Casual-wear retailer speeds up China expansion as rents, rivalry rise at home
Casual-wear retailer Bossini International will accelerate the expansion of its mainland operation, with a target to double the number of its outlets there to 1,000 over the next five years.
Confronted by an increasingly competitive retail market at home that is exacerbated by soaring shop rents, the retailer now looks to China as its future growth engine and says it will step up efforts to open more franchise stores across the border.
'Franchising provides high growth potential without heavy capital commitment,' said Kathy Chan, executive director of Bossini.
The chain operates 477 self-owned and franchise stores in more than 100 cities in the mainland. In Hong Kong, it has 32 Bossini stores and it plans to open three to five new stores this year, mainly in residential areas such as Tin Shui Wai.
Ms Chan said the mainland market would replace Hong Kong as its biggest turnover and profit contributor when the number of stores increased to 1,000 by 2010. Hong Kong accounted for more than 50 per cent of Bossini's $2.01 billion turnover, while the mainland contributed 21 per cent for the year to March
