Prada to close boutique at Peninsula hotel as Hong Kong’s retail slump bites

Prada will shut its boutique at the Peninsula hotel shopping centre on December 31 in the latest sign that the retail slump is hurting high-end brands.

The Italian luxury fashion label made its debut in the city with its 3,091 sq ft outlet at the landmark Tsim Sha Tsui address in 1986.

But with fewer rich mainland Chinese shoppers visiting the city, analysts warn more luxury stores could fold after expanding too rapidly in the past decade.

“The tenancy contract between The Peninsula Arcade and Prada will conclude on 31 December 2016,” a hotel spokeswoman said via email.

A shop assistant at the boutique told the Post that some sales personnel had already left and others would be relocated to the brand’s other shops.

A Prada spokeswoman said the company had “no comment” on the closure. It currently has 11 stores in the city.

Prada’s total sales in Greater China tumbled 24.4 per cent in the first six months of the year on a yearly basis, as “Hong Kong and Macau continued to weigh heavily on the region’s contraction”, the company’s latest interim report said.