Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo now plans to enter the southern market to open its stores as part of the next phase of offline expansion in India. Uniqlo India on Wednesday announced to launch its second store in Mumbai as part of the strategic expansion of its retail network in the country.

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The retailer, which forayed into the Indian market in October 2019, has a substantial presence in North Indian cities like Delhi-NCR, where it operates 7 stores. It is also present in Lucknow and Chandigarh.

The company is also on track to achieve 30 per cent domestic sourcing, as per the current FDI policy, with the help of a local supplier. It now works in India with 17 sewing factories and 6 fabric mills, Uniqlo India CEO Tomohiko Sei said. Uniqlo had announced to enter Mumbai earlier this year.

Its first store in Mumbai at Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla, will open on October 6, and the second store at Oberoi Mall, Goregaon East is scheduled to be launched on October 20, he said. Besides, the company, which is expanding in the country in a phased manner, is very positive for Southern Markets from where it gets a good demand on its e-commerce website.

When asked about entering in Southern markets, Tomohiko Sei told PTI: "Yes, the southern market is an important market and is on our radar. We also see a very positive and good demand from this region through our e-commerce website".

However, at the moment, the aim now is to establish our presence in Mumbai to provide quality services to our customers here, he added.

As part of its strategy, Uniqlo is focussing on the northern markets, and after establishing itself in the region, it will move to the western part, which will take its total store count to 12 by the end of 2023.

When asked about expansion plans, Sei said: "Right now, we are focused on two stores in Mumbai, but of course, we are looking for the opportunity for better cities, maybe like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai. There are so many Metro cities in India".

Besides, Uniqlo India is also scaling its online presence, which currently contributes around 15 per cent of its total sales. With the expansion of its brick-and-mortar stores, it expects to maintain the current ratio, going forward, Sei said.

"We set and achieved our target of 15 per cent when launched our e-commerce platform in 2021. With the expansion of our brick-and-mortar stores, we still aim to maintain the online store portion at the same level. This, of course, differs from month-on-month basis seasonality and store opening," he added.

Besides, Uniqlo is on track to achieve 30 per cent domestic sourcing from India as mandated by the government under the FDI policy for single-brand retailing.

"We are actively growing local suppliers to deliver quality products for our customers. For example, now there are a total of 17 sewing factories and 6 fabric mills we work within India. "From 2023 Spring/Summer, we are pleased to see some Indian factories started to contribute to the production of our innovative product, with our strategic partner, TORAY Industries," he said.

Under the current norms, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in the single-brand retail trade with a rider of 30 per cent mandatory local sourcing to promote micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs). Uniqlo is a brand of Fast Retailing, a leading Japanese retail holding company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

It is the largest of eight brands in the Fast Retailing Group, which clocked global sales of approximately USD 16.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal, ending August 31, 2022. UNIQLO has more than 2,400 stores, including in Japan, Asia, Europe and North America.

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