Luxury European department stores open in China, target ‘refined’ millennials and their spending power
- Fortnum & Mason opening first stand-alone overseas store in China, Galeries Lafayette planning more store openings, as Chinese retail market set to overtake US’
- They need to fall in love with China, not just chase the money there, a brand consultant warns. Their expansion comes as Japanese department store exits market
Doormen wear top hats and cerulean ties, gloved waiters wander through tea rooms carrying aloft silver trays of cucumber sandwiches and buttery scones, while the Alice-in-Wonderland-like basement is an upper-crust foodie heaven that regularly delivers boxes of tea, jam and marmalade to nearby Buckingham Palace.
Fortnum & Mason sits in the heart of London’s Piccadilly and represents a nostalgic version of Englishness that is increasingly rare. But this autumn, it will take its famous tea to China, when it opens its first stand-alone overseas store at K11 Musea, the “art mall” targeting millennials that has just opened in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Founded in 1707 by William Fortnum, a royal footman, and his landlord Hugh Mason, the department store – which includes fashion, beauty and, of course, food – already operates concessions in Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, as well as Isetan Mitsukoshi in Japan and Shinsegae in South Korea, but has not previously opened a stand-alone store outside its Piccadilly flagship store.
“This is happening because of Hong Kong itself,” says Zia Zareem-Slade, Fortnum & Mason’s London-based customer experience director. “It is such an interesting, dynamic place and the ideal city for us to branch out into. We’re really excited to take such a big step for a brand that is 312 years old. But this is not the start of some major global expansion: being special is not the same as being ubiquitous, and Fortnum is very special.”
The British brand is one of a slew of European department stores forsaking Japan and even the Middle East to train their eye firmly on China. Galeries Lafayette has a vast emporium in Beijing, a second flagship store in Shanghai that opened earlier this year, and plans to roll out 10 new shops in large and medium-sized provincial cities beyond the top four – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen – by 2025.
