official indication it was Australia-bound during a presentation to the Westfield World Retail Study Tour group in Tokyo. “Australia is definitely on the radar,” Katsumi Kubota, manager of international business development with Uniqlo said. Australia, he explained, was a natural progression from its Asian, European and US roll-out to assert the company’s position as a leading global retailer. “We want to become number one in the Asian market because we believe if we want to become number one in the world in 2020, we have to be number one in Asia. <a href=”http://ad.au.doubleclick.net/jump/insideretailing.dfp.au/Island_300x250;tile=2;sz=300×250;ord=123456789?” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://ad.au.doubleclick.net/ad/insideretailing.dfp.au/Island_300x250;tile=2;sz=300×250;ord=123456789?” width=”300″ height=”250″ border=”0″ alt=”” /></a> “Regardless of the size of the market, just like we have stores in Kyushu, Hokkaido, Okinawa, we want to have stores in the Philippines, Taiwan and Australia. “From Japan to Australia is our home ground for Uniqlo.” Fast Retailing, founded in 1984, is already the world’s fifth largest specialty apparel retailer, although its annual sales are currently tracking at about half those of Spain’s Inditex, owner of Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and other brands. Fast Retailing is the only Asian-based retailer of the five. Last year’s sales were up 22 per cent to A$10.56 billion; operating profit was up 30 per cent to $1.8 billion. It has 49 stores in South Korea, three recently opened in Singapore and several in Hong Kong. Uniqlo’s focus is on fast fashion, with a skew towards denim, cotton T-shirts and casual wear, targeted at both men and women. New generation flagship stores – of the type likely to be opened in Sydney and Melbourne – range from 1500sqm to 3500sqm. The company aims to have 102 of these operating globally by the end of August 2010. One of the key leaders of the worldwide trend from luxury to value, Uniqlo has flagships in retail strips best known for name brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton – in New York’s Soho, Paris’ Champs Elysse, Tokyo’s Ginza and London’s Oxford St. However, international sales represent just 10 per cent of the company’s total sales at present, Kubota said. “This is what we’re trying to change.” So ambitious is the international roll-out campaign, the company projects offshore sales will overtake those of Japan in just five years. Uniqlo’s recent store openings in major international cities give an indication of what Australians can expect when Uniqlo comes to town. In Moscow in April, Paris last October and Shanghai in May, Uniqlo opened their flagships with massive publicity resulting in long queues to enter the stores, and further queues for changing rooms. Uniqlo presents itself as a Tokyo brand, rather than a Japanese retailer. “We never say we’re from Japan, we say we’re from Tokyo,” explains Kubota. “The link between global cities is much stronger than the link between countries.” In Moscow, Uniqlo sells jeans at a price point of about A$23. It had 1000 people waiting to enter the store when it opened at noon. It took 90 minutes queuing to gain access to the store, a further 90 minutes to access a changing room and 30 minutes to reach the cashier. “It was almost like a four hour shop but everyone says they enjoyed it.” In the first month, sales exceeded several million dollars. Advertising campaigns were themed: ‘From Tokyo to Moscow’. In Paris, Uniqlo launched with a billboard campaign featuring well known French actors, actresses and singers wearing its clothes and used the line ‘From Tokyo to Paris’. A similar strategy – with similar results – was implemented in Shanghai in May as Uniqlo’s latest global flagship opened. Fast Retailing owns all its own Uniqlo stores (although some are joint ventures). It does not wholesale or franchise. All production is contracted out. Once its flagships are opened in new markets, smaller stores are rolled out, usually in shopping centres, as the brand’s name and reputation grows. Fast Retailing’s global ambitions were rudely stunted a decade ago when it opened stores in London. “We opened 50 small stores on the outskirts of London where we had only five customers a day or 10. That was a mistake but we are very quick with decisions so only in a few years we closed half of them,” recalls Kubota. “The biggest mistake was that we did not know who we were. In the beginning we hired strong professionals from competitors like Topshop and next. We asked them to open and run the stores, but they did not know anything about Uniqlo so they were trying to copy part of M&S or part of Topshop. We noticed that mistake but we really did not understand why we were so successful in Japan.” It was an invaluable lesson, relevant to any retailer. Now, Uniqlo understands the core of its success in a way that enables it to adapt to any overseas market while still retaining its core values and an offer recognisable as distinctly Uniqlo. Lesson learned, Fast Retailing now has its sights on achieving $63 billion in sales and $12.6 billion in profit from 5000 stores worldwide employing 300,000 people in 2020. Its mission statement: “Change clothes, change conventional wisdom. Change the world.” At the tour briefing, Kubota was asked to explain the company’s success. “All of our organisation is working only for one purpose – customers. Many companies say that – but the level is completely different. Where we have discussions, we don’t have long discussions or meetings. Most finish in 15 or 30 minutes. We try to measure if we are deciding something good or better for customers. Starting from store front people, everyone makes decisions. My boss asks me: ‘what did you do for your customers this week? If you did not do something good for your customers, you’re wasting your time. Finish your job and go home’.”   This feature first appeared in Inside Retailing Magazine. Click here to subscribe.