Japan’s Fast Retailing talks a big game, but Uniqlo has been struggling to make a splash in America since 2005, and time is running out to get to its big goal.
Uniqlo has grabbed headlines this month amid reports the Japanese clothing company's owner, Fast Retailing, might buy J.Crew — talks that ultimately fell apart. Nearly every story has included comments from CEO Tadashi Yanai proclaiming, as he has for years and years, that his company will one day be the biggest clothier in the U.S. and the world.
But almost a decade after Yanai started his foray into the U.S., Uniqlo appears as if it's going to fall short of its lofty ambitions.
Yanai, Japan's richest man, started talking in 2012 about how Uniqlo, not just Fast Retailing, plans to reach $10 billion in U.S. annual sales by 2020. The market is integral to his hope for $50 billion in global sales at that point, a leap from Fast Retailing's current $11 billion. While Uniqlo has since earned devoted fans from New York to San Francisco for its colorful, well-made, affordable basics, it's challenging to see how a chain that currently operates just 17 American stores and a website will get to that number in less than six years.
Let's take a look at that goal in context. The Gap and Old Navy chains posted about $9.5 billion in U.S. sales for the year through Feb. 1, across nearly 2,000 full-price and outlet stores and its websites. H&M, also pursuing a rapid expansion in the U.S., reported just over $2 billion in sales last year through 305 stores in America and an online operation that launched in August. (Uniqlo declined to comment for this story through an external spokesperson, though said it stands by Yanai's 2020 ambitions.)
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