China a fit for fast fashion retailers

With an eye on the rising spending power of China's middle class, international fast-fashion retailers are rushing to open stores there, particularly in second-tier cities.

Among the latest to declare their expansion plans is Spanish clothing retailer Mango, which plans to open a further 800 stores in China as part of a global expansion programme, according to media reports.

The fashion label already has 200 stores in China and is reported to be targeting a 10 per cent contribution to its total global revenue from China by next year.

European fashion company C&A is also expanding aggressively in China. It has already opened 11 stores there and plans to have 150 stores distributed all over the country by 2015.

US-based fashion retailer the Gap has expanded to Tianjin after opening in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou; while another fashion retailer, Forever 21, has also leased a 2,500 square metre store in Sun Hung Kai Properties' Beijing apm shopping mall.

The lure of strong and growing retail sales in the country is proving irresistible to international retailers, and the latest sales data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed that sales at China's main retailers and restaurants during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday rose 16.2 per cent from a year earlier to 470 billion yuan (HK$576 billion).