The first of eight new National Geographic retail stores are on track for opening in Australia and New Zealand this year.
The impending launch has been reported by South Korean media coinciding with the opening of the first National Geographic store in China – a 120sqm space on the first floor of the bustling Hopson One shopping mall in Beijing.
The Australia-New Zealand stores will be operated by Alquemie Group in partnership with Disney, as reported by Inside Retail last May.
The Beijing opening heralds the beginning of a broad expansion plan for China, where it aims to add eight more stores in key cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, this year. In greater China it is eyeing expanding its physical presence in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well. The first Taiwan store has recently opened inside the Lalaport shopping mall in Taichung and National Geographic already has eight stores in Hong Kong.
According to Pulse, National Geographic stores are also slated for Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
- An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified a South Korean company as the operator of the Australian and New Zealand stores, the result of a translation error.
