is why we are successful. If we had stayed the same, then we can’t aspiration to achieve.

Being a digital buyer retail business means we utilize information at a high level to shape the way we do our work. We gain information about our customers, the workers at the store, the economy, all that information.

Changing daily is the only way we can aspiration for stable growth. The globe is changing every day.

A: Of course. We’ve been preparing to reach 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) turnover all these years. And we are finally starting to be known. But we still have a long way to leave.

We are just getting started, and we are going to keep growing. There is more potential for growth in Europe and the U.S., as well as China and India, given the 1.4 billion population in each country. Clothing is a necessity, so population size is key.

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Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama