Fast Retailing Hits Sales Slump

Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. (Tokyo), parent company of Uniqlo, reports its full-year net profit dropped 12 percent, blaming unseasonable weather patterns and an unsuitable product mix for the drop. The retailer’s net sales for the year were close to flat, rising just 0.7 percent to $10.04 billion, and below the guidance the company gave when it released nine-month results in July.

“Our product creation itself was a little off,” says chairman, president and ceo Tadashi Yanai, in an article in Women’s Wear Daily.

The retailer will inaugurate two new flagships in New York this month, including on Fifth Avenue tomorrow.

While full-year sales from Uniqlo’s operations in Japan were down 2.4 percent year-on-year, sales from Uniqlo stores outside Japan increased by 28.7 percent on the year. Yanai says he expects Uniqlo’s international sales to surpass those in Japan by 2015.

The company plans to keep its focus on international expansion, with plans for stores in China, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Australia and New Zealand. in the U.S., the retailer is eyeing Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, Yanai told WWD.