Japanese Retailer Uniqlo Enters Canada In 2016, First Two Stores To Open In Toronto

RTR3C9S7 (1280x898) — A shopper walks in Fast Retailing's Uniqlo casual clothing store in Tokyo January 10, 2013. Fast Retailing Co raised its annual profit forecast to a record high after sales rose at home outlets of the Japanese retailer's flagship Uniqlo casual clothing chain and price cuts and chilly autumn weather spurred a quarterly profit jump. REUTERS/Toru Hanai REUTERS/Toru Hanai

All is not lost in the Canadian retail scene. Target Canada may have packed up and pushed the abort button, but another foreign retail brand is coming into the North American nation in 2016. Uniqlo said on Monday, Jan. 19, that it is set to open its first two stores in Canada at Toronto.

The stores will be in the city’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre and at the Toronto Eaton Centre. The first is a 24,000-square-foot shopping haven, while the second is 28,000 square feet. Both Japanese cheap-chic fashion stores will be launched in the fall of 2016.

Uniqlo’s announcement comes after days of Target Canada’s closure after two years of doing business in the country. Target is closing all its 133 stores in Canada, leaving 17,000 without jobs and a $5 billion debt to creditors, suppliers, and even taxes to the federal and provincial governments.

Target Canada’s experience is surely going to be inserted into the book of lessons for all retailers wanting to set shop in Canada. Jeffrey Berkowitz, president of retail specialist Aurora Realty Consultants Inc., told the Globe and Mail that the Japanese merchant will enter the Canadian retail scene along a different route. For one, they intend to enter the scene slowly but surely, making expansions as the need arises.

“They’re not looking at a mass approach,” Berkowitz said. His company advises Uniqlo on store locations in Canada. It was basically the same approach Uniqlo made when it first entered the U.S. in 2006. From its flagship store in New York, Uniqlo now has almost 40 stores in the U.S.

“Whenever you go into new country, you want to make sure everything’s right,” Larry Meyer, CEO of Uniqlo USA and Canada, told Fortune. “You want to understand what works and what the customer wants.”

David Gray, principal at Vancouver-based retail consultancy DIG360, told Financial Post that Fast Retailing Co Ltd, the world's fourth-largest fashion retailer and owner of Uniqlo, will need to exert some effort to introduce the brand to the Canadians because the latter isn’t familiar with it. Nonetheless, he believed Uniqlo will quickly be imbibed by the people in the North American nation.

“It is a very easy store to understand,” Gray said, noting its strong merchandising. “I think it will appeal to Canadians. In Vancouver anyone with roots in Asia will be well-versed in Uniqlo.”

Apart from Toronto, Uniqlo casual clothing stores could also open at the western Canadian city of Vancouver. Across the world, it boasts of a global network of 1,500 stores in 16 countries including Japan, Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.K.

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